Contras Border Camp Destroyed, Managua Says

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — The Defense Ministry said Thursday that Sandinista troops destroyed the Nicaraguan guerrillas’ principal training center during recent heavy combat in the Honduras-Nicaragua border area, but the government did not identify the name or site of the rebel camp.

The Defense Ministry communique appeared to contradict earlier denials by the Sandinista government that its troops had entered Honduran territory. The rebels’ principal training center is known to be in Honduras.

President Reagan and the Honduran government have charged that up to 1,500 Sandinista soldiers “invaded” Honduras last week in pursuit of the rebels, known as contras, who operate from several bases on the Honduran side of the border.

Earlier this week, Joaquin Cuadra, Nicaragua’s deputy defense minister, said that “many thousands” of Sandinista troops had been mobilized in the north, but he denied that any had entered Honduras. He said charges that they had done so were an effort “to create an artificial conflict” to win votes in the U.S. Senate for President Reagan’s proposed $100 million package of military and economic aid for the contras.

The Senate approved the aid package Thursday by a vote of 53 to 47. Last week, the House rejected the same package by a 12-vote margin.

Battle Losses

In its Thursday communique, the Defense Ministry here said that 350 contras and 40 Sandinista soldiers died in battles during the last two weeks and that 250 contras and 116 Sandinista troops were wounded.

“In the second half of this month, Sandinista troops dealt heavy blows to the mercenary forces in different scenes of combat. . . . The most important battles in the period mentioned took place in distinct points of the Honduran-Nicaraguan border territory, where the mercenary forces try to penetrate our territory,” the communique said.

It added that “our troops destroyed distinct important enemy camps, among them their principal training center, as well as . . . various means of transportation including a helicopter.”

The contras’ principle training center is in Yamales, about 13 miles north of the Nicaraguan border in an area of Honduras, called the Las Vegas salient, that juts southward near the Nicaraguan town of Teotecacinte.

The communique said that five Sandinista Popular Army soldiers “disappeared” during the recent battles in the border area and that two of them are known to be held by Honduran authorities. The announcement did not say where the soldiers were captured.

Evidence of Incursion

Honduran military officials presented two Sandinista soldiers to reporters in Honduras this week as proof that the Nicaraguans had entered the country.

Defense Ministry officials could not be reached to elaborate on the communique, but one ministry source insisted that it was not a contradiction of earlier government statements.

“There is no contradiction between what Joaquin Cuadra says and what the communique says,” said the source who asked not to be identified.

“The border is long and in some places very wide. The sovereignty of Honduras starts where the Hondurans are and not where the contras are. . . . I don’t know where the (principal training) camp is, but we didn’t go into Honduras, and the minister of defense said we destroyed the principal camp, so it must be on the border,” the source said.