Lobbying Effort for Contras Launched in L.A.

A network of conservative local politicians and businessmen will mount a major public relations and fund-raising campaign in Los Angeles this week to help Nicaraguan guerrillas fighting the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, it was announced Monday.

The weeklong series of media interviews and fund-raisers represents the first time that American supporters of the guerrillas, known as contras, have mounted such a campaign in Los Angeles. Similar efforts have been carried out over the last several months in Miami, San Antonio and New Orleans since Congress ended covert aid to the contras last year.

The Los Angeles campaign was launched Monday morning at a press conference held by two contra leaders, Adolfo Calero, top leader of the Honduras-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest rebel military group, and Fernando Chamorro, a leader of the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance, a smaller rebel army.

Aimed at Aid Vote

The two said their visit here was primarily a publicity tour in advance of a new congressional vote expected this spring on whether to grant $14 million in aid to the contra effort.

“We need this money,” Calero said. “We need it to offset the support the Sandinistas are getting from the Soviet Union. But our struggle will continue with it or without it.”

He declined to discuss any details of his fund-raising efforts except to say that “ideological supporters” donate without contravening U.S. neutrality laws.

Each of the rebel leaders was brought to Los Angeles by a different American group.

Calero, a former chairman of the Coca-Cola bottling company of Nicaragua, was sponsored by a new nonprofit group of mostly Republican businessmen called the Working Group for Latin America. The group was described as a counterbalance to the support groups, including Hollywood-based organizations, that have helped sponsor public relations tours of Sandinista groups to the United States.

Educational Effort

“We basically thought of forming the group last year when we began seeing the publicity efforts of (actor) Ed Asner and others,” said Hal Phillips, a Burbank car dealer and 1982 Republican congressional candidate.

“So, we got a group together to see what we could do. It will be mostly an educational effort, so we will be bringing people up from Latin America to tell the other side of the story.”

The group also has scheduled meetings and appearances for Calero and other contra supporters at several Jewish temples. In 1983, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith announced that the Sandinistas had forced an estimated 50 Jews into exile, seizing their property and their synagogue.

The U.S. Embassy in Managua later said it has found “no verifiable ground” to accuse the Sandinistas of anti-Semitism. But the controversy over the issue remains.

Chamorro’s visit to Los Angeles was sponsored by the Washington-based Council for Inter-American Security. The group is planning to honor him at a “Nicaraguan Freedom Gala” Wednesday night at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

The $100-per-couple event is designed to raise money to buy national television time for an anti-Sandinista film produced by Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), according to a spokeswoman for the group.

Co-sponsoring the dinner are eight Southern California politicians, including Dr. Tirso del Junco, head of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and Dornan.