C.I.A. ‘plans to stir up Nicaragua’

Press, 15 February 1982, Page 6

C.I.A. ‘plans to stir up Nicaragua’

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Ronald Reagan has approved a broad plan to counter alleged Cuban presence in Nicaragua that includes encouragement of paramilitary action by foreign Governments the “Washington Post” said yesterday. The programme included “promoting action by friendly foreign Governments designed to disrupt Cuban-Nicaraguan supply lines of arms to guerrilla forces in El Salvador,”- the newspaper said.. The Centra] Intelligence Agency had proposed a $l9 million plan to build political opposition to the Leftist Sandinista Government of Nicaragua and to “create “action teams for paramilitary political operations and intelligenpe:gathering in Nicaragua and elsewhere," the “Post" said. .... . ''. It was not known whether the C.I.A. plan had been approved, whether other Governments had done anything or what, if anything, the United States had done in• support of action by foreign Governments. A congressional source familiar with American plans and actions in Central America and the Caribbean said yesterday that "the Administration’s focus is Nicaragua,” more than on alleged supply routes from Cuba to Nicaragua, because "Nicaragua is the place you've got to score. If you can get the Sandinistas out of power, the problem in El Salvador will clear itself up.”