Documents / FOIA release

Weekly Summary

Central Intelligence Agency · 1970-05-08 · 78 pages · text from the file's own layer

The CIA's Directorate of Intelligence issued this Weekly Summary, No. 0369/70, on 8 May 1970. It covers events through noon on 7 May. The Far East section deals with the allied operations into Cambodia, Hanoi's cautious response and the government in exile Sihanouk formed in Peking. Other items cover Soviet military aid, the Sino-Soviet talks, Jordan, Dahomey, Guatemala and Brazil, and a special report looks at Cuban support for subversion in Latin America. Many pages are withheld, and the summary contains no UFO material.

  • p. 27 …Egyptian President l\lasir’s May Day speech included an appeal to the US to force…
Approved for Release: 2023/03/28 C03154550
TEcR~EJ;
EL SALVADOR ADOPTS A TOUGH LINE
The Salvadoran Government ap-
pears to be adopting a new and
tougher approach to domestic and
foreign politics. In an obvious
effort to set the political tone
for the last two years of the San-
chez administration, the government
is taking steps to restrict politi-
cal opposition. El Salvador con-
tinues to take a tough stance
against Honduras, as well.
Although the government was
careful to avoid incidents before
the congressional and municipal
elections on 8 March, it made clear
that its patience with student dis-
sent was wearing thin. Concerned
that terrorist successes in neigh-
boring Guatemala might inspire Sal-
vadoran student or extremist groups
to resort to violence, the govern-
ment served notice after the elec-
tion that it would deal harshly with
any further public disorders.
Despite its landslide victory
in the elections, the government has
not made any conciliatory gestures
to the opposition parties. Ignoring
Christian Democratic charges of
election fraud and voter coercion,
the administration has treated the
electorate to a practical demonstra-
tion of its new get—tough policy.
Itannulled the mayoral victory of
a candidate from a minor leftist
party, which had been used as an
electoral vehicle by the Communists,
and later used military reservists
to break up a peaceful rally of the
same party.
Recently, there have been indi-
cations that the National Guard com-
mander and intel-
ligence chief, Gen-
eral Medrano, is
interested in run-
ning for the presi-
dency in 1972 with
President Sanchez‘
support. This sug-
gests that the tough
line will continue
and even grow in
intensity. Me-
drano, a dedicated
anti-Communist, is
not above precipi-
tating leftist violence in order to
win popular support.
(}eneralh4edran0
Medrano has also supported a
tough policy toward Honduras. He re-
portedly is responsible for the cur-
rent disruption of traffic along
the Pan American Highway and has been
uncompromising in his refusal to re-
move National Guard troops from the
border areas-—a major stumbling block
in the way of the creation of a de-
militarized zone.
The Salvadorans recently became
aware of reports that Honduras had
acquired jet fighter aircraft and
they now fear that a surprise attack
is planned. A number of defensive
measures have already been taken and
restrictions have been placed on the
movement of US Military Group person-
nel. The restrictions may be aimed
at masking a repositioning of army
units
Page 32 WEEKLY SUMMARY 8 May 70
Approved for Release: 2023/03/28 C03154550
(bX1
(bX3

Not linked to a story yet.

About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 78 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.