CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00443R001203970135-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 135
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2007/06/08: CIA-RDP88B00443R001203970135-4
.qtr ti-I
TO:
Routing Slip
ACTION
INFO
DATE
ITIAL
2
DD
3
EXDIR
4
D/ICS
5
DDI
6
DDA
7
DDO
8
DDS&T
9
Chm/NIC
10
GC
11
IG
12
Compt
13
D/EEO
14
D/Pers
15
D/OEA
16
C/PAD/OEA
17
SWIA
18
A0/DCI
19
C/IPD/01S
20
h.- o j
21
22
EXECUTIVE SE AEIAT
SUSPENSE
Oat.
Approved For Release 2007/06/08: CIA-RDP88B00443R001203970135-4
 ---- Approved For Release 2007/06/08: CIA-RDP88B00443R001203970135-4
The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D. C 20505
?
Fss~.-vC+e BaCistc~
AL I
9 September 1982
MEMORANDUM FOR: NI0/LA
FROM: DCI
SUBJECT: Central America
We should talk about this.,
F
William J. Casey
Approved For Release 2007/06/08: CIA-RDP88B00443R001203970135-4
 Approved For Release 2007/06/08: CIA-RDP88B00443R001203970135-4
International
outlook
The Reagan Administration
veers left in central America
The Reagan Administration's Central American policy has
zagged sharply to the left in anticipation of a major new
escalation of violence in the region. In a speech delivered at
the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Assistant Secre-
tary of State for inter-American affairs Thomas 0. Enders
adroitly backtracked on previous positions. The Enders speech
is being explained to hard-liners inside and outside the gov-
ernment as a "tactical" attempt to persuade critics, particular-
ly of U. S. policy toward El Salvador, that the Administration
can be reasonable. But in spe-
cial State Dept news brief-
ings, the Enders speech was
presented as a policy reversal
reflecting the position of new
Secretary of State George P.
Shultz.
The policy turn comes at a
critical time for the Sandinis-
tas in Nicaragua. Internal op-
position to the regime has in-
creased substantially and is
allied with a coalition formed
from the remnants of the So-
moza National Guard forces
heavily reinforced with other,
The coalition, which can field o
8,000 well-trained men, claims
to have some 200 small units operating inside Nicaragua-and
attacks by small units have taken place even in Managua, the
capital. Meanwhile, a war of attrition is on between the Sandi-
nista leadership and the Meskuit Indians who live along the
Caribbean coast-across which passes the Sandinistas' lifeline
to the Cubans.
A new level of violence. All this has produced an almost con-
stant clash in recent weeks between Sandinista and anti-
Sandinista forces on both sides of the Nicaragua-Honduras
border. And Daniel Ortega, the leading radical member of the
Sandinista junta, has threatened to cross the Honduran bor-
der "to take out [the exile army] with surgical precision." If
that kind of engagement does come, it could force a formal
"internationalization" on the anti-communist side by invoking
the Central American Defense Treaty to match the alliance of
communist forces with the Sandinistas. Or it could produce a
call to invoke the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro calling on all
American states-including the U. S.-to halt aggression.
The U. S. is already involved. Clandestine aid from the U. S.
had been flowing to the Nicaraguan exiles-although, per-
haps in line with Enders' speech and a new policy, the aid
apparently was cut off in mid-August. Americans also have
been associated with the famous Commander Zero (Eden Pas-
tora), a former Sandinista leader who earlier this summer
announced that the Nicaraguan revolution had been "be-
trayed" and that he was going into armed left-wing opposi-
tion. But Pastora, whose Mexican, Libyan, and possibly Cu-
ban connections make him suspect to other Nicaraguan exiles,
says he will fight the- Honduras-based group, which he labels
"Somozistas." .
Approved For Release 2007/06/08: CIA-RDP88B00443RO01203970135-4
Honduran troops: Unable to stop Salvadoran
guerrillas from using the country as a sanctuary.
In El Salvador, the situation for the U. S.-
backed regime continues to deteriorate. Leftist
guerrillas, unable to force a victorious military
showdown with the government, are methodi-
cally destroying the economic infrastructure in
an effort to demoralize the population. Hondu-
ran forces under military strongman General
Gustavo Alvarez, who supported free and fair
elections there earlier this summer, have back-
stopped Salvadoran government forces. They are trying to
stop the use of Honduras as the "Cambodia" of the Salvador-
an conflict. Honduras' relatively large size, sparse population,
and weak armed forces make it difficult to halt the infiltra-
tion of weapons and men, providing a sanctuary for the
Sandinista- and Cuba-backed Salvadoran guerrillas that cross
back and forth into El Salvador.
The U. S. is extending military aid and training to the
Honduran forces and improving the airport facilities at San
Andres, a Colombian island off Nicaragua. The Hondurans
are also training marines for the new Guatemalan regime,
which-while more acceptable to Washington than the previ-
ous military junta-is still under a U. S. embargo that forbids
the training and delivery of weapons.
