A Banker, a Chemical Engineer, a Former Bottler : Odd Trio Guided Contra Lobbying Effort

The weeklong lobbying blitz on behalf of Nicaragua’s rebels that ended Friday was led by an unlikely trio--a banker, a chemical engineer and a former Coca-Cola bottler.

Top-flight lobbyists and public relations experts have guided the three through the week, which began with a 30-minute interview with President Reagan, more presidential time than many visiting heads of state are granted.

In the days that followed, the so-called “executive rebels” met with Vice President George Bush, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and influential members of Congress representing both parties.

Eden Pastora was also in Washington this week. He is the flamboyant “Comandante Zero” who surrounded the Nicaraguan Congress in the course of the Sandinista rebellion that in 1979 brought down the dictator Anastasio Somoza. Pastora took part in the post-revolutionary government as deputy minister of defense but resigned in 1981 and took up arms as a contra , as the rebels fighting the Marxist Sandinista government are called.

No Polished Experts

In contrast to the highly polished experts working with the executive contras, the man scheduling Pastora’s activities is Leonel Teller, owner of a Washington athletic equipment store. For the most part, Pastora kept his distance from the other three, staying at the home of a cousin rather than at a downtown hotel. He joined the others for the first time Friday for a meeting with Shultz.

The civilian contras, who say they represent as many as 20,000 guerrillas, have never presented themselves as soldiers. All three played important roles in mobilizing public sentiment against Somoza in the 1970s.

One of the three, Adolfo Calero, was jailed twice for his outspoken opposition to Somoza. Calero, who is 54 and lives in Miami, was general manager of Nicaragua’s Coca-Cola bottling plant for 21 years before the Sandinista revolution and for three years afterward.

Headed Central Bank

The banker is Arturo Cruz, 62, who was the first post-revolutionary president of the Nicaragua Central Bank and the Sandinistas’ ambassador to the United States before joining the opposition in 1981. He withdrew from the race for president in 1984, protesting that the government was suppressing opposition activity. He now lives in suburban Washington.

The chemical engineer is Alfonso Robelo, 46, who served in the governing revolutionary junta until he split with the Sandinistas in 1980. He went into exile in Costa Rica. Under Somoza, Robelo was a millionaire agribusinessman and owned a vegetable oil processing plant.

Calero, Cruz and Robelo relied on covert CIA funds until 1984, when Congress cut off such funding. Congress relented last year and granted the contras $27 million for non-military purposes. Now President Reagan is asking Congress for $100 million more, including $70 million for military use.

From Private Sources

Since the cutoff of covert money, the contras have carried on with donations from a variety of private sources. Among them is Ellen Garwood of Austin, Tex., the wife of a former Texas Supreme Court justice. She gave $65,000 to pay for half the cost of a helicopter for the rebels.

For their lobbying campaign, however, the contra leaders have depended largely on donated professional services. Dan Kuykendall, a lobbyist from Texas who represents a number of mostly southern companies, said he volunteered to help with their arrangements.

Richard R. Miller, president of International Business Communications, accompanied the rebel leaders on their rounds of Capitol Hill. Miller, who worked in Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, said he too was a volunteer, though he insisted he was not lobbying.

One of the staunchest Washington supporters of the contras is Prodemca, subtitled Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America, a largely conservative group chaired by Angier Biddle Duke, a former ambassador to El Salvador and Spain. Prodemca supplies witnesses for congressional hearings and sponsored one of this week’s news conferences for the contra leaders. It does not raise money directly for the guerrillas.

Mostly Empty Tables

For all the planning that went into this week’s activities, the one event designed to display public support for the contras, a $100-a-plate black-tie gala, played to mostly empty tables.

The event was sponsored by the Council for the Inter-American Security Educational Institute, a private foundation headed by James Whelan, former publisher of the Washington Times. The military commander of Calero’s Nicaraguan Democratic Force, Col. Enrique Bermudez, joined his civilian colleagues for the evening.

Jeane J. Kirkpatraick, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was to have been the headline speaker but had to cancel when she became ill with the flu, Whelan said.

The council, which hoped to raise $30,000 for newspaper and radio advertising in support of the Administration’s request for contra aid, had also promised appearances by Bush and Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, but neither appeared.