C.I.A. manual instructs Nicaragua sabotage

Press, 13 July 1984, Page 10

C.I.A. manual instructs Nicaragua sabotage

, NZPA-AP Washington The C.IA. has produced a comic-book-style manual that encourages Nicaraguans to report late for work, pour sana into engines, hurl Molotov cocktails and engage in other forms of sabotage, intelligence sources say. The booklet, its title translated as "Freedom Fighter’s Manual," is written in Spanish and relies heavily on captioned illustrations to show 38 ways to commit sabotage or otherwise undermine Nicaragua’s Leftist Sandinista Government The manual describes itself as a “practical guide to liberate Nicaragua from oppression and misery by paralysing the military-indus-trial complex of the traitorous Marxist State without having to use special tools and with minimal risk for the combatant.” Although President Reagan has said the United States is not seeking to overthrow the Sandinista Government, the booklet calls on Nicaraguans to join in the “final battle” against the 5-year-old Leftist regime. Intelligence sources said the C.I.A. manual was preferred for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest of the rebel groups and the one most closely associated with the C.I.A. A copy of the 16-page, multi-coloured booklet was found by a Nicaraguan peasant after a June 1 attack by the force on Ocotal, a town near the Honduran border, according to Ms

Betsy Cohn, the director of the Central American Historical Institute at Georgetown University. Ms Cohn said the peasant gave the manual, which had been stuffed into the door of a house, to Mr Peter Olson, a member of the Witness for Peace, an American religious delegation opposed to C.I.A. support for the rebels. A photocopy was provided to the Associated Press by Ms Cohn and United States intelligence sources identified it as a C.I.A. production. A C.IA. spokesman, Mr George Lauder, declined comment. Shown a copy, Mr Bosco Matamoros, a force representative in Washington, called it “a typical manual of resistance,” but said he could not confirm who wrote it. Another force official in Honduras, who refused to be identified, said the rebel group has no sabotage manual and added “that document doesn’t exist.” The manual urges Nicaraguans to slough off at work, leave the lights and water on, damage books and office equipment, smash windows, clog toilets, cut telephone lines, call in false alarms, slash tyres, and spread rumours. It also suggests they make false hotel and plane reservations, short-circuit electrical systems, paint anti-government slogans, damage truck engines, fell trees, release farm animals, steal government food supplies, set fires and throw “Molotov cocktails” at police offices and fuel deoots.