$20 MILLION U.S. AID GIVEN TO HONDURAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504850024-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: March 26, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504850024-7
V
W'TSHTNGTON POST
26 March 1986
X20 Million U.S. Aid
Given to Honduras
Nicaraguans Said to Attack Across Border
By Lou Cannon and Don Oberdorfer
Washington Post Staff Writers
President Reagan provided $20
million in emergency military as-
sistance to Honduras yesterday to
help repel what administration of-
ficials said were attacks across the
border by 1,500 Nicaraguan troops
aimed at destroying a training cen-
ter of the anti-Sandinista rebels.
The Honduran government, in a
statement issued by its embassy
here, confirmed the large-scale "in-
cursions" White House chief of
staff Donald T. Regan said earlier in
the day that U.S. pilots and helicop-
ters already in Honduras for mili-
tary exercises would be used to
transport Honduran troops to the
border area, but later reports from
Honduras made it appear unlikely
that such assistance would be re-
quested.
The Nicaraguan Embassy denied
an invasion had taken place and said
the Reagan administration was en-
gaged in a "cheap maneuver" de-
signed to win approval of its pend-
ing $100 million aid package for the
rebels, known as contras.
The Sandinista attack was
viewed by White House officials as
bolstering political support for the
aid request, which was rejected by
the House last week but is expected
to pass the Senate with some con-
ditions attached. The attack was
viewed with consternation and an-
ger by House Democratic leaders
who had opposed the aid request.
"There's no question that this
adds urgency and impetus to our
side," said White House political
assistant Mitchell Daniels. "The
landscape has changed dramatical-
ly," said Dennis Thomas, deputy to
chief of staff Regan. The action
"confirms the doubts and suspicions
many people had" about the Sandi-
nistas, he said.
House S eaker Thomas P. (Tip)
O'Neill r. ass. react by
calling Nicaraguan esi ent Dame
Ortega "a bumbling, incompetent,
Marxist-Leninist communist,- and
said the incursion would cause some
j)emocrats to change their votes
an suapor ~e con ra ai pac cage.
Sen. Patrick J. Leah (D-Vt.), vice
chairman o t e nate ct m-
arcas-
i
s
mittee on ntelligence sa
ticall that he "had heard a rumor
tat ame rte a is secret y on
the payroll o one o our 111w .-
the t L a-
mini ministration."
Sen David F. nttr nherger (R-
Minn.), Intelligence Committee
of assist
c airman an -a
ing the contras said the in sion
had probably guaranteed congres-
sional oassaee of the aid package.
which has $70 million in military
assistance and 30 million in non-
le a aid.
The he $20 million provided to Hon-
duras yesterday was formally re-
quested by new Honduran Presi-
. dent Jose Azcona for what White
House spokesman Larry Speakes
said was the "unforeseen emergen-
cy" of the Sandinista cross-border
attack. The State Department said
the military aid requested includes
"air defense weapons, conventional
ordnance, emergency spare parts
and armament for helicopters and
essential training."
Secretary of State George P.
Shultz, traveling in Europe, said
that the U.S. aid would "allow Hon-
duras to do whatever it wants to do"
in response to "the invasion by Ni-
caraguan communist troops," staff
writer Joanne Omang reported
from Athens.
While officials emphasized that
the assistance was intended for
Honduran military forces, the items
requested are similar to those that
the administration is seeking for the
contras. Asked whether any of the
equipment would wind up in contra
hands, Speakes said, "I don't know."
Honduras received $67.4 million
in military aid in fiscal 1985 and
$59.8 million in fiscal 1986 after
cuts required by the Gramm-
Rudman-Hollings budget-balancing
legislation. The reque?t for fiscal
1987 is $88.8 million,
The $20 million that Reagan re-
leased yesterday comes from De-
fense Department funds previously
appropriated. The formal notifica-
tion of the emergency aid that the
president sent to Congress said
"this assistance will be in the form
of defense articles in the stocks of
the Department of Defense, de-
fense services of the Department of
Defense and military education and
training."
Reagan complied with existing
law by notifying Congress of the
emergency aid, which Speakes said
would be used "to repel this and
future attacks." The White House
spokesman said, "We have instruct-
ed U.S. commanders that U.S. per-
sonnel are not to be introduced into
combat situations."
The administration version of
what happened in Nicaragua was
detailed by State Department
spokesman Charles Redman, who
said that last Saturday, "within 48
hours of rejection of aid to the Ni-
caraguan resistance, Sandinista mil-
itary units crossed into Honduras in
what appears to be a large-scale
effort to locate and destroy resis-
tance logistics bases, training cen-
ters and medical facilities which
they believe to be in the area. Con-
trary to some reports, this does not
seem to be a hot-pursuit operation
by the Sandinistas, since no resis-
tance units were withdrawing from
Nicaragua at the time of the San-
dinista attack."
Redman said that on Sunday
morning, a large Sandinista force
conducted four assaults near a cen-
ter for Nicaraguan refugees situ-
ated more than 15 kilometers or
nine miles north of the border in
Honduras. He said these attacks
"were reportedly repulsed by new
resistance student volunteers which
were armed that very morning."
By late Sunday evening, several
Sandinista "special counterinsur-
gency battalions," normally accom-
panied by Cuban advisers, were en-
gaged in the battle, Redman said.
One of the Nicaraguan battalions,
which other officials said included
about half of the Sandinista troops,
attempted to withdraw at this point
but found their route blocked by "a
large resistance column," the
spokesman said.
The battle continued through
Monday. Redman said the Sandinis-
tas supported their forces with
heavy artillery and rocket fire from
Soviet-made launchers and helicop-
ter gunships.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504850024-7
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504850024-7
Administration officials said that
it was not clear late yesterday what
the military situation was along the
border. Redman quoted Honduran
and contra sources as saying that
four Sandinista battalions of rein-
forcements were expected to join
the attack. But other officials said
that one Sandinista battalion had
already withdrawn and that the oth-
er was likely to do so as soon as it
could disengage from combat.
Speakes and Redman said that
the contra forces had taken a num-
ber of Sandinista prisoners.
A senior administration official,
asked why the Sandinistas had
launched such an invasion at this'
sensitive time, speculated that the
Nicaraguans had seized an oppor-
tunity to deal a supposedly quick
and "crippling blow" to a large
contra force. He said the Sandinis-
tas apparently gambled that Hon-
duras would not publicize the incur-
sion, since this required acknowl-
edgment that contra troops are
based in Honduras. In fact, Hondu-
ras initially refused to confirm the
incursion.
Another senior U.S. official said
the Sandinista troops had tried to
withdraw earlier but found them-
selves "pinned down, caught in a
crossfire."
Reagan sent Gen. John Galvin,
commander of the U.S. Southern
Command, to Honduras to provide
information and advice to the Hon-
duran government and assess the
situation on the ground, the White
House announced.
Staff writer David Hoffman
contributed to this report.
A
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504850024-7