CIA/NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000100660008-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 14, 2007
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: April 15, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/05/14: CIA-RDP88-01070R000100660008-5
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 656-4068
NBC Nightly News
April 15, 1983 7:00 PM
SUBJECT CIA/Nicaragua
Washington, DC
ROGER MUDD: The Reagan administration today continued
protecting its policy in Central America. In a speech in Dallas,
Secretary of State Shultz said that Nicaraguan subversion has all
of Central America as its target and that the Soviet Union may
deploy nuclear missiles in Nicaragua.
But Shultz ignored Congressional charges that the US is
breaking its own law by using AWAC planes and radar surveillance
to spy on air traffic on and out of Nicaragua.
Fred Francis reports.
FRED FRANCIS: The AWACS are being used to monitor the
air corridor between Cuba and Nicaragua. We want to record the
traffic, a source told NBC News, that, with the satellite
pictures, will give us a fair idea of what Cuba is shipping into
Nicaragua.
A second mission for the AWACS is the search for light
planes flying guns to leftist insurgents in El Salvador. Another
task is to provide early warning of Nicaraguan air attacks to US
sponsored guerrillas fighting within Nicaragua. That electronic
spying mission is backed up by two Navy frigates sitting off the
Nicaraguan coast, and an elaborate ground communications system
set up and manned by United States military personnel in Hondu-
ras.
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Diplomatic sources have confirmed to NBC News that there
are currently several dozen United States Army and Air Force
personnel inside Honduras working to support the administration's
covert action against Nicaragua.
[Man speaks Spanish.]
FRANCIS: They have set up a sophisticated radio
listening post to eavesdrop on all Sandanista army radio traffic.
With that information, the CIA-directed guerrilllas know the
intentions of these Sandanista patrols. And United States airmen
have been flying surveillance missions along the Nicaraguan-
Honduran border in light planes. They gather still more intel-
ligence, which is passed on to the guerrillas.
Fred Francis, NBC News, Washington.
MUDD: There are now enough senators fretting about
Nicaragua that there may be a closed session of the Senate on
Monday.
One senator told NBC News today, the CIA has acknowledg-
ed having full control of the Nicaraguan guerrillas who would,
quote "evaporate without CIA funding."
TOM BROKAW: The NBC News investigative team of Brian
Ross and Ira Silverman has uncovered a CIA operation in Miami
that is working hand-in-hand with anti-Sandanista exiles. The
CIA operation does appear to be designed to topple the Nicaragua
government.
This exclusive report from Brian Ross.
BRIAN ROSS: In this new office building in Miami there
are a number of businesses that are not what they appear to be.
American intelligence sources say the businesses are front run by
the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency.
People who have come here to meet with the
CIA say this is the hallway on the CIA floor, which we
videotaped with a concealed camera. The uninvited visitor finds
a series of unmarked locked doors.
Intelligence sources say only specially invited visitors
do business here. And these days, much of the CIA's business in
Miami, in this building and other secret locations, has to do
with the guerrilla war against the Sandanista government in
Nicaragua.
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Much of what is happening now in Nicaragua is being put
together in Miami by the CIA and Nicaraguan exiles.
One gathering spot for CIA agents and exiles is this
Nicaraguan restaurant.
[Woman sings in Spanish.]
At night there are songs of how one day the exiles will
overthrow the Sandanistas. The food is the same as that served
in the best restaurants in Managua. And the restaurant is run by
a nephew of the late Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza.
During the day, half of the restaurant is often closed
off to the public, and agents, arms dealers, and guerrilla
commanders up from Nicaragua met to plan their next move.
And in Miami, the CIA and the exiles have already
organized a kind of government in waiting, ready to fly to
Nicaragua when the time is right.
Among the leaders of this standby government, the widow
of a coffee grower killed by the Sandinistas, a former director
of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce, and the former general
manager of the Coca-Cola plant in Nicaragua, who was in Washing-
ton last week for meetings wit the Reagan administration.
The military leader of this standby government is a
former Somoza military aide, Enrique Bermudez, now reported to be
in command of about 2,000 guerrillas fighting inside Nicaragua.
There has been much secrecy about how this guerrilla
army came to be equipped, armed, and trained. But in Miami, the
members of this quasi-Nicaraguan government in exile, for the
first time, now admit that what they are doing is backed by the
American government.
ALFONSO CALLENJOS: It's true -- it's true -- it's true
they're helping. We are a very small force as compared to...
ROSS: How many men would you say?
CALLENJOS: Oh, maybe two to four thousand.
ROSS: And how important is the American money?
CALLENJOS: It's important.
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ROSS: Once again, Miami has become a kind of staging
area for a war, much as it was in the early 1960s when the CIA
organized the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Now, day after day
here at Miami Airport, the flights to Central America are full of
Nicaraguans, Americans, and others who are one way or another
involved in the guerrilla war.
Intelligence sources identify this man as one of the big weapons
suppliers for the Nicaraguan guerrillas. These two men are key
field commanders in the guerrilla army heading back to the
mountains of Nicaragua by way of Honduras after secret meetings
in Miami.
All of this, what's going on in Miami and Nicaragua is
supposed to be a big CIA secret. When this man was asked what he
was up to, or where he was going, he said he was doing nothing
and going no place.
Is it not possible to give us some sense of how the
guerrillas are doing?
MAN: I don't know anything about that.
ROSS: Ten minuts later he was on this plane, headed
back to hjis guerrilla base in Nicaragua with the latest from
from Miami.
Brian Ross, NBC News, Miami.
Approved For Release 2007/05/14: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000100660008-5