Panama Offers to Mediate Between Armies of Honduras, Nicaragua Over Border Rift
Brig. Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, Panama’s defense forces chief, has offered to mediate between the Nicaraguan and Honduran armies in an attempt to avoid clashes along their common border, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
The ministry said Noriega was responding to a request from Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto asking the Panamanian general to mediate between his Nicaraguan and Honduran counterparts.
Panama’s Foreign Minister Jorge Abadia Arias said that Panama--as a member of the peace-seeking Contadora Group--is interested in solutions aimed at preventing war in the turbulent region.
Tensions along the Nicaraguan-Honduran border have risen in recent weeks after Nicaraguan troops crossed into Honduras pursuing Honduran-based contras fighting the left-wing Sandinista government. Honduras has dispatched 500 soldiers to the border.
At a meeting here earlier this month of the Contadora Group--Panama, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia--Honduras rejected a Nicaraguan request for an international commission to supervise the tense border.
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