Reaction to Nicaraguan Curbs Mixed : Move Gets General Praise, but Critics See Negative Effect

President Reagan’s decision to impose trade sanctions against Nicaragua won general praise on Capitol Hill today, but critics said the move will drive the leftist Sandinista government even farther into the Soviet camp.

The Reagan Administration today, in officially halting all U.S. trade with leftist Nicaragua, contended that its “aggressive actions” were “incompatible with normal commercial relations.”

In an order signed by the President in Bonn, where he is visiting, Nicaraguan airliners and flag vessels were denied access to the United States and a 27-year-old U.S.-Nicaraguan friendship treaty was abrogated.

‘It’s About Time’

“The activities of Nicaragua, supported by the Soviet Union and its allies, are incompatible with normal commercial relations,” presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said.

“It’s about time,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said of Reagan’s action. “I hope it’s effective.”

“I think it’s time we get tough with (Nicaraguan President Daniel) Ortega,” the Kansas Republican added. “He’s just been to Moscow. . . . I think it’s time we got tough and stayed tough.”

Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, one of a group of Democrats previously urging sanctions, said the embargo “can help persuade those in power in Managua to send home the 2,500 to 3,500 Cuban and Soviet military advisers now in that country and to stop supporting armed insurgents against their neighbors.”

Movement Suggested

Bentsen and others said Reagan should persuade nations both in and out of Latin America to join the United States in limiting or dropping trade with Nicaragua.

But there was sharp criticism for Reagan from a number of House members and senators who said that instead of encouraging the Sandinistas to negotiate an end to the civil war in Nicaragua, it will encourage them to become another communist Cuba.

“We are slamming the door on the possibility of peace,” said Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a longtime opponent of Reagan’s Central American policies.

Hatfield said, “We are inviting the Nicaraguans to fulfill in real life the monster-like caricature we have painted for them in nightmares. We’re driving them into the permanent embrace of the Russian bear.”

Farm Impact Seen

In the House, Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.) said, “While it does give to the American people some emotional satisfaction to thrash against the evils of communism, it threatens the commercial markets in Latin America.” Alexander said the sanctions will ultimately hurt American farmers.

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said the embargo “appears to be guided more by a desire to get even with Congress for last week’s votes than a thoughtfully developed foreign policy initiative.”

Last week, Congress refused in a highly emotional battle to release $14 million Reagan had sought to help the rightist contras seeking the overthrow of the Sandinistas.

Markey said the embargo “leaves the Sandinistas no place to turn but to Moscow.”

And he said there is a contradiction in an Administration which imposes an embargo in Nicaragua but says a similar move in South Africa against apartheid would hurt blacks.