INTERVENTION A MUST, EXILED HONDURAN SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010020-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: November 13, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-0055
ARTICLE AP-
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
13 November 1985
Intervention a must,
exiled Honduran says
By Tom Diaz
THE WASHINGTON TIMCS
MIAMI - Nicaraguan resistance
fighters can't win their war against
the Marxist Sandinista government
without armed intervention by other
nations, according to Gen. Gustavo
A. Alvarez Martinez, the former
commander of the Honduran armed
forces.
Gen. Alvarez, who was ousted in
1984 and forced from the country at
gunpoint, broke over a year's silence
this week in an exclusive interview
with The Washington Times.
Prior to the overthrow, Gen. Al-
varez was one of the United States'
strongest friends in Central
America. He was instrumental in or-
ganizing international aid for the
Nicaraguan resistance forces, and
he forged for Honduras a front-line
role in U.S. policy in the region.
Gen. Alvarez said his ouster has
been a setback for the United States
because it can no longer count on
firm Honduran support for either
the Nicaraguan resistance forces or
for overall U.S. policy.
Sources interviewed in recent
weeks said that after Gen. Alvarez'
ouster, the Honduran government
forced the resistance fighters to
close a hospital in Tegucigalpa and
imposed severe limits on Contra ac-
tivity in Honduras.
"This (change in attitude] has
caused the United States to accept
short-term solutions,' Gen. Alvarez
said. "It won't pursue the ultimate
solutions to the problems of Central
America.
"The military actions of the Con-
tras show to the world that there is
real political opposition against the
regime." he said. "The Contras are
100 percent Nicaraguan, but any-
body who believes that they can
overthrow the government is mis-
taken."
He said he has remained silent in
order to protect members of his fam-
ily - his father, two brothers and
four sisters - still living in Hondu-discharge
ras. But a dishonorably;ondurae
handed down by
authorities last month, announced
last week in the press, prompted him
to break his silence.
"Now they have exhausted my pa-
tience;' Gen. Alvarez said. "They
have gone beyond the limit and I am
going to speak out.... I have lost my
honor. More than anything, it's the
moral indignity before the Hondu-
ran people and my friends."
He said he had been given no
warning that the discharge was
pending and had never been for-
mally charged with an offense. He
said he intends to fight the action in
the civil courts.
Armando Alvarez Martinez, the
general's brother, who is a lawyer
living in Tegucigalpa, said he in-
tends to file a petition with the Hon-
duran Supreme Court today asking
that the discharge be suspended un-
til the courts finish an investigation.
"I want you to know that I don't know
what they are going to do against
me;' Mr. Alvarez, who was with the
general during the interview, said.
"But I have to defend my brother."
Gen. Alvarez cited as an example
of the United States being forced to
limit its options the inability of the
Nicaraguan resistance forces to win
their fight without more direct help.
"That might be possible after a long
war," Gen. Alvarez said. "But nobody
is prepared for that kind of war -
nobody, not my country, not the
United States, not your Congress,
not your people. The Western men-
tality is simply not prepared for pro-
longed war.
"The solution is military action;'
he said, "something like Grenada,
through a multilateral force ...
within the framework of CONDECA
I Central American Defense Councill
and the Treaty of Rio.
"The action would have the pur-
pose only of liberating Nicaragua,
not occupying it," he said, "so that
the people of Nicaragua could have
the democratic option of electing the,
government they want"
Gen. Alvarez said the resistance
forces would play a key role in such
a move, "like the French Maquis dur-
ing the Allied invasion of France
during the Second World War."
He said there has never been a
pact among nations to pursue such a
plan. But he said some officers had
discussed it as a backup plan that
might come about "if the political
Gen. Alvarez contended his ouster
was the result of a conspiracy organ-
ized by his successor, Gen. Walter
Lopez, and three other officers, after
they were told that they were being
reassigned because of incompe-
tence. "They failed in their jobs af-
fecting the security of the nation,"
Gen. Alvarez said.
He denied ever having political
ambitions and said he was shocked
to learn that Honduran President
Roberto Suazo Cordova "was in-
volved" in his ouster. He speculated
that the president wanted him out of
the way so he would not be forced
from office after his constitutional
term expired.
Gen. Alvarez spoke heatedly
about the likelihood of U.S. in-
volvement in the overthrow. "I ave
no proof and I am not making any
charges," he said. "But can't believe
that the CIA and the embassy could
not have known what was going on.
If they didn't know, what kind of
functionaries are they?"
John D. Negroponte, who at the
time of the ouster was the U.S. am-
bassador to Honduras, said he was
surprised by the overthrow, as did
other U.S. officials. Mr. Negroponte,
now assistant secretary of state for
oceans and international environ-
mental and scientific affairs, could
not be reached for comment.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010020-9