NICARAGUA'S ELUSIVE WAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404560009-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: April 4, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404560009-5
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STAT
TIME
4 April 1983
CENTRAL AMERICA
Elusive War
I A guerrilla struggle raises charges of covert U.S. involvement
Reports from the various battle-
fronts were murky, confused and
conflicting. Casualty figures and
claims of triumph were trumpet-
ed confidently, but without verification,
by both sides. Only one fact was certain in
Nicaragua last week: a new level of clan-
destine guerrilla warfare was under way
in the tiny Central American republic.
Ironically. the Marxist-led Sandinista
government that overthrew Dictator An-
astasio Somoza Debayle in 1979 now
seemed to face an insurrection very simi-
lar to the one that brought the Sandinistas
to power. At a hastily arranged press con-
ference in the Nicaraguan capital of Ma-
nagua. Defense Minister Humberto Orte-
ga Saavedra declared last week: "We
consider the situation to be critical."
Nicaragua tried to make the most of
its alleged injuries at an emergency ses-
sion of the United Nations Security Coun-
cil. The country's Deputy Foreign Minis-
ter. Victor Hugo Tinoco. charged that the
new warfare was inspired and armed by
the Reagan Administration. which is de-
termined "to destroy the Nicaraguan rev-
olution." That challenge earned a sharp
rebuke from U.S. Ambassador to the
U.N. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick. who called
Sandinista fears of a U.S. invasion a
`myth." Kirkpatrick did not address the
main Sandinista contention: that the
guerrilla warfare now plaguing Nicara-
gua is part of a covert operation directed
by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
The latest charges have further in-
creased the rhetorical temperature in
Central America. Defense Minister Orte-
ga warned darkly last week of "the possi-
bility of war" with neighboring Honduras,
which he accused of aiding the rebels.
Nicaragua also charged that Honduran
troops had briefly entered Nicaraguan
territory, an accusation that the Hondu-
rans 1-~beled "totally false." Said a State
Fighting
Department official: "The Nicaraguans
create a devil outside to increase internal
solidarity."
Nicaragua's concern was mirrored in
some corridors on Capitol Hill. Congress-
man Michael D. Barnes of Maryland last
week decried a "1980s version of the Bay,
of Pigs." Said he: "It appears that the U.S.
is engaged in supporting a war in Latin
America without discussing that involve-
ment with the American people." Said
another congressional source with privi-
leged access to U.S. intelligence informa-
tion: "We're concerned about the danger
of a wider conflagration." At the same
time, many members of Congress contin-
ue to support the Administration's efforts
to curb Soviet influence in the hemi-
sphere. even if it means engaging in co-
vert activity.
Despite the ample declarations of
concern. the war in Nicaragua remains
for the most part invisible. Newsmen who
descended upon the country last week
could find little evidence of fighting. The
major sign of military activity in Mana-
gua was the predawn jogging of groups of
Nicaraguan army soldiers near the city's
Intercontinental Hotel. In the town of San
Fernando. nearly 159 miles from the capi-
tal, the only sign of combat was a corn-
field still ablaze as a result of fighting the
day before. Said a U.S. diplomat in Wash-
ington: "They have clearly got a fighting
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