Reagan Tells Latins He’ll Keep Pushing Contra Aid

WASHINGTON — President Reagan, denouncing “communist colonialism” in Nicaragua to a hall of Latin diplomats, pledged Wednesday to seek new military aid for contra forces until a Central American cease-fire begins this fall and humanitarian aid for them thereafter until the Managua regime accepts “true democracy.”

The President offered only qualified backing to the cease-fire plan agreed to by Nicaragua and its four neighbors in August. He said that the so-called Guatemala accord “contains many of the elements” for peace but is unlikely to be carried out by Nicaragua without the threat of military pressure from the contras.

Underlining his plan to seek $270 million in aid for the rebels over 18 months, the President issued “a solemn vow: as long as there is a breath in this body, I will speak and work, strive and struggle for the cause of the Nicaraguan freedom fighters.”

His tough remarks drew polite applause from Latin American delegates at the Organization of American States, but they were greeted icily on Capitol Hill. Congressional Democrats said the White House stands little chance of winning new military aid for the rebels any time soon.

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) said he was pleased that Reagan “embraces the Guatemala accords” but added: “I really don’t believe there is any disposition in Congress to pass military money at a time when we are negotiating for peace.”

However, Wright did not rule out congressional approval of additional aid to the contras for food, medicine and other non-military needs.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, in New York to speak to the U.N. General Assembly today, told reporters late Tuesday that Managua will attempt to follow the peace process outlined in the Guatemala accord, even if Reagan seeks new contra aid.

On Wednesday, after the OAS address, Ortega said that Reagan’s speech reflects “his point of view” but that Central American presidents “have a different point of view, which should be respected.”

But the President’s lengthy address appears to leave Nicaragua and the United States further than ever from any meeting of minds on the terms or schedule for a Central American peace.

Reagan told the Latin delegates that he would place no new conditions on U.S. support of the Guatemala peace plan beyond those outlined in an earlier cease-fire proposal offered by the White House and Wright. Ortega also agreed in principle to that proposal.

However, the speech provided the most complete account to date of how the United States expects Nicaragua to comply with those proposals and how Reagan intends to force the Sandinistas into democratic reforms.

Little of the President’s account would meet Ortega’s own proposed terms for further peace progress.

Specifically, Reagan said that U.S. military aid to the contras should continue not merely until the proposed Central America cease-fire takes effect in early November but also until Managua reaches a separate cease-fire pact with the contras.

Thereafter, Reagan said, the rebels should receive non-military aid to sustain them in the field until Nicaragua’s Sandinista government implements “full democracy” and ejects all Soviet and Cuban forces from its territory.

Those two terms, he said, are the “bedrock conditions” upon which any further peace negotiations with the Sandinistas must rest.

‘Best Indicator’

“The best indicator” of Nicaraguan good faith, Reagan said, “will be when the freedom fighters are allowed to contest power politically without retribution, rather than through force of arms.”

American aid to the contras would “decrease proportionately” as democratic reforms are carried out and the unspent money would be used for “strengthening the democratic process” inside Nicaragua, the President said. The money apparently would be given to political groups opposing the Sandinista regime.

The President expressed grudging hope that Nicaragua would consent to democratic reforms outlined in the Guatemala accord, such as freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and amnesty for military and political foes.

But while the nation’s leading opposition newspaper, La Prensa, has been permitted to reopen, others remain shuttered, and newly permitted political rallies are subject to police harassment. “A secret police force commanded by dedicated Leninists” keeps watch over the populace, Reagan said.

He said that those shortcomings prove that the reforms to date are but “facades of freedom” designed to persuade Congress not to allot further aid to the contras. Nicaragua’s “record of deceit and broken promises,” he said, makes it unlikely that the government will carry out democratic reforms agreed to in the cease-fire plan without the threat of military pressure from the contras.

In a Monday interview with 10 American reporters, Ortega rejected outright virtually all of the conditions for peace that Reagan later outlined in his OAS speech.

He ruled out even indirect cease-fire talks with the contras’ political leaders, saying that they are U.S.-controlled profiteers who would submit “absurd demands” in an attempt to keep the war alive and American aid flowing.

Ortega also rejected the withdrawal of the 300 Soviet and Cuban military advisers who he said are in Nicaragua--a figure 10 times fewer than U.S. estimates--unless the United States consents in talks with the Sandinistas to cuts in its own substantial Central American military presence.

The White House, in turn, has refused to engage in any direct talks with the Sandinista regime.

Ortega did agree to one demand in Reagan’s OAS speech--that the Sandinistas “understand that they do not have the option of being dictators” and agree to leave office if defeated in “free and fair” elections.

“If the people of Nicaragua, through their vote, say we should no longer be in office, I would give up that office,” he said. He later added that he believes no other government “would hold up a week” because only the Sandinistas can guarantee stability in Nicaragua’s war-battered economy.

Administration officials had billed Reagan’s speech in advance as more conciliatory than his previous attacks on the Sandinistas, but critics in Congress generally were not swayed.

“The flame is lowered a little in terms of his choice of words, but to say that this is a reversal of policy is ridiculous,” said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Central America.

“The position of this Administration since January, 1981, has been to overthrow the Sandinista government. I see no change whatsoever in that statement.”

California Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), who heads a political campaign to cut off aid to the contras, said of the President’s speech: “He’s kind of waving his arms, saying, ‘Stop peace.’ ”

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the General Assembly unanimously endorsed the Guatemala peace plan.

U.S. delegate Alberto Martinez Piedra hailed the U.N. action but said that of the five Central American countries, Nicaragua “lags far behind” on the path to democracy.

He also called on the Sandinista government of Nicaragua to “emulate the example of the government of El Salvador by initiating an open dialogue with its armed opposition, rather than trying to impose its will solely through unilateral action.”

The Salvadoran government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte held two days of talks with leaders of the leftist guerrillas earlier this week.

As part of the peace agreement, similar talks began Wednesday in Madrid between the government of Guatemala and leaders of a guerrilla movement that has been fighting a civil war for 16 years.

Times staff writers Don Shannon in New York City and Sara Fritz and Karen Tumulty in Washington contributed to this article.