COSTA RICA: INTELLIGENCE OVERVIEW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00049R000400680012-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 14, 2007
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: November 22, 1982
• Content Type: REPORT

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Central Intelligence Agency
22 November 1982
COSTA RICA: Intelligence Overview
-- Democratic socialist Luis Alberto Monge took office in May 1982.
-- President Monge has expressed strong public opposition to the
communist left and the extreme right in the Central American region
and has taken a leading role in regional efforts to isolate
Nicaragua, most recently through the meeting in San Jose of six
Central American and Caribbean democratic states.
.Cuba has used Costa Rica as a major staging area for political and
military support to the Sandinistas and then the Salvadoran/
Guatemalan extreme left.
Costa Rican voters gave the communists only 6.4% of the total vote in
1982, but the extreme left in Costa Rica can count on the following
resources:
-- A communist party of about 6,000-7,000 members, although less
than half are active; the party effectively controls
approximately 50,000 workers.
-- Costa Rican armed extreme left groups not necessarily united at
present--totaling a few hundred.
-- A Cuban-backed far-left political paramilitary group headed by
former internal security minister Johnny Echeverria.
The DDI/ALA January 1982 report also summarizes "a recent increase in
the use of Costa Rica as a support base for Salvadoran insurgents" as
follows:
-- Training camps and weapons shipments by sea and air in this
border area with Nicaragua.
-- Sandinista recruitment of land squatters and others for eventual
deployment to El Salvador.
-- Salvadoran guerrilla or Sandinista attempts at gaining control of
the refugee camps
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extensive evidence of Cuban and Nicaraguan actions seeking to
neutralize Costa Rica and prevent it from cooperating to contain the
regional extreme left groups; also, there is evidence of preparations
to destabilize Costa Rica including:
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report in which several Marxist-
Leninist groups describe a specific action program for doing this
-- Increasing attempts by the Sandinistas to intimidate Monge,
including part of Nicaraguan complicity in a terrorist incident
in San Jose.
Other developments:
-- Monge has expelled 17 of 25 Soviet diplomats and personnel in a
"too large" embassy.
-- The economy is in' serious condition with a 110% inflation, GDP
declines of -5% in 1981 and -6% in 1982, rising unemployment
(14%) and a foreign debt of $3.1 billion.
-- However, austerity measures have been enacted, agreement with the
IMF has been reached and significant bilateral economic aid is
expected.
-- Costa Rica is receiving help from the US, Venezuela, Israel,
Argentina, and Panama to upgrade its 7,000-person, lightly armed
security forces.
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SECRET
Approved For Release 2007/11/14: CIA-RDP84B00049R000400680012-6