Bases Open for Inspection, Nicaragua Tells Congress

President Daniel Ortega invited a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation to come to Nicaragua and inspect its military bases, but the White House today questioned whether the offer was just a “show-and-tell propaganda offensive.”

After meeting Tuesday night in Managua with five U.S. Roman Catholic bishops led by New York Archbishop John J. O’Connor, Ortega said he wants the congressional delegation to come “without restrictions” to show that Nicaragua’s military is “strictly defensive.”

At the White House, presidential spokesman Larry Speakes at first said the Administration “would encourage” the visit.

But hours later, in a second session with reporters, Speakes said, “We’ve not seen the details” of Ortega’s proposal.

He then talked of a Nicaraguan military buildup with Cuban and Soviet advisers and of the repression of freedoms by the Sandinista government.

“In our view,” Speakes said, “an appropriate peace offer would be that which would meet our concerns with actions rather than a show-and-tell propaganda offensive designed to appeal to those who find it difficult to believe what they are doing--which is the consolidation of a militarily strong totalitarian Marxist-Leninist state in this hemisphere--that does not represent the aspirations of the people of Nicaragua and is hostile to its neighbors in the hemisphere.”

Speakes said his later statement came from “striped-pants diplomats in the State Department.”

He indicated some doubt that Ortega would open the bases to free inspection, noting that when a similar offer was made to the foreign press to examine ships coming into Nicaraguan waters, only the Cuban reporters were allowed to look at the cargo.

At the earlier White House news briefing, Speakes took a softer tack, saying, “We’d welcome an opportunity for members of Congress with diverse views, to go down and have an opportunity for an open, no-holds-barred visit to Nicaragua.

“We would encourage members of Congress to take advantage of an opportunity for an open visit, and they should do it without any restrictions whatsoever.”

Letters to Both Houses

Are you being sarcastic, a reporter asked? “No,” Speakes said. “It would be interesting in our opinion to see what a delegation would turn up.”

Ortega said he is sending letters today to leaders of both houses of Congress asking them to name a committee to come to Nicaragua and “know the reality of our military situation, a situation that is strictly defensive and under no circumstances can be considered offensive.”

Ortega said Nicaragua will also announce later this week moves to “strengthen the peace efforts of the Contadora group”--Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama--in seeking a resolution of conflicts in Central America.