Central America Putting Guns on The Table

By Jill Smolowe

The meeting seemed oddly anticlimactic, with none of the passion that has left such deep scars. After seven years of bloody combat, the Sandinistas and the contras sat down at a table in San Jose's Central Seminary last week and for the first time talked directly to each other. Despite the calm voices, however, the two sides laid down two very detailed -- and very different -- proposals.

The Sandinistas offered a plan much like the one rejected by the rebels last December. It calls for a month-long cease-fire, confines armed contras to three zones, prohibits delivery of military aid and requires the rebels to lay down their arms at the end of the month. The contra plan was far more audacious. It demands that the Sandinistas share power with the contras and Nicaragua's internal opposition. The contras said they were not even willing ! to consider a cease-fire until the Sandinistas make extensive changes in the constitution. Though the two sides agreed to meet again next week, they seemed no closer to a settlement.

In Washington, all eyes were on the 30 or so Congressmen who still have not decided how they will cast their vote in this week's critical showdown over contra aid. With the outcome impossible to call, the Reagan Administration scurried to design a package palatable enough to squeak through. The President requested $36.2 million, of which 10% would be for military assistance. To appease Congressmen who feel uncomfortable replenishing the weapons pipeline while peace talks are under way, the Administration plans to hold that $3.6 million in escrow until March 31. Reagan pledged he would "personally consult the Presidents of the four Central American democracies" before releasing the military funds.

While the Administration tried to sound conciliatory, it actually yielded little. When congressional leaders requested a role in authorizing release of the military funds, the White House refused, arguing it must protect the President's constitutional role in making foreign policy. The pledge to talk with Central American Presidents did not indicate how the regional appraisal would be communicated to Congress. Moreover, the aid request resembles one put forward by the Administration last fall when it asked for $270 million to be spread over 18 months, averaging $15 million a month. This package, which covers only four months and includes an additional $20 million to insure contra aircraft, averages $14 million a month.

Whether Congress buys it or not, Reagan made clear last week that he is going to fight this one to the bitter end. In his State of the Union address, he entreated Congress to "sustain the freedom fighters." Two days later, when he unveiled his aid package, Reagan declared, "I didn't come to Washington to preside over the Communization of Central America."

The anti-aid forces were no less vociferous. "The Administration is determined, absolutely determined, to kill the peace progress," argued House Majority Whip Tony Coelho. To lure fence sitters, the Democrats plan to offer an alternative, non-lethal aid package, dismissed as "beans and blankets" by the White House, that will be voted on if the Reagan plan is defeated. Grass- roots groups bombarded Congressmen with letters and calls, and one group previewed television spots that link contra aid to potential U.S. troop involvement in the region. Last week's disclosures by a civil rights group that the FBI has been tracking citizens opposed to U.S. policy in Central America also seemed timed to embarrass the Administration.

President Daniel Ortega Saavedra, meanwhile, pressed Nicaragua's case abroad. After a quick stop in Cuba, Ortega continued on to Europe. In Madrid, he invited Spain to join his recently proposed international commission to monitor Nicaragua's compliance with the peace plan. Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez accepted, provided that other Central American leaders approved Spain's participation. Ortega then flew to Rome, where he had a 30-minute private audience with Pope John Paul II. It was the first meeting between the two men since the Pontiff's tense visit to Nicaragua in 1983, and the welcome was decidedly chilly. Speaking in Spanish, the Pope spent much of the time lecturing Ortega on the right of Nicaraguans to live under a "real democracy." Joked Ortega afterward: "It was certainly colder today in Rome than in Nicaragua."

In Managua, the accent was also on conciliation. Autonomy talks between the Sandinistas and the largest armed group of Miskito Indians resumed after a hiatus of almost three years. The Sandinistas authorized 14 radio and print organizations to begin or resume operations, and released U.S. Pilot James Denby, whose plane was shot down over Nicaragua two months ago. The Sandinistas downed another craft last weekend, this one a DC-6 contra-supply plane, which resulted in at least four deaths. The one captured crew member, Alejandro Sanchez, confirmed Nicaraguan charges that contra-supply operations continue to operate out of Honduras' Swan Island, in defiance of the peace pact. He claimed that the entire crew had been Nicaraguan except for one Colombian. But the Sandinistas charged that U.S. citizens had been on the plane.

Congressmen on both sides of the aid debate predicted victory this week, with the White House confident that enough of the undecided will vote its way on the ground that they cannot trust Ortega. But the contra leadership was taking no chances. Despite the importance of the talks in San Jose last week, top contra leaders were where they felt the action counted most -- in Washington, on Capitol Hill, lobbying for their cause.

With reporting by Ricardo Chavira/Washington and John Moody/San Jose