SANDINISTA TACTICS HEM IN CONTRAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201180008-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

tST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201180008-5
_AL
Sandinista Tactics
Hem In Contras
Copters Cut Reaction Time
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
SANTO DOMINGO, Nicaragua-The battle
began when a 300-man anti-Sandinista guerrilla
force sneaked over a grassy ridge and opened
fire with rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled
grenades on a company of Nicaraguan soldiers
defending this mining town.
It ended two hours later, when Soviet-made
Mi8 and Mi24 helicopter gunships whirred in and
unleashed a spray of machine-gun and rocket fire
that routed the rebel attackers and left about 30
dead, by the Sandinistas' count.
The brief combat here in Nicaragua's Chon-
tales province, described by Sandinista soldiers
who participated and civilians who lived through
it, was only one of many clashes during the last
four years. But it goes a long way to illustrate
the recent course of the guerrilla war being
waged by U.S.-backed rebels to overthrow the
Sandinista government in Managua.
The Popular Sandinista Army, advised by
Cuban officers and supplied through
Soviet allies, has altered its size,
tactics, organization and equipment
significantly in the last two years to
repel the guerrillas with increased
speed and force, according to Ni-
caraguan officials and other military
sources.
The main rebel organization the
Honduras-based Nicaraguan Dem
ocratic Force has suffered from a
cuto in CIA funding and logistical
support durinv roughly the same
rind. As a result, according to
these assessments, the rebels have
been unable to resume the high lev-
el of attacks reached in the summer
and fall of 1984 or to meet the am-
bitious goals set for 1985 by their
leaders in Honduras and Miami.
"They have entered a defensive
process," Defense Minister Hum-
berto Ortega said recently, in what
may prove to be a premature vic-
tory claim.
The rebel military leader, former
colonel Enrique Bermudez, and the
chief political figure, Adolfo Calero,
said last August and September
that almost all of their combatants
were leaving Honduran camps and
infiltrating into Nicaragua for what
they said would be intense attacks.
Spirits were high then because of
two successful attacks in July and
August, one on the Pan-American
Highway at La Trinidad and the
other on Army troops at Cuapa just
west of here.
In addition, Congress had re-
newed overt U.S. aid. The $27 mil-
lion was limited to nonlethal items.
But the rebel leadership hoped that
the accompanying political endorse-
ment would help bring in other mon-
ey to pay for enough guns and bul-
lets to end the relatively inactive
winter of 1984-85, when most guer-
rilla forces holed up in Honduras.
Since then, the Sandinista Army
has deployed thousands of troops
along the border, particularly around
infiltration routes in northern Nic-
aragua. Although mostly draftees,
many of these troops have been
trained as Irregular Warfare Battal-
ions to conduct long-term patrols in
the mountainous terrain.
According to Sandinista accounts
confirmed by reliable informants,
the 60,000-strong Popular Sandi-
nista Army has formed a dozen of
these battalions, and their presence
in the northern mountains has
largely frustrated the rebel attempt
to infiltrate large numbers of com-
batants this fall.
In addition, these sources said,
the Nicaraguan Army has begun to
use helicopters with increased fre-
quency and efficiency, particularly
in clashes such as the one here on
Nov. 19. The Sandinista Army has
acquired a half dozen Mi24 gun-
ships and at least 12 of the similar
Mi8 helicopters equipped with ma-
chine guns and rocket pods, accord-
ing to diplomatic estimates.
"What has changed our strategy
more than anything else is the he-
licopters," rebel leader Calero said
in a telephone conversation from
Miami.
Calero said a Sandinista helicop-
ter was shot down Monday by a
rebel wielding a shoulder-fired SA7
antiaircraft missile north of here.
The Soviet-designed missiles are
available in the international arms
trade. The Defense Ministry here
announced Thursday night after an
investigation that an Mi8 helicopter
was shot down by rebel antiaircraft
fire, probably an SA7 missile, with
the loss of 14 soldiers.
Although the Sandinistas have
lost helicopters previously, the
Escondido
River
0 30 ~~ {
MILES COSTA RICA
Tegucigalpa
-~J NICARAGUA
La Trinidade
Cua 0a*Santo Domingo
Managua '
n ed
Lake
Nk iA 11 ~: Are
Pacific
Ocean
downing of a helicopter with the
recently acquired missiles marked a
first for rebel forces that could
force the Army to use the valuable
aircraft more conservajively.
Several thousand rebel combat-
ants-called contras here, from the
Spanish for counterrevolution-
aries-have been operating this fall
in the lush ranch land here north of
Lake Nicaragua and in the rugged
mountains farther north. They be-
long to the Jorge Salazar Operation-
al Command of the Nicaraguan
Democratic Force, according to
both rebels and Sandinista officials.
Army Chief of Staff Joaquin
Cuadra, in an assessment confirmed
by other military sources, said the
rebels in this area appear to have
two objectives. The first, an-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201180008-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201180008-5
02 .
pounced recently by Bermudez on
the rebel radio, is to threaten the
Rama Road, over which the Sandi-
nista -Army transports military
equipment shipped into the Atlantic
port of El Bluff. The second, he
said, is to draw Sandinista forces
southward, hence relieving pres-
sure on the infiltration routes.
Rebels have said they have more
than 15,000 armed men, most of
them in Nicaragua. Other sources,-
here and in Honduras, have put the
figure at about 11,000, with 6,000
inside Nicaragua.
The swift expansion of the Pop-
ular Sandinista Army through con-
scription, although effective mili-
tarily, has aroused opposition
among many Nicaraguans. Many of
those recruited by the rebels have
fled the draft at home.
Similarly, escalation in military
equipment also 'has brought a po-
litical price. The helicopters whose
fire turned back the attack here, for
example, also let loose several wild
rocket rounds, injuring half a dozen
civilians, according to Sandinista
soldiers and local residents.
Carmela Vasquez, 70, said her
grandchildren Rebecca, 5, and John-
ny, 2, were among five persons in-
jured when an explosion in the gar-
den of her small grocery store sent
shrapnel flying.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201180008-5