Hope for New Central American Peace Draft Cited by Colombian

The four-nation Contadora Group has circulated a revised draft of its proposed peace treaty for Central America and hopes that the five nations of the region will sign it by the end of November, Colombian Foreign Minister Augusto Ramirez Ocampo said Friday.

Ramirez told reporters at the end of a two-day meeting of foreign ministers, representing Contadora and the five Central American states, that issues which had caused rejection of earlier treaty drafts are now clearly defined. He did not say whether these issues had been resolved.

Chief stumbling blocks in the past have included the insistence of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica that no nation in the region be allowed to keep a military establishment substantially larger than that of any other nation. Nicaragua insisted that it needs a much larger military force than its neighbors to defend itself against a feared invasion by the United States.

Nicaragua also insisted that certain treaty provisions, including a requirement that that regional balance of military forces be the subject of an indefinite period of negotiation, take effect upon the signing of any treaty. El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica insisted that all major treaty provisions, including any accord on arms limitations, take effect only after everyone has ratified the treaty.

Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto said here Friday that the latest treaty draft contains substantial changes from the draft first circulated by the Contadora Group a year ago, a document that Managua said it would sign. D’Escoto did not indicate what his government’s attitude might be toward the new draft.

The Contadora foreign ministers--from Mexico, Colombia, Panana and Venezuela--asked their colleagues from Central America to study the revised draft and meet with Contadora again in about two months.