More Cubans May Be in Nicaragua : U.S. Pressing Contras’ Calero to Step Aside

In a sudden showdown over the leadership of the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels, the Reagan Administration and two moderate contra leaders are pressing for the resignation of conservative rebel chief Adolfo Calero, U.S. and contra officials said Saturday.

The two moderates, Alfonso Robelo and Arturo Cruz, have bluntly told Administration officials that if Calero does not resign, they will quit the contras’ three-man leadership of the United Nicaraguan Opposition, a coalition of rebel groups.

“Either there is a clear change of command to a more moderate leadership . . . or we don’t have a place there,” Robelo said in an interview. “Adolfo has to be replaced.”

Yearlong Struggle

Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, the Administration’s chief policy-maker for Latin America, met with Calero last week and warned him that Congress may refuse further aid to the contras unless the moderates’ demands are met, sources said. Abrams reportedly stopped short of explicitly demanding Calero’s resignation, however.

The showdown grows out of a struggle for control of the rebel movement that has gone on for more than a year. The rebels’ three-man directorate of Calero, Robelo and Cruz was created by the Administration in 1985 in an attempt to show Congress that the contras’ political leadership embraced a broad coalition of democratic factions. But Calero, a veteran conservative politician, skillfully used his leadership of the largest contra combat force to dominate the entire movement.

The two factions also differed over what the contras’ basic strategy should be: Calero and his organization, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, aimed at overthrowing Nicaragua’s Marxist-led Sandinista regime by force, while Cruz and Robelo, both of whom served with the Sandinistas in coalition governments, put more emphasis on negotiations with the regime.

Calero’s increasing power angered Robelo and Cruz, who found themselves to be little more than figureheads. The dispute came to a head last month when Cruz announced that he planned to resign because of what he called Calero’s “anti-democratic attitude.”

To the surprise of all the contra leaders--including Cruz himself--moderates in Congress reacted sharply, saying that if Cruz left, they would have no more confidence in the contra leadership. Several congressmen warned Abrams that they would vote against the Administration’s pending request for $105 million in aid for the contras this fall.

Resignation Demanded

Abrams publicly appealed to Cruz to stay, praising him as a “symbol of the contras’ commitment to democracy.”

At that point, serious negotiations began over the conditions under which Cruz might remain in the contra leadership, officials said. Cruz and Robelo both told Administration officials that they would be satisfied by nothing less than Calero’s resignation and a thorough reform of the rebel military structure, aides said.

Those demands, in turn, touched off a struggle within the Administration between Abrams, who agreed that reform was necessary, and the CIA, whose covert operation specialists believed Calero’s military organization should not be disrupted by political reorganization, Administration officials said. President Reagan’s new national security adviser, Frank C. Carlucci, found himself in the middle. But knowledgeable sources said that Carlucci gradually came to agree with Abrams that the chances for renewed aid in Congress, already damaged by the scandal over the diversion of Iranian arms profits to the rebels, would suffer further unless reform was attempted.

Calero and other officials of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force were meeting in Miami this weekend to decide what their response to Cruz and Robelo’s demands will be. Calero reportedly will announce his decision Monday.

Moderate Solution

Cruz and Robelo, in turn, said they plan to announce on Thursday whether they will resign or stay.

One solution to the dispute, Robelo suggested, would be for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force to name one of its more moderate members, Indalecio Rodriguez, to the contra directorate in Calero’s place.

But it was by no means certain that Calero would agree to resign, U.S. and contra officials said. “I find it hard to imagine that he will go quietly,” said one Administration official.

A major concern of both U.S. and contra officials is the reaction to the political crisis of the military commanders of Calero’s rebel force. “Calero might ask the commanders to back him up and reject Cruz and Robelo,” the Administration official said. “He does have a real base of support there.”

Walking a Tightