NICARAGUAN CONFLICT: HOW CLOSE TO CIVIL WAR?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030023-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: March 28, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030023-1
ARTIMLE
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
28 March 1983
NimruaA conflicts
how close to cal war?
By James Nelson Goodsell
Latin America correspondent of
Civil war may again be brewing in Nicaragua.
-Less than four, years after the conclusion of the costly war
that brought the left-leaning Sandinistas?to power, anew
struggle for control of the Central American?landisshaping
up, particularly in the bill co retry of northern Nicaragua.
It was from those hills, among, -
-staunchly independent Nicara-1
guans, that the Sandinistas launched.,
'
their successful struggle in the ,19M
well-pressed -oliveedrab:;..tstignes,. Me
whatem the eWand'flow ,of -the battle-
now shaping up, the Sandinistas find them-
selves in the un &::.posidlon . of
warding off a.guerrilla trmirg9 .
his less than four years since they exchanged.
their -own . battle statmed. ~i~ez _, garb 'foz'
bid to unseat the Sandinista government.
Major fighting'-between :guerrillas and the .Sandinistas
erupted this past 'week. Detailsare sketchy;: but,,-.these anti-
Sandinista forces,' composed mostly of one-time Sandinista
supporters and former National Guardsmen, may number as
many as several thousand. They. apparently -are weir-
equipped. Theirflghting potential; however,is unknown.
, Also unknown is who supports diem _yand,:who trained
them. The ratio of Guardsmen, .to-former Sandinistas is un-
known. The presumption is that most of.the guerrillas are
Nicaraguans and members of the Nicaraguan
Democratic Front (FDN), an organization..,:
with rightist political views headquartered in
Honduras. :.. '-- ---.: ..
But whether the FDN is entirely responsi-x
ble for the fighting in northern Nicaragua is
unclear . ' FDN spokesmen. say they are bat-
tling the Sandinistas in the central and north-
em parts of the country, but deny FDN forces
are involved in -clashes in northeastern
Zelaya Province. At this writing, there also
are reports of.fighting in southern Nicaragua}'
- and theYDN is apparently not involved.
The guerrillas, therefore, are a,-tilt of.an
erj=jk
There is no enigma atioiitLS
ting..Government .still piiesrlltas :
that it was fierce this: