Latin States to Consider Warning on Nicaragua

A meeting of Latin American foreign ministers has been called to consider issuing a regional warning to the United States against military intervention in Nicaragua.

The meeting reflects growing concern in Latin American countries, including Brazil and Argentina, over the political dangers of a Central American conflict involving U.S. forces.

The meeting, to be held Aug. 28-29 in Cartagena, Colombia, is an expanded version of the Contadora Group, four Latin American nations that together have been trying to arrange a Central American peace and security agreement.

The foreign ministers of Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Uruguay met here during the inauguration of President Victor Paz Estenssoro of Bolivia on Tuesday with the foreign ministers of the Contadora Group--Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. Also on hand were Presidents Raul Alfonsin of Argentina, Belisario Betancur of Colombia and Julio Sanguinetti of Uruguay.

The Cartagena meeting was called “to consider the Central American situation and the possibility of a regional initiative with the United States,” said Simon Alberto Consalvi, foreign minister of Venezuela.

The expansion of the diplomatic effort for peace in Central America to include countries more distant geographically from the region came about because Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru fear that an invasion of Nicaragua could have a politically explosive effect throughout Latin America.

There is no political sympathy among the democratic governments of South America for the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, but leftist political groups in these countries strongly identify with the Nicaraguan revolution.

Until now, Brazil and Argentina have given support at a distance to the Contadora efforts. They have not become directly involved, however, in the negotiations to work out a collective security agreement among the five Central American countries.

The Contadora effort is now stalled because the Central American countries have been unable to agree on the specific security measures drafted with the Contadora Group’s mediation and on certain technical aspects of a proposed peace treaty.

Two weeks ago, the four Contadora foreign ministers met in Panama and concluded that a new effort is needed to obtain commitment to a peace plan from all of the Central American countries.

The Contadora group also called on Nicaragua and the United States to resume bilateral talks, which were suspended last year. Secretary of State George P. Shultz rejected the proposal during a subsequent visit to Mexico.

Armed conflicts on the borders between Nicaragua and its neighbors to the north and south, Honduras and Costa Rica, have delayed agreements to put into place such security measures as inspection teams.

The Contadora foreign ministers agree that these border disputes, and the refusal to enter into security agreements, will continue as long as the United States continues to support the anti-Sandinista guerrilla groups operating from bases in Honduras and Costa Rica.

The Contadora view is that U.S. hostility toward the Sandinista regime has had the effect of consolidating the Marxist leadership of the Nicaraguan government.

If failure by the guerrillas to unseat the Nicaraguan regime leads to more direct U.S. efforts, the foreign ministers believe, the Nicaraguan problem will be magnified and may spill over into the rest of Latin America.