Shevardnadze's Final Favor

By DAVID ELLIS

Just before he angrily resigned as Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze went out of his way to help his friend James Baker with a problem in Central America. The Secretary of State suspected that leftist guerrillas in El Salvador had acquired sophisticated Soviet SA-7 and SA-14 shoulder-held antiaircraft missiles to use against the U.S.-backed government. Baker gave his counterpart a photo of a seized launching tube, and Shevardnadze promised to investigate. In their last meeting in Houston, Shevardnadze informed Baker that the missiles were part of a shipment sent to Nicaragua in 1986. Armed with that information, Bush Administration officials demanded an explanation from the Nicaraguan military, which is still controlled by the Sandinistas. They admitted that the missiles came from their stock but claimed the shipment was not "officially" sanctioned.

With reporting by Linda Williams