NICARAGUA BLAMES U.S. AID TO GUERRILLAS FOR ATTACK ON VILLAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404560012-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 15, 2010
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: March 29, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

I STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404560012-1
YHILA DELPHIA TNQUIEP
29 MARCH 1983
Nicaragua blames
U.S. aid to guerrillas
for attack on. village
UpUad PAess Wenwforol
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Nicara-
gua has alleged that U.S. aid to rebels
made possible an attack that'killed
four people and wounded 17 others,
six of them children, the state-run
newspaper said yesterday.
The attack was on the town of
Rancho Grande, located 100 miles
northeast of Managua in Matagalpa
province, which was hit at dawn
Saturday by rebels who have been
trying to topple the Nicaraguan gov.
ernment.
Asked for reaction to the allega.
tion, White House spokesman Larry
Speakes said in Washington, "No
comment."
According to the Nicaraguan gov-
ernment, the rebels were part of a
group of about 2,000 who entered
Nicaragua from bases in Honduras
during the last four weeks.
Government officials said that
four people in the village were
killed, including a French doctor
who worked there as a volunteer,
and that 17 people were wounded.
"It is the unconditional and unre-
stricted aid that the U.S. government
gives to the Somocista counterrevo-
lutionary forces that is the ultimate
cause of the situation that endangers
Nicaragua," the Foreign Ministry
said in a statement paraphrased by
Barricada, the official newspaper of
the ruling Sandinist party.
(French residents of Nicaragua
planned to demonstrate in front of
the U.S. Embassy here, blaming the
death of Dr. Pierre Grosjean on the
U.S. government's support of the in-
surgents, the Associated Press re-
ported.]
Nicaragua says the rebels are led
by former national guardsmen who
were loyal to the late dictator Anasta-
sio Somoza.
The rebels say they want to restore
democracy and end the Marxist drift
of the Sandinistas, named after na-
tionalist guerrilla hero Augusto Ce-
sar Sandino who fought the Somoza
family in the 1920s and '30s.
Meanwhile, Time magazine report-
ed in its April 4 issue that the United.
States controls a major faction of the
anti-Sandinista guerrilla movement
in Nicaragua.
The magazine said CIA agents and
representatives of the U.S. Army's
Southern Command based in Panama
control one of the general staffs of
the Nicaraguan Democratic Forces,
an alliance of anti-Sandinista rebels.
The Reagan administration has
been "deeply involved" with the alli-
ance, which includes former mem.
bers of Somoza's national- guard, the
report said.
Time said it had learned from anti.
Sandinista guerrilla sources that an
all-American military and intelli-
gence staff was the "brains" of the
current guerrilla campaign, and one
of the three general staffs involved.
"It is composed of CIA experts and
representatives of the U.S. Army's
Southern Command based in Pana-
ma." Time said. "its job is to pass
orders to the second staff, which in
turns relays them to the contra com-
manders."
The magazine said U.S. Ambassa.
dor to Honduras John Negroponte is
said by the guerrillas to be"the coor-
dinator of the separate command
group activities."
Time said the reason for such a
"Byzantine command structure" was
an effort by the Reagan administra-
tion to conform to this year's De.
fense Department appropriations bill
that prohibits direct military in-
volvement in Nicaragua.
The State Department said yester-
day that the opposition to the left-
wing regime in Nicaragua was "di-
verse, nationalist and independent"
but refused to comment on rep orts
that the United States is helping the
opposition.
Spokesman Alan Romberg said,
"We do not address the question of
our coven activities."
in a prepared answer to reporters'
questions, he said, "The longstand-
ing practice of this and previous ad.
ministrations is not to address such
allegations. However, we have made
it equally clear that we do not sup-
port,any return to a Somocista goy
?ernment in Nicaragua."
He listed some of the opposition as
disillusioned former Sandinistas, for-
mer members of Somoza's national
guard and ethnic groups such as the.
Miskito Indians. ?
Elsewhere, Libya's official news
agency said Libyan leader Moammar
Khadafy has offered his nation's
armed forces to Nicaragua. "The
leader of the revolution has an-
nounced that Libya placed its forces
at the disposal of the Sandinistas in
Nicaragua to defend their soil and
freedom "against American aggres.
sion." the official Libyan Jamahir-
iyah News Agency said in an an-
nouncement monitored in Beirut.
On Sunday, two men identifying
themselves as anti-Sandinista rebels
said the CIA paid and armed them for
an invasion into Nicaragua before
they were captured by Nicaraguan
forces in February.
The two men were presented at a
news conference held by officials of
Nicaragua's Sandinista National' Lib-
eration Front.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404560012-1