HONDURAN ISLAND USED AS CIA BASE FOR CONTRAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504430001-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 15, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504430001-8
,4
V, i r,'~Gl
LOS ANGELES TIMES
1q ,lanuarv 1987
;Honduran Island Used as CIA
Base for Contras
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras-A
remote Honduran island in the
Caribbean off Honduras has re-
portedly become the main depot for
a CIA-run military operation sup-
plying rebels fighting to oust the
Sandinista government of Nicara-
gua.
Rebell sources and military ob-
servers, who asked that they not be
further identified, said Americans
are overseeing rebel supply opera-
tions on one of the Swan Islands,
once a aippart base for the abortive
CIA-batted invasion of Cuba at the
Bay of Pigs.
They said that since October,
when President Reagan signed
legislation authorizing $100 million
in military and other aid to the
rebels, U.S.-bought weapons and
military supplies have been deliv-
ered regularly to the larger of the
Swan Islands, which are two
specks of limestone owned by Hon-
duras and lying about 110 miles
north of the Honduran coast
The sources said that other piec-
es of the U.S. aid program are also
in place-
-At least two American intelli-
gence agents are based at the
rebels' headquarters, at Yamales in
southern Honduras.
-A second group of rebels,
nearly 140 men, has arrived in the
United States for military training.
The first group, about 125 rebels,
completed a six-week course last
month at Eglin Air Force Base in
Florida.
Since December, U.S. and rebel
sources said, the newly equipped
insurgent forces, or contras, have
been infiltrating into Nicaragua in
small groups from their bases in
Honduras. Contra civilian leader
Adolfo Calero says that 10,000
contras are inside Nicaragua. Ac-
cording to Pentagon officials, 7,000
have infiltrated, but Nicaraguan
and diplomatic sources say the
numberis much lower.
The Swan Islands site is said to
have been selected for the supply
operation because of the Honduran
government's desire to keep contra
activities out of public view, in
order to avoid domestic controver-
sy and to head off diplomatic
complaints from Nicaragua. The
Sandinista government of Nicara-
gua has filed suit against Honduras
in the World Court for allowing the
contras to operate from Honduran
territory.
"The Hondurans want a lower
profile," one source here said.
"They want this out of the lime-
light."
Also, the Swan Islands were
considered safe from any possible
attack.
The sparsely inhabited larger
island, two miles long, served as a
CIA-run radio operation center for
anti-Castro rebels during their at-
tack on the Bay of Pigs in 1961. At
that time, Nicaragua served as an
air base for the right-wing Cuban
rebels.
Sources said that last month one
of the CIA-contracted supply
planes operating out of the islands
crashed in the sea and sank. They
said the plane was of Spanish
manufacture, with twin turbo en-
gines, and That it had a mechanical
failure. They said it carried no
cargo at the time. One source said
the crew was made up of Ameri-
cans, and that none were injured.
An average of two supply flights
a week have been arriving at the
Swan Islands site, along with some
shipments by sea, the sources said.
They said there is a 6,000-foot
grass airstrip and a couple of
recently built warehouses.
From the island. they said. the
supplies are ferried to Aguacate, a
Honduran air base long used by the
contras, anti Palmerola, headquar-
ters of the U.S. -Honduras joint task
force Bravo. A rebel source said
that contra pilots air-drop the
supplies to their men in Nicaragua.
"The goal," one source said, "is
to eventually be able to run [from
the island] right into Nicaragua."
The shipments, the sources say,
have included uniforms and other
equipment for 10,000 men, 3,000
shoulder-fired light anti-tank
weapons, several thousand M-79
grenade launchers and about 35
Soviet-made SAM-7 portable
ground-to-air missiles.
"The troops are OK now,,, a
contra leader said. "They are a lot
better off than before,"
One rebel source said the contras
expect to receive about 100 U.S.-
made Red Eye missiles. This is a
weapon similar to the SAM-7.
