The World : Contra Aid Reported Seized

The Honduran government has seized the first shipment of U.S. humanitarian aid to rightist contras trying to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, a Tegulcigalpa newspaper, El Heraldo, reported. Foreign Minister Edgardo Paz Barnica told a news conference that a meeting of the National Security Council will be called, but he did not comment on the report that the aid had been seized. The shipment was purchased with part of $27 million in non-lethal aid authorized by the U.S. Congress last summer. Honduras has been sensitive to the presence of Nicaraguan rebels on its soil. El Heraldo quoted the armed forces commander, Gen. Walter Lopez Reyes, as saying, “Our country cannot, under any circumstances, allow this type of operation. . . . “