Failure of Talks Viewed as Boost for Contras Aid

The collapse of the Contadora talks for a peace treaty in Central America will push Congress into approving President Reagan’s request for $100 million in military and economic aid to rebels opposing the Nicaraguan government, Republican leaders predicted Tuesday.

House Assistant Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said the Nicaraguan government’s refusal to agree to sign a peace accord by June 6 with Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala would undercut those Democrats who have opposed aid on grounds that Reagan should negotiate a diplomatic solution rather than help the rebels to overthrow the Sandinista regime.

“I think it will help us,” Lott said. “These people (the Sandinistas) are Marxist-Leninists who have tremendous disregard for negotiations and their neighbors.”

As a result, Lott predicted that the House will vote next Tuesday to approve a Senate-passed measure that would permit unrestricted military aid for the Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras , after a 90-day waiting period intended to give negotiations in the region a chance.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) concurred:

“Some of the Democrats will no longer be able to hide behind the Contadora process as the Nicaraguans (have) torpedoed that.”

Sources close to the talks in Panama City, which began Saturday and ended in disarray Monday, said Nicaragua’s foreign minister, Miguel D’Escoto, had refused to agree to any accord that did not include a strong condemnation of U.S. aid to the contras.

The talks were sponsored by the Contadora Group of nations--Mexico, Columbia, Panama and Venezuela--which has been trying to negotiate a peace in Central America. Also present were representatives of the four nations--Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Uruguay--that last year formed a “support group” to aid the peace process.

Democrats Blame Reagan

Democrats who oppose the contras aid insisted that the President was as much to blame for the collapse of the talks as the Nicaraguans.

Rep. Michael D. Barnes of Maryland, one of three House Democrats who went to Panama City to observe the talks, said that a Contadora agreement “may not be possible so long as the United States supports the contras and is committed to the overthrow of the Sandinista regime.”

Returning from a tour of Latin American countries that support the Contadora negotiations, House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) added that leaders in the region share “a common concern that the conflict in Central America must not trigger U.S. intervention.”

The House is expected to have its choice between three different proposals when it votes on the issue next week--the Senate-passed measure put forth by Republicans, a proposal banning aid to be offered by liberal Democrats and a so-called “compromise” plan similar to the GOP bill to be offered by conservative Democrats. Even before the Contadora talks broke down, either the Republican plan or conservative Democratic proposal was expected to pass.

However, O’Neill is expected to confuse the matter somewhat by bringing the contra aid measure to the House floor as an amendment to a supplemental appropriations measure that Reagan has threatened to veto. The House voted 222 to 210 on March 20 against Reagan’s original request for contra aid, which did not provide for a 90-day delay.