U.S. Armor Plays ‘Enemy’ in Games Near Nicaragua

American tanks and troop carriers staged war games within three miles of the Nicaraguan border Wednesday, reinforcing U.S. pressure on the leftist Sandinista government.

Ten M-60 tanks and five armored personnel carriers raised curtains of dust as they rumbled north from the border area over hot, dry scrubland in a mock attack on Honduran troops.

The display of military power--planned last year--came six days after President Reagan called for peace talks between the Sandinistas and U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels known as contras. Nicaraguan officials have rejected Reagan’s proposal, which was coupled with an appeal to Congress for funds to aid the rebels.

Scheduled to continue through Friday, the tank maneuvers are part of a series of U.S.-Honduran military exercises that began more than two years ago.

U.S. officials have said the exercises are aimed partly at maintaining pressure on the Nicaraguan government. The Reagan Administration has repeatedly demanded that the Sandinistas break their close ties with the Soviet Union and Cuba, stop promoting revolution in Central America, reduce their military forces and make democratic reforms.

Wednesday’s maneuvers were carried out by about 100 members of infantry and armored units from the Texas National Guard. About 400 of the Texans are in Honduras for the exercises.

Texas Barbecue

Texas Gov. Mark White threw a barbecue for the guardsmen on Tuesday at their base camp, called the Alamo. He brought in 400 pounds of meat, 100 pounds of beans and 3,600 dozen tortillas on a C-130 transport plane assigned to the Texas Air National Guard.

Lt. Col. Agustin Gomez, the U.S. Army spokesman for the exercises, told reporters Wednesday that the Texas task force is simulating an attack with “Communist Bloc tactics, Russian-type tactics, Sandinista tactics.”

The Sandinista army is equipped with tanks and other weaponry from the Soviet Union.

“We are operating as if they were a Sandinista unit coming across there,” Gomez said, pointing toward the Nicaraguan border.

He said the Nicaraguan government was invited to send observers to the exercises. “As far as I know, they rejected the invitation,” he added.

On Wednesday morning, tanks and personnel carriers waited behind a line of trees to launch their “attack” on a handful of Honduran troops holding a hill seven miles away.

‘Attack’ Delayed

The charge started three hours late, however, because the “defenders” were not ready. As a result, Honduran jet fighter planes that were to participate in the action arrived early and buzzed a mock battlefield that was empty of soldiers.

An American officer said the Hondurans asked for the delay because a scheduled delivery of food for their troops had not arrived.

As planned, the Texans overran the Honduran hill in less than an hour without firing a shot. The only damage was to a weed-grown hillside set afire by a smoke bomb.

Today, the Hondurans will counterattack, driving the Texans back toward the border.

The three days of simulated combat were designed to be interrupted often for critiques and analysis. “It’s not a John Wayne attack, down the middle and hell-bent-for-leather kind of thing,” said Maj. William Lowe, a spokesman for the U.S. forces.

Lowe said that “at no time” would the maneuvers be closer than five kilometers, or about three miles, from the Nicaraguan border.

Called Las Hormigas--The Ants--the rural area where the maneuvers are being held is at the southern tip of Choluteca province, near the town of San Bernardo. It is far west of areas in which Nicaraguan rebels operate. But it is part of a strip of Honduran territory that U.S. officials say is used for smuggling weapons from Nicaragua to leftist guerrillas in El Salvador.

In late March, while preparations were being made for the maneuvers, the Nicaraguan government sent a formal protest to the United States. Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto charged that the exercise “brings even closer” the possibility of a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua.

The Marxist-led Sandinista government, which took power in 1979, has frequently expressed fear of a U.S. invasion. Honduras, which harbors the anti-Sandinista contras, has at times worried about a possible attack by the Sandinistas.

The tank maneuvers are one of two major combat phases of war games labeled Big Pine III. A U.S. Special Forces unit from Ft. Bragg, N.C., will carry out anti-insurgency maneuvers with Honduran troops later this month.

Big Pine III began Feb. 11 and will end May 3, with about 5,000 U.S. troops having participated, although no more than half that total will have been in Honduras at any one time.

Last spring, after U.S.-Honduran exercises called Big Pine II, the U.S. Embassy in Honduras said they “had the political effect of reducing the anxiety felt by Honduras because of tension on the border with Nicaragua.”

Although President Reagan said last week that the war games in Honduras were not meant as a threat against Nicaragua, U.S. officials say privately that they are intended to send a signal to the Sandinistas.

“The signal is: ‘There is no military option for you. Forget it. You have all those tanks and weapons, but if you use them, you are crazy,’ ” said one official.