CIA COVERT MILITARY AID IN COSTA RICA DISCLOSED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880067-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 15, 2010
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: March 13, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/15: CIA-RDP90-00552
BALTIMORE NEWS-AMERICAN (MD)
13 March 1984
CIA covert military aid
R000504880067-5
in Costa Rica disclosed
By John P. Wallach ofNicaragua that adjoins Costa Rica.
Hearst News Service Last November Congress ap-
proved $24 million for the Honduras-
WASHINGTON - The CIA, based Nicaraguan Democratic Force
through a covert headquarters oper- and other insurgent groups but that
ation in the U.S. Embassy in Costa money is Almost gone. Congress is
Rica, is financing a ) Panamanian. expected to Provide another $21 mil-
company that is supplying arms and. lion in aid to the contras despite a
ammunition to the anti-Nicaraguan badly botched administration effort
Democratic Revolutionary Alliance last week. r'
in Costa Rica commanded by dissi- The State Department attempted
dent Sandinista hero Eden Pastora. to attach a request for the additional
--
"bet's not say that we are directly funds..,..toanon-controversial
tora and his men_ get the weapons leged , . causing a bitter
they need," a U.S. diplomat who has backlash tlTatr+esulted in a 15-14 vote
helped cant' out the covert CIA oper- against the administration request in
ation disclosed today. the Senate Appropriations Commit,
Pastors, who until 1981 served as 'tee.
the Sandinistas' deputy defense min- The Panamanian company, which
ister, has denied he gets CIA help. was not. identified, is said to have
The new disclosures came as purchased a number of aircraft from
President Reagan met Monday with In tair, an apparent CIA front that
Costa Rican Foreign Minister Carlos operates out fourth-floor offices in a
Gutierrez, and as other intelligence McLean, Va.,offrce building less than
sourpes confirmed that the CIA had a mile from the Central Intelligence
urged all US.-backed rebels to step Agency headquarters.
up their attacks on Nicaragua to Edgar L. Mitchell, the managing
show a jittery Congress that they are director of'Investair, previously was
a good investment. - disclosed to have been a part owner of
Costa Rica officially claims neu- Intermountain Aviation Inc., which
trality in the Nicaraguan struggle was identified in a 1976 Senate intel-
although it closes one eye on Pastora's ligence committee report as one of the
use of the country as -~-~p p_Iybase for CIA's most important contractors. In-
l
d
ve
in Aviation was disso
in the. termounta
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880067-5