Cynical Game

Diplomats from eight important Latin American nations met in Cartagena, Colombia, a weekend ago in a new effort to bring peace to Central America. It is a towering task, because the major power in the region, the United States, seems perfectly willing to risk having its fight with Nicaragua boil over into regional war rather than talk with the Sandinistas.

The meeting was called by the foreign ministers of Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama--the so-called Contadora Group that first came together in 1983. At Cartagena they were joined by the foreign ministers of Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Uruguay. In two days of meetings they planned a series of diplomatic initiatives designed to pressure the five Central American countries, as well as the United States, into settling their political differences and border disputes peacefully.

The Contadora Group has tried for almost three years to write a Central American peace treaty. Given the mistrust in the region, it has been hard and touchy work--made even harder by the Reagan Administration. The White House is determined to overthrow the government in Managua through its surrogate army of anti-Sandinista rebels. To gain time for the rebels, the Administration has encouraged its allies in Central America--Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica--to slow the Contadora process with repeated revisions of a draft treaty and other demands.

This stalling has brought the Contadora process to a halt, leaving no immediate alternative to continued warfare in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Tensions between Nicaragua and its neighbors Honduras and Costa Rica increase, as does the likelihood of a regional war in which U.S. forces will almost certainly become directly involved.

Frustration over Washington’s cynical approach and fear of the consequences of wider U.S. military intervention led the Contadora nations to seek help from the four largest democratic governments in South America. Peru’s new government emerged from peaceful elections. President Reagan has praised the re-emergence of civilian government in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The Contadora nations obviously hope that he will listen more closely if the new leaders ask him to give peace a chance.

South America’s governments have no illusions about the Sandinistas. They realize that Nicaragua is run by Marxist revolutionaries who are potential troublemakers. But they also know that overthrowing them by force would only bring more bloodshed and instability to the region. Thus they seek to contain and moderate the Sandinista revolution through economic and moral pressure. Because they share a history and a culture with Nicaragua, they are in a good position to do that--certainly a better position than the United States is in. But as long as Reagan arrogantly presumes that he knows better than his Latin American allies do what is good for them, the United States will remain the major obstacle to peace in Central America.