$100 MILLION CONTRA AID ABOUT TO START FLOWING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870011-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: October 24, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504870011-9
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WASHINGTON POST
24 October 1986
illion Contra Aicl
~~00 M .
tart Flowin
1~~JOLIt t0 s g
Gaal Is to 1Ylake Sandinistas `Cry Uncle'
By Joanne Omang
~ Washington Post Star! Wnter
The White House yesterday was
preparing for the formal inaugu-
ration of a $100 million program of
renewed U.S. covert military and
logisatical aid to Nicaraguan rebels,
hoping it will help 'them make the
leftist Sandinista government of
Nic~agua "cry uncle".sometime in
the azure.
Tse expected executive order,
made possible by legislation Pres-
ident Reagan signed last Saturday,
will end two years in which the reb-
els, :known as contras, have sur-
vivesl on arms and supplies from a
net~ork of private supporters who
opei;~(ed here and abroad with en-
cour;~ement from every level of
the Ministration.
T package makes $60 million
avat~able to Reagan immediately
and.~another $40 million next Feb.
15. administration officials have
saici~hat if all goes as planned in the
con~ug year, escalated military ac-
ticit~`by the contras will he visible
tlrr~hout Nicaragua as they grow
in rnmtber and as the Nicaraguan
go~~ernment "begins to crack."
E~+vever, no one predicts that
the 8overnment will fall by next Oc-
tober, and all sides expect the ad-
ministration to request increased
aid ~xt year. Reagan has said he
wart' the Sandinistas "to cry un-
cle,'~ittt he has not spelled out what
that~rteans. Other officials said in-
creased contra pressure will force
the ~Gandinistas either to leave of-
ficeoc to democratise their Marxist
goverment, halt repression of the
pres3lrand allow political dissent.
~~r long debate over those ob-
ject~s, Congress authorized Rea-
gart~ spend up to $?0 million on
mili~ry aid to the rebels, $27 mil-
lion~ nonlethal aid such as med-
icin~clothing and food, and $3 mil-
liort.on the contras' human rights
enfd+r~ement office.
:1~ther $300 million in econom-
ic