REGIONAL LEADERS WARY OF CONTRA AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050018-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: March 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST -Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050018-6
ARTICLE APP_
ON PAGE
Regional
leaders
wary of
Contra aid
By Roger Fontaine
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Despite a growing disaffection
with its policy on the part of Central
American governments, the Reagan
administration plans to press ahead
in Congress this week for its $100
million aid package of support for
the Nicaraguan resistance.
Military aid was ended nearly two
years ago, and the Reagan proposal
would revive it to the tune of $70
million, a move that faces strong
congressional opposition.
While the president is expected to
deliver soon a rousing televised
speech for the Contras, according to
White House sources, the recent
elections of new presidents in Costa
Rica, Guatemala and Honduras has
helped change the diplomatic mix in
this volatile region of the world.
One effect is to make prospects
fpr congressional passage even
poorer than last year when legisla-
tors grudgingly approved $27 mil-
lion in humanitarian assistance.
The most disturbing shift in this
context has occurred in Costa Rica
where President-elect Oscar Arias
already has publicly put distance be-
tween himself and the United .States
on the question of support for anti-
Sandinista rebels.
Mr. Arias, who will be inaugu-
rated in May, said recently in a U.S.
television interview:
If I were President Reagan, I
would give those funds to Guate-
mala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and
Honduras in economic aid, instead
of military aid to the Contras."
Last month, he strongly sup-
ported the outgoing government's
request that the Contadora nations
? Colombia, Mexico, Panama and
Venezuela ? establish an interna-
tional force to police the
Nicaraguan-Costa Rican border.
At the same time, Guatemala's
new president, Vinizio Cerezo, has
pledged his country to "active neu-
trality" in Central America's con-
flicts, although he has underlined
his preference for democratic re-
gimes.
WASHINGTON TIMES
3 March 1986
Nevertheless, Mr. Cerezo too has
been skeptical of further U.S. assis-
tance to the anti-Sandinista forces,
and has expressed his preference
for a negotiated solution to the re-
gion's problems.
But the critical piece in the strate-
gic puzzle is Honduras. Like Costa
Rica and Guatemala, a new pres-
ident has been elected, but the policy
that Jose Azcona Hoyo will follow is
still far from clear
The stakes, however, are high.
Honduras has been the reluctant
host to the bulk of the anti-
Sandinista forces and their principal
military arm, the Nicaraguan Demo-
cratic Force, the FDN. For the
present, President Azcona is main-
taining a freeze on shipments of hu-
manitarian aid imposed last October
Roberto Suazo Cordoba, after the
FDN permitted a U.S. television
camera crew to accompany one
flight.
"Those rebels should be in Nica-
raguan territory, fighting the San-
Efiistas,- Carlos Montoya, the pres-
ident of Honduran congress, and an
associate of President Azcona told
the Reuters news agency last week
The statement was the first public
admission by a Honduran official
that the anti-Sandinista forces were
based in Honduras. It also shows a
near universal hope in that country
that the rebels will become more ag-
gressive by fighting exclusively on
Nicaraguan soil.
While Honduras' interruption of
the aid flow is a vivid example of the
nervousness over any publicity sur-
rounding a supposedly covert pro-
gram, the move also was seen as an
effort on the part of Tegucigalpa to
pry more economic and military as-
sistance from the United States.
Honduran officials for years have
felt that their country has been
America's best ally in the region, but
the resource flow has not equaled
their commitment. That frustation
is matched by a fear that in time the
S will pull out of Central America,
leaving Honduras to face alone a
neighbor who is much better armed.
Placing added pressure on Mr.
Reagan's support for the anti-
Sandinistas is the announcement
last week that eight Latin American
nations have completed details on a
Central American peacekeeping
force designed to stop further
clashes on the Costa -Rican-
Nicaraguan border.
F:i41
.7-'
If successful, such a force would
undercut the efforts of other anti-
Sandinista rebels led by a former
Sandinista commander, Eden Pas-
tora. It also would remove a major
irritant between Nicarl - a and
Costa Rica.
Earlier, Sandir . ?,anterraids
on Costa Rican territory pushed nor-
mally neutral San Jose into bitter
denunciations of Nicaraguan ag-
gression driving Managua further
into isolation.
But Nicaraguan officials have re-
cently and deftly moved out of the
corner they had so assiduously
painted themselves in earlier, add-
ing to Washington problems.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050018-6