Latin Reaction to Reagan’s Speech Mixed

Despite assertions from the White House that most Latin Americans support U.S. aid to the Nicaraguan contras, public reaction Tuesday from Latin capitals and envoys was mixed, at best.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said it has demanded American clarification of a portion of President Reagan’s televised address Sunday that said Nicaragua’s Sandinista government is supplying arms to Brazilian radicals.

And in Bogota, Colombian government officials said Reagan’s charges that Nicaragua has provided military help to Colombia’s M-19 guerrillas was neither new information nor surprising.

Guarded Criticism

“This is not new at all. Everybody knows it,” said Col. Eduardo Arevalo, chief spokesman of Colombia’s Defense Ministry, summing up what he said were the reactions of several Colombian officials. Diplomats said the guarded comment indicated that the Colombian government does not want to make an issue of Reagan’s remarks.

Nonetheless, a potential diplomatic row with the Sandinistas surfaced early this year, when Colombia asked Managua authorities to explain how the extreme leftist M-19 rebels who seized the Palace of Justice in Bogota last November had come to be armed with Nicaraguan weapons. The dispute was defused as Colombian Foreign Minister Augusto Ramirez Ocampo accepted a relatively innocuous Nicaraguan reply.

On Sunday night, Reagan used a Western Hemisphere map as a visual aid in his remarks seeking $100 million in military and logistical aid for the contras. At one point, Brazil was shown on the map in a pinkish red tone--an area that had been the target of Soviet Bloc pressure. It was one of several South American countries so depicted.

When Brazilian Foreign Ministry officials received a full copy of Reagan’s address Monday, they called on the senior U.S. diplomat in the capital of Brasilia, Alexander Watson, to provide clarification.