Another Use for Confiscated Weapons : Hialeah City Council Finds Answer to Arming Contras

This city-- known for its race track, low-rent apartments and a pretty good flea market--has done what Congress would not. It has voted to send guns to the Nicaraguan rebels.

Not a great arsenal, of course. Just some Uzis, shotguns, sporting rifles and maybe a few hundred handguns--whatever extras the police have lying around, most of them seized in drug raids.

“If every city in the state chipped in, we could ship them 100,000 weapons easy,” said City Councilman Julio Martinez, who sponsored the resolution that passed unanimously Tuesday night.

Sign of Frustration

In the heavily Cuban--and decidely pro-Reagan--cities around Miami, anti-communist proclamations are often a routine part of municipal business. Local governments find foreign policy more pressing a matter than sewers or potholes or zoning.

But an actual pledge of weapons is extreme even here, a measure of frustration with Congress, which so far has refused to send $100 million in aid to the contras, the rebels fighting the Sandinista government.

“I know what it’s like to be left without bullets and hope,” Alberto Gonzalez, a veteran of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, told the Hialeah council. “Twenty-five years ago, politicians made the mistake of not giving us weapons, and you know what happened to us Cubans then.”

Impressed With Logic

To the seven City Council members--six of them Latinos--the logic seemed faultless.

“Can we stand by and let the communists win?” Councilman Martinez asked.

The city, he said, has too many guns, the contras too few.

The ayes had it.

In some ways, Hialeah is not much different from most cities in South Florida. Its police seize an unusually large number of firearms in drug raids.

Some of the weapons are used in police work. But most are periodically carried out to sea and dumped into the depths of the Atlantic.

Questionable Quality

“We were just getting ready for an ocean dump when this happened,” said Officer Bob Czipulis, who oversees the police firing range. “Some of the weapons aren’t much good. But I suppose if it’s a choice between throwing stones and firing a Saturday Night Special, I’ll take the Special.”

Hialeah has a population of 180,000. Most residents are working class. More than 80% are Latinos, primarily Cubans.

But the resolution to aid the contras did not start here.

It was the idea of Richard Webb, a member of Dade County’s Republican Party executive committee.

“It came to me last month while driving to work,” said Webb, a Miami management consultant. “What a shame, I thought, to throw all those guns away while poor guys fighting for liberty in Central America don’t have a thing.”

Others Show Interest

He told his idea to various local officials. The Hialeah council was the first to act.

More councils show interest, and other resolutions are likely to follow. In fact, one version already has been proposed in the Florida Legislature. It encourages the Highway Patrol to donate its seized weapons.

“Nicaragua is too important an issue for just a few people in Congress to worry about,” said state Rep. Rudy Garcia, who sponsored the bill.

Webb has formed a group called the Liberty Committee. Its goal is to encourage more resolutions, then to make sure the weapons make it to the contras.

Says Washington Alerted

“We have to be careful,” he said. “When it comes to weapons, there are an awful lot of laws about what you can and can’t do.”

Webb said he had called officials in both the State Department and the National Security Council to discuss the idea.

Spokesmen for both agencies said they had not yet heard anything about it.