SOVIET ARMS SHIPMENTS TO NICARAGUA SAID TO RISE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807300006-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: November 5, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807300006-1
ARTICLE APPEARE~ WASHINGTON POST
5 November 1985
ON PA6
Soviet Arms Shipments
To Nicaragua Said to Rise
Cuba Is Transfer Point, U.S. Officials Say
By Michael Weisskopf militarily "far in excess of all its
Washington Post staff writer neighbors combined, that is far in
excess of any defensive needs."
The Soviet Union, after a year- An administration official said the
long slowdown in deliveries of mil- Soviet shipments to Nicaragua
itary hardware to the Nicaraguan through Cuba are the first of any
government, has significantly sigpificance since Soviet freighters
stepped up arms shipments in re- unloaded military equipment at Ni-
cent weeks, transferring them caraguan ports last fall. Despite
through Cuba, administration offi- U.S. concerns that those shipments
cials said yesterday. included Soviet MiG fighter planes,
Officials said a U.S. SR71 spy analysts later viewed the weapons
plane, attempting to quantify the as largely defensive.
shipments in a mission over Cuba The official said precise quanti-
last Thursday, was targeted by a ties and types of equipment recent-
Cuban antiaircraft missile site but ly routed through Cuba remain un-
apparently did not draw fire. clear.
According to recent intelligence Nor is it clear why the supplies
reports, Soviet ships have unloaded are being sent through Cuba rather
crates of military equipment at. the than directly to Nicaragua, the of-
Cuban port of Mariel. The equip- ficial said. One possible reason, he
ment, which appears to include said, is that Moscow is trying to
trucks and T54 tanks, was later obscure the source of the hardware
boarded on small Nicaraguan cargo to avoid controversy in the weeks
vessels and delivered to the port of before President Reagan's Nov.
El Bluff in Nicaragua, administra- 19-20 summit with Soviet leader
tion officials said. Mikhail Gorbachev.
White House spokesman Larry An official said a SR71 Blackbird
Speakes told reporters that the So- reconnaissance plane was flying.
vier arms shipments to the Sandi- over Cuba last Thursday when
nista regime have accelerated in Cuban gunners targeted it with the
recent weeks and represent a "se- fire-control radar of an SA2 antiair-
craft missile site. Apparently no
rious increase" in weapons for use missile was fired. the official said.
against antigovernment guerillas.
"It's important to note that the The supersonic spy plane,
equipped with high-power cameras,
renewed military buildup coincides '-was never in danger" and easily
with the Sandinista government's escaped, the official said. The SA2
crackdown on civil liberties and a is of Vietnam war vintag and was
military offensive against the dem- "no significant threat" to the U .S.
ocratic resistance in Nicaragua," he aircraft, he said.
said. Cuba's official news agency re-
Speakes said he was unable to ported the SR71 spy flight last Fri-
provide "anything specific" about day. Authorities in Havana orga-
the buildup, but he repeated earlier razed a large demonstration outside
charges that the leftist Sandinista the U.S. Interests section of the
government is strengthening itself Swiss Embassy in protest.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807300006-1