"When you receive U.S. money,"
he said in reference to the U.S.
weapons, "it's fair you buy their
product."
The sources here said that on
Jan. 4, about 140 contras began the
second six-week training course
offered by U.S. Special Forces
under the military aid package.
Most of the trainees are members
of the Nicaraguan Democratic
Force (FDN), the largest armed
rebel group. Its military leader is
Enrique Bermudez and its civilian
leader is Calero.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504430001-8
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504430001-8
An FDN source complained that
the U.S. trainers had tried to
"brainwash" contra commanders
into leaving the FDN and joining
the United Nicaraguan Opposition
(UNO). a contra umbrella group.
"They kept saying that UNO is
best, that the FDN should disap-
pear," the source said bitterly.
UNO, formed under pressure
from U.S. officials, is run by Calero
and the more politically moderate
Alfonso Robelo and Arturo Cruz.
The FDN's military leader, Ber-
mudez, was a colonel in the Nicara-
guan National Guard under the
dictator Anastasio Somoza, who
was ousted by the Marxist-led
Sandinistas in 1979. Bermudez has
been a controversial figure, consid-
ered too right-wing by some con-
tras and ineffective by some. U.S.
officials have been trying to in-
crease the power of Cruz and
Robelo within UNO, but the two
represent few armed contras.
The FDN source said the trainers
were "anti-nationalistic." They
compared the pressure to a suc-
cessful CIA effort last year to
persuade Costa Rica-based rebel
commanders to abandon their lead-
er, Eden Pastora, and join UNO.
They reportedly were assured of
receiving arms and supplies in
exchange for leaving Pastora.
"The FDN commanders protest-
ed," one source said. "They said
they have been in the FDN for five
years and they agreed to partici-
pate in the UNO alliance. as long as
their right to keep their own
movement was respected."
Pilot, Paratroop Training
The training reportedly includes
instruction in leadership, demoli-
tion, the use of mortars and artil-
lery, ambush tactics and first aid.
Some contras, the sources said, will
soon be trained as pilots and para-
troopers, either in Honduras or the
United States.
Contra leaders and other sources
say the insurgents have been infil-
trating into Nicaragua from areas
east of the Honduran salient where
the contra headquarters is situated.
"Their strategy previously was
based on massive infiltrations, from
1.000 to 2,000 people," a political
analyst said. "But since last Octo-
ber the Sandinistas have shown
that is not possible. The Sandinistas
put 14,000 to 16,000 troops along
the border."
In October, the contras and San-
dinistas engaged in conventional
combat in Honduras that resulted
in hundreds of casualties on both
sides. In December, the Sandinistas
again attacked the contras in Hon-
duras, and the Honduran air force
retaliated by bombing targets in
northern Nicaragua.
"The contras are now in the
stage of penetrating Nicaragua in
small units, something they should
have done a long time ago," the
analyst said.
"The next stage is to be able to
stay in Nicaragua and stay alive.
The only way they are going to do
that is if they change their attitude
and instead of seeing a Sandinista
in every farmer, see a potential
anti -Sandinista."
This month the contras began a
propaganda campaign known as
Radio Liberacion, with a 50,000-
watt transmitter in El Salvador.
The broadcast, heard nightly, is
still in the test stage.
"By March, the situation is going
to be very difficult for the Sandin-
istas," a rebel leader said.
According to a rebel source, "two
or three" U.S. intelligence agents
are based at the Yamales camp in
Honduras, about 12 miles east of
Las Trojes and 12 miles from the
Nicaraguan border. He declined to
say specifically what the Ameri-
cans are doing.
The legislation providing the
$100 million in aid prohibits U.S.
officials from furnishing "any
training or other service" within 20
miles of the border, but it appar-
ently does not prohibit U.S. intelli-
gence gathering.
"The U.S. Embassy scrupulously
respects this and all other legisla-
tion," an embassy spokesman said.
2
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504430001-8