New Guatemala Leader Holds Talks With Ortega

President-elect Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo of Guatemala, on a peace-seeking tour of Central America, met here Sunday with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and expressed disagreement with U.S. policy toward the leftist Sandinista government.

Cerezo, a Christian Democrat, won Guatemala’s presidential runoff election Dec. 8 and will take office Jan. 14, ending 31 years of military-dominated rule in that country.

In a press conference at the end of his three-hour visit, Cerezo was asked for his opinion on the Reagan Administration’s hostile policy toward Nicaragua.

“We do not sympathize with any policy of aggression against any country of Central America,” he said. The United States supports Nicaraguan guerrillas, called contras, in their war against the Sandinista government.

Contra activities along Nicaragua’s borders with Honduras and Costa Rica, and Sandinista sympathy for leftist guerrillas in El Salvador, have contributed to friction between Nicaragua and those three countries. El Salvador, Costa Rica and Honduras also have close relations with the United States.

Cerezo said that his government will adopt a policy of neutrality while seeking peace in the region.

“The position of Guatemala in favor of neutrality is going to improve the chances of maintaining peace in Central America,” he predicted.

Cerezo met earlier Sunday with President Luis Alberto Monge in Costa Rica and Saturday with President Jose Napoleon Duarte, a fellow Christian Democrat, in El Salvador. Cerezo left Nicaragua Sunday afternoon for Honduras.

He said that the main emphasis in his talks is on working “to prevent confrontation between Central American countries” and strengthening “the process of democratization.”

He has been proposing the establishment of a five-country “Central American Parliament” that he said would serve as a forum for discussing regional problems and “making decisions together on economic and political problems.” One of the forum’s main purposes would be to strengthen regional peace, he said.

He said that he has encountered “great interest” in the idea among the presidents he has visited.

After Cerezo departed, President Ortega told reporters that the two had found a “common denominator” in their positions.

Ortega said they agreed that there should be “more direct dialogue, more direct action” among Central American countries to solve their problems.