Ortega Links Bishop, Contras : Claims Exiled Prelate Aided Collaborators

President Daniel Ortega charged Monday that exiled Bishop Pablo Antonio Vega conspired with U.S.-backed rebels to set up a network of collaborators for the rebels inside Nicaragua.

In an interview with The Times, Ortega also said that the House of Representatives vote to give $100 million in U.S. military and other aid to the rebels, known as contras , “violently reduced” the possibility of a negotiated solution to the Nicaraguan conflict. A direct military confrontation with the United States “seems inevitable,” he said.

Ortega said his government’s recent moves to exile Vega, bar the Roman Catholic Church’s local spokesman, Father Bismarck Carballo, from re-entering Nicaragua and close the opposition newspaper La Prensa do not represent a radicalization of the revolution. He insisted that there still is a right to dissent in Nicaragua and that no other such measures are planned.

“This is not like in Cuba in 1960, when every aggressive measure that the U.S. government took, Cuba responded by irreversibly deepening the radicalization process. . . . These are not irreversible measures,” Ortega said.

In response to the request by Pope John Paul II that the Sandinistas allow Vega to return to Nicaragua, Ortega said his government is waiting for the Pope to denounce U.S. military aid to the contras. He said that Vega must actively oppose the Reagan Administration’s contras policy to be allowed back in.

Vega, vice president of the Nicaraguan Bishops Conference, was taken to the Honduran border last Friday and expelled from his homeland. On June 28, the government refused to let Carballo re-enter the country after a trip to France.

Accused of Lobbying

The two churchmen, outspoken critics of the Marxist-led Sandinistas, have been accused of lobbying abroad for Reagan’s contras policy and for acting as agents of U.S. interests.

While visiting Colombia, the Pope condemned the two clerics’ enforced exile, saying that Vega’s expulsion “evokes the dark ages” in church-state relations.

At the beginning of an hourlong interview at the Presidential House, Ortega leafed through a stack of telegrams from U.S., European and Latin American bishops councils condemning Vega’s expulsion.

“We really have acted with prudence in the case of Bishop Vega. Bishop Vega should be in jail here in Nicaragua,” Ortega said. “We haven’t put him in jail as a gesture to the Vatican and our bishops . . . because of his vestments.”

Warning to Critics

The president warned, however, that other critics who voice support for the contras, and who are not similarly protected by church vestments, will be jailed rather than exiled.

“We are not asking (the opposition) to defend the Sandinista Front. They don’t have to defend the Sandinista Front. But they also should not defend the Reagan policy. . . . He who defends that policy is committing a crime,” Ortega said.

In what might have been a reaction to the expulsion of the churchmen, six opposition political parties criticized U.S. aid to the contras in a press conference Monday at which they also called on the Sandinistas to hold talks with the internal opposition.

The government had previously said that Vega was expelled for his speech-making trips to the United States while contras aid was under active consideration by Congress and for a press conference he gave here two days before he was expelled in which he defended “the people’s right to insurrection.”

Inside Aid Charged

On Monday, for the first time, Ortega added the charge that Vega was aiding the contras inside the country. Ortega said the bishop “was promoting a network of support in the countryside.” He said that included setting up such assistance as food supplies and safe houses.

Ortega provided no proof of his charges, but he said officials are compiling evidence to send to the Vatican.

Vega, in exile in Honduras, could not be reached for comment on the new accusations. He said Sunday that the Sandinista regime accuses anyone who opposes its policies of supporting the contras.

Asked why Vega had not been accused previously of aiding rebel guerrillas, Ortega said, “The most serious (charge) is not his conspiracy with the contras. The most serious is his conspiracy with Reagan, who is the boss of the contras.”

Reagan has quoted both Vega and Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, the archbishop of Managua and the most powerful opposition leader here, in speeches urging Congress to pass contras aid measures.

Ortega likened the exile of the Nicaraguan clerics to the prosecution of American pastors and churchwomen who were convicted of taking part in the illegal sanctuary movement to protect Central American refugees. He said he considers exile to be preferable to imprisonment.

He added that the government has no plans to detain other Sandinista critics or to exile others currently out of the country, as long as they do not support the contras. Ortega said the government has not moved against Cardinal Obando because although he spoke in support of contras aid before the June 25 vote in the House, he has not done so since.

The Sandinistas have said they consider congressional approval of military aid to be a declaration of war by the United States. They closed La Prensa a day after the House vote. Ortega argued that Reagan’s militaristic policy toward Nicaragua is responsible for reducing the latitude for opposition activity.

“There is a right to dissent in this country. The political parties can continue working within the framework of political pluralism. What we are saying is they don’t have the right to involve themselves with the U.S. plan of aggression against Nicaragua,” he said.

The president discounted charges by opposition leaders that the government is using contras aid as an excuse to proceed with building a Marxist-Leninist state.

“This is no radicalization. It is a radicalization when irreversible measures are taken, and these are not irreversible measures. They are temporary,” Ortega said.

The government has said that the priests will be allowed to return and La Prensa can be reopened when the “North American aggression ceases.”