Massed vehicles. The question is whether these measures by
the U. S. are adequate in the face of the continuing buildup of
arms and forces in Nicaragua. For example, the Sandinistas
reportedly have massed amphibious vehicles at Monkey Point,
near the Costa Rican border opposite San Andres. The Hondu-
ran air force, long considered that country's main defense
against any Sandinista attack, may soon be outclassed by
Nicaraguan pilots being trained on MiGs in communist coun-
tries. Other Nicaraguan recruits training on Cuba's 'Isle of
Pines and in other communist countries for the past year are
due back in strength this fall. .
. At the same time, the Sandinistas are getting training and
direct participatory support on the ground from a wide range
of communist and left-wing allies, including. the Palestine
Liberation Organization,- East Germans, Vietnamese, North
Koreans, and Bulgarians; plus, a large Cuban contingent-
 Approved For Release 2007/06/08: CIA-RDP88B00443RO01203970135-4
International
outlook /CONTINUED
0
Enders said 2,000, but others contend the figure is higher. characterization of present policy as a bipartisan continuation
Enders' speech, reportedly written by Luigi R. Einaudi, a of the Carter Administration's actions. The Reagan strate-
liberal Columbia University professor now on State Dept. gists had argued that the Carter Administration had tacitly
duty, backtracks to the Carter Administration's positions. It approved left-wing takeovers and, by its singleminded concen-
emphasizes the region's polarization between right and left tration on human rights, helped destroy the Somoza regime
rather than the entry of Cuba- with Soviet support, as Reagan and undermine America's traditional friends in the region to
strategists have always seen it It equates the Somoza regime the benefit of the Cubans and Soviets.
with the Sandinistas, although-most Nicaraguan exiles-even Failed programs. The speech for the first time publicly offers
Sandinista defectors-now argue that domestic conditions the Sandinistas a "nonaggression" pact, something conserva-
have worsened. In effect;. it rejects the thesis of U. N. Ambas-s tives believe will guarantee the continuation of a Cuban-type
sador Jean Kirkpatrick,, a. Latin American specialist, that a Soviet satellite in Nicaragua. And Enders' call for a halt to
choice between, authoritarian: regimes historically allied with ? arms traffic in the region by both sides and a withdrawal of
the U. S.. _and. new-totalitarian- governments allied with the military advisers under international supervision is seen as a
Soviets: is,:the-crucial strategic problem for U. S_ policy. The -' replica of failed programs in half a dozen areas around the
speech contains a forthright denunciation .of the Sandinistas" world, including Vietnam.
internal policies- but. refers to a situation of six months ago, Enders' statement comes very close to ruling out interven-
before their crackdown wiped out the last vestiges of plural- tion by American forces in the region---a position former
ism. Referring to the new crisis between the Roman Catholic Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. repeatedly refused
Church and the Marxist-Leninist regime in Managua, it ig- to commit the U. S. to, arguing that to do so would strength-
nores,the church's dilemma:. whether to remain in opposition en Moscow, Havana, and the communists in the region in
and risk total ejection of its priests and presence, as happened their long-term effort to undermine morale of the anti-con
in Cuba under Fidel Castro, or make some sort of accommo- munists. The Enders' speech in Latin America is construed as
dation to preserve the church's presence even under an out-
and-out communist dictatorship, as in Poland.
Perhaps the most startling element of the speech is its
a move toward accommodation with left-wing forces in the
region and a retreat from confrontation by the Reagan Ad-
ministration. ^
Yang's Executive Class.
There's mom for everything.
Except improvement., 11
only 30 seats. That gives you an unusually
spacious cabin with more legroom, more
room in the aisles, and best of all, more
room to enjoy Varig's incomparable
award-winning on board service.
And when it
comes to catering
to the business
traveller, we've
really outdone
ourselves. Our
big, comfortable
seats let you
stretch out, relax, sleep, read or work in
luxurious comfort. Cocktails are served to
you from a gracious rolling cart
Dinner and breakfast are elegantly
prepared for our.Executive Class -
passengers by Varig Chef Hilber, and
served on fine china and-linen.
52 BUSINESS WEEK September 13, 1982
VARIG
&,.Vlalax A- a-04
Approved For Release 2007/06/08: CIA-RDP88B00443R001203970135-4
You'll also be given a specially
designed travel kit complete with all the
little extras typical of Varig:s superlative
on-board service.
Our Executive Class is available on all
our 747s to Rio and will be available in
my on all our DC-10:s from Miami and Los
Class, you're right.
Send kr%`arigs in6xmntive Businessmans Guide to Br.,zil.
Ormmerdal \Ige,'. uig Brazilian Airlines, 622 Third Ave., NYC
10017
See }ewr travel agent or corporate trawl planner.