ORTEGA: Nicaragua to Shop for Modern Arms : Will Seek Advanced Arms Abroad, Nicaragua Warns

Asserting that congressional approval of aid to anti-Sandinista rebels has “deepened the war against Nicaragua,” President Daniel Ortega said Thursday that Nicaragua will seek new arms from abroad and end a self-imposed pause in introducing advanced weapons into the country.

Ortega’s statement appears to open the way for Nicaragua to shop for jet fighters to add to its embryonic air arsenal.

Acquisition of any high-performance jets would increase tensions with the United States. The Reagan Administration has threatened in the past to destroy any such planes that Nicaragua brings in.

Ortega said that the end to the unilateral arms limitation, which was announced in February, “will permit, in the current circumstances of armed threats by the United States against our people, us Nicaraguans to seek all those material requirements and necessary cooperation demanded by national defense.”

In response to a reporter’s question about whether new weaponry could include long-rumored shipments of Soviet MIG fighters or Czechoslovak-made L-39 trainer jets, Ortega said, “We have pointed out that in Central America, only Nicaragua lacks an adequate method of air defense.”

In February, Ortega declared an “indefinite moratorium” on the introduction of “new arms systems as well as those interceptor aircraft required for the completion of the country’s existing anti-aircraft system.”

Nicaragua owns a fleet of Soviet-supplied helicopters, including at least eight MI-24 combat helicopters equipped with rapid-fire machine guns and rockets and about 20 MI-8 troop transport helicopters. The rest of its air force is composed of small observation planes and propeller-driven planes converted for bombing use.

Ortega’s February statement coincided with Sandinista efforts to persuade Congress to reject aid for the contras, as the anti-Sandinista guerrillas are called. In April, the House of Representatives rejected a Reagan Adminstration request for aid.

But on Wednesday, the House approved $27 million in “humanitarian” aid, following Senate approval of $38 million. The final amount and some other details will be worked out between the two houses.

Ortega delivered his reaction to the vote at a gathering Thursday of foreign diplomats and reporters. Except for comments made by the country’s foreign minister in New York on Wednesday, his remarks constituted the Sandinista government’s first response to the vote.

“We hope that the representatives in Congress will reflect on the situation,” Ortega said. “This can create a new Vietnam in Central America.”

Ortega also criticized the defeat in the House of the so-called Boland amendment that barred the CIA from using its own funds to help the contras. “This was most grave,” he said. “It permits the possibility of larger military operations against Nicaragua.”

Talks Urged

Nicaragua asserts that the Reagan Administration is planning to invade Nicaragua and has pressed the United States to renew bilateral talks with Managua that were suspended in January. Ortega also called on the four Latin nations sponsoring the Contadora peace talks--Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela--to step up efforts to ease regional tensions.

The Sandinista government was apparently stunned by the congressional turnaround on funding for the contras.

Sandinista officials were surprised at the margin of the vote in favor of the assistance. They were also chagrined that a steady effort to influence Congress apparently was upset by a single trip that Ortega made to Moscow in April.

A high Foreign Ministry official termed the vote a “much worse” result than expected and lamented that Congress had “shifted right of center-right.”

The official added, “Now we have to write off Congress and go directly to public opinion and leading (public) figures because the polls show that’s where our strength lies.”

Ortega traveled to Moscow only two days after Congress rejected contra aid in April. Several congressmen said they changed their minds on the contras because of that trip. Others said the Sandinistas broke a promise that there would be a cease-fire in the region if the House voted against aid.

One source close to Ortega said Thursday, “We were shocked. It was an error not to consider the reaction to the trip. We claim to understand imperialist thinking, but at that key moment, we didn’t take it seriously.”

Previous Plan

Ortega’s decision to travel to Moscow was made long before the April vote, Sandinista officials said. Even if the government had foreseen the consequences, it is unlikely that it would have changed the schedule, they said, both for reasons of national pride and of economic need.

“We have a right to travel where we want,” presidential spokesman Manuel Espinoza said. “This is a sovereign country.”

The trip to Moscow resulted in important help for Nicaragua’s troubled economy. The Soviet Union accounts for 90% of Nicaragua’s fuel needs, and that proportion has increased steadily as previous suppliers, Mexico and Venezuela, have diminished sales to Nicaragua for non-payment of fuel bills.

Before the April vote, Nicaragua hosted a string of congressional delegations in an effort to shore up support in Washington.

When Congress reacted angrily to Ortega’s trip--Democratic leaders commented that it had “struck a nerve”--the Nicaraguan government scrambled to ease the impact. Ortega added visits to other European capitals to his itinerary, and Vice President Sergio Ramirez pieced together a hurried trip to Western Europe.

In part, the added visits were intended to symbolize balance in Nicaragua’s foreign relations. Before Wednesday’s vote in the House, the government here published results from the trips that purported to show that aid from Eastern and Western nations was roughly equal.

The Sandinistas are now faced with destruction of one of their firmly held political premises: that the U.S. public, through Congress, opposes Ronald Reagan’s hostility to the Nicaraguan government.

Thursday, the official party newspaper Barricada published photographs of anti-Reagan demonstrations as what it indicated was an expression of the true feelings of the American public.