CASTRO DENIES CUBAN-NORIEGA CONNECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640058-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 58
• Publication Date: July 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640058-5
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
1 July 1986
BY ELIZABETH
PANAMA CITY, P
Cuban President Fidel Castro denied in an interview broadcast Monday that he
received intelligence information on the United States from Panama's military
chief, and said the charges stem from a ''dirty war'' against Panama.
Castro responded to charges published in The New York Times that cited U.S.
intelligence sources who said Panamanian military chief Gen. Manuel Antonio
Noriega had served as a double agent for Cuba and the United States over the
past 15 years.
''Never has Noriiga transmitted intelligence information to us about the
United States, never,'' Castro told Panamanian journalist Norma Nunez Montoto in
a television interview broadcast Monday night.
" I absolutely cannot accept the idea that Noriega, on the other hand,
transmitted information on Cuba because Noriega never tried to plant hostility
between the United States and Cuba."
The New York Times and NBC News have reported that Noriega was involved in
arms and drugs trafficking, had directed the death of an opposition figure, and
had orchestrated election fraud.
During the half-hour interview, Castro blamed the U.S. government for the
reports, saying, ''One thing is very clear, there's a conspiracy against the
(Panamanian) National Guard and against Gen. Norlega. It is what we can call the
dirty war against Panama, against the National Guard, against Gen. Noriega."
Castro said the campaign began during a meeting of the U.S. National Security
Council and that the Pentagon initiall opposed it as ''uncivilized.'' He said
the campaign had the backing o the White House, the State Department an e
CIA.
''The instrument they used is something they use often: alleged leaks to the
press, alleged leaks of alleged facts, of alleged information,'' he said.
Castro said the purpose of the campaign was to discredit the military and
create political turmoil so the United States would not have to turn over
control of the Panama Canal in the year 2000 as stipulated by treaties signed in
1977.
''If the United States manages to destabilize the country, if the United
States manages also to divide the National Guard, then the Canal will not be
recovered (by Panama) in the year 2000," said Castro.
Castro said accusations that Noriega served as a double agent playing the
United States and Cuba off against each other were aimed at ''creating
resentments and suspicions'' between Panama and Cuba, and that ''those measures
do not prosper with us."
Contrary to the news reports, Noriega ''always tried to be aware of any
possibility of a betterment of relations between the United States and Cuba.''
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403640058-5