DESTABILIZING NICARAGUA THE C.I.A. RIDES AGAIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700060061-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2005
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: March 6, 1982
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

AT -.7
C.tJ P {Gx ,,rr THE N A f I
---?l~pprs>~ed For Release 2W?4qT/ tft
SAUL LANDAU AND
CRAIG NELSON
U. Mr; President, have you approver of cov-
ert activity to destabilize the present government
of Nicaragua?
A. Well, no, we're supporting them, the--oh,
wait a minute, wait a minute, I'm sorry, I was,
thinking El Salvador,. because of the previous,
when you said Nicaragua. Here again; this is
something upon which -with national security
interests, !just-1 will not comment.
President Reag an's press conference,
February 18-:
A covert operation directed by the Central Ir%
`telligence Agency against the Sandinist govern
meat in Nicaragua is now under way; According,
to two people present .at' secret briefiri s held
last November and December, Assistant Secre-
.tary of State for Inter-American Affairs Thomas
Enders told members of the -Senateand House
Select Committees on Intelligence that- the
C.I.A. is secretly providing training, money and
weapons for former members of Gen. Anastasio
i .Somoza's National Guard who are now carrying
out armed incursions into Nicaragua from bases
,in Honduras. The funds 'are beiri, funneled
`through friendly Latin American countries.
Reagan Administration ambassador. at large
Vernon Walters has negotiated with .the govern-
mentof. Argentina and with elements in the
security forces' of Venezuela, Colombia and
Chile to cooperate with the C.I.W. in destabiliz-
ing the Nicaraguan government, and to act as
U.S. surrogates in actions in other Central
American countries. - (The Washington 'Post
reported on C.I.A. plans for a $19 million covert
Aoperation against Nicaragua in a front-page
STAT
story. on ' e ruaryter sources in both ongress ands*
the executive branch confirmed that Enders ;reported to
members *of the select committees, 'in compliance with what
the Administration considers to be the requirerhents of thei
Hughes-Ryan amendment to the 1976 foreign id_act.* -
The Assistant Secretary told the Congressmen that the aim
of the C.I.A.'s covert action is to incite unrest iii Nicaragua
using former Somoza guardsmen, dissident elements and
ethnic minorities in. Nicaragua and exile groups in thei
United States. Nicaraguan officials say that the former,
guardsmen's attacks are intended to provoke retaliatory
measures, by the Nicaraguan Army, thus creating a pretext
for foreign military intervention.
Veteran. C.I.A. official Nestor. Sanchez, who is now
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Inte' -American
Affairs, has been placed in charge of the Clandestine opera-
tions for the Caribbean basin, according to sot ices in the
Defense Department. Enders commands the entire Central
American and Caribbean policy team.
Other covert operations are also planned against Cuba
and. Grenada,. and against 'guerrilla forces in it Salvador
and Guatemala.- Several. members of Congre$s "under
stood" from their secret briefings that U.S. personnel would
not be involved in combat. A"photograph of a U.S.. colonel,
carrying an M-I6. near a combat zone in .El S yador that was"receiitlq published in American newspapers ppeared to
contradict 'the Administration's guarantees to Congress. At
*The number of Congressmen present'at the briefi~-s is not known. The1
Republican members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence are.
Barry Goldwater (chairman), Arizona; Jake Garn, Utah; John Chttfee,
Rhode Island; Richard Lugar, Indiana; Malcolm Wallop, W. oming; Dave.
Durenberg,' Minnesota; William Roth 'Jr.; Delaware; Har ison Schmitt,.:
New Mexico. The Demoeratic'members are Daniel Patrick Moynihan, New-:
York; Walter Huddleston, Kentucky; Joseph Biden Jr., Deh ware; Dan jet;
Inouye,. Hawaii;-Henry Jackson,'Washington; Patrick Leaiy, Vermont;
Lloyd Bentsen, Texas. The Democratic members of the Howe Select Com
mittee on Intelligence are Edward Boland (chairman), 'tassachusetts;
Clement Zablocki, Wisconsin; Charles Rose, North Carolina; Romano:,
Mazzoli, Kentucky; Norman Minera, California; .Wychq Fowler Jr.; 'J
Georgia; Lee Hamilton, Indiana: Albert Gore Jr., Tennesseq; Bob Stump,
Arizona. The Republican members are -J Kenneth Robin;on Virgtma
)ohn Ashbrook, Ohio; Robert McClory, Illinois; G William Whi[ehurst
Virginia; C.W. Bill Young.. Florida.
Saul Landau is a senior fellow 'of the Institute for Policy'jI
Studies and ca-author, with John Dinges, of As~assination','.?
on Embassy Row (Pantheon).. Craig Nelson is :a research
assaciafe >rith lP.S~; ~?'.
TAT
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-009Q1R000700060061-1