NICARAGUA NEIGHBORS NEARLY UNANIMOUS IN OPPOSING CONTRA AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504790002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 7, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000504790002-8
.r."`' " ? PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
7 March 1986
NicarUgua neighbors
nearly unanimous in
opposing contra aid
By R. Gregory Nokes
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Reagan ad-
ministration's most difficult hurdle
in persuading Congress to approve
$100 million for the contra guerrillas
has been explaining why nearly ail,
Latin American countries, including
Nicaragua's closest neighbors, voice
opposition to aiding the rebels.
The question has come up repeat-
edly in all of the hearings where
administration witnesses have testi-
fied on Reagan's proposal.
The foreign ministers of Colombia,
Mexico, Panama and Venezuela -
the Contadora group - and of Argen-
tina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay met
with Secretary of State George P.
Shultz on Feb. 10 to urge the United
States to stop supporting the contras
and to focus on diplomatic solutions,
such as the Contadora initiative for a
negotiated regional settlement.
When Assistant Secretary of State
Elliott Abrams told a House subcom-
mittee this week that "some of them
who say one thing publicly, say an-
other thing privately," Rep. Peter
Kostmayer (D., Pa.) an opponent of
aid to the contras, said that was "a
new version of double-speak."
"You're saying they went to all that
trouble to send their foreign minis-
ters here, a highly unusual action,
saying something totally counter to
their private view and that they are
cheering us on?" Kostmayer asked.
After Abrams made the same argu-
ment to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, Sen. Claiborne Pell (D.,
R.I.) said it is "immaterial" whether
Latin American leaders have differ-
ent private views. "We have to go by
what they say publicly, on the rec-
ord."
The opposition from neighboring
nations has harmed the administra-
tion's argument that Nicaragua is a
threat to nearby states and that only
military pressure by the contras will
force the Sandinistas into negotia-
tions to curb that threat.
Reagan said this week that if the
contra aid is defeated the "small and
fragile democracies" of Central
America would be in danger.
But the newly elected leaders of
both Costa Rica and Guatemala have
spoken against the aid. President
Jose Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador
has not said whether he supports it.
The government of Honduras,
where most of the contras are based,
has blocked American humanitarian
aid to the contras for nearly six
months.
Costa Rica, said by Washington to
be the victim of Nicaraguan cross-
border subversion, has recently con-
cluded a Contadora-sponsored agree-
ment with the Sandinista
government for an international
border-observation team.
Oscar Arias Sanchez, Costa Rica's
president-elect, has said he agrees
with the administration that the Nic-
araguans have betrayed their prom-
ises and "built a second Cuba." But
he said American aid to the contras
"won't get what Mr. Reagan wants.
On the contrary, they are giving an
excuse to the Sandinistas to become
more dictatorial, more totalitarian."
Augusto Ramirez Ocampo, the for-
eign minister of Colombia, another
country Washington says is a target
for Nicaraguan-backed terrorism,
said after meeting with Shultz that
the U.S. position is "intransigent and
extreme."
Shultz, before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee last week, was
asked three times to name a single
country that supports the American
policy. Shultz limited his replies to
saying "some are" supporting it, but
would not name any.
House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill
Jr.(D., Mass.) said Wednesday, "I
haven't met a world leader who
agrees with American policy."
In their Feb. 10 meeting with
Shultz, the eight foreign ministers
proposed a diplomatic initiative that
includes a cessation of rebel aid and
direct meetings between the United
States and Nicaragua. They were
turned down on both counts. ..
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000504790002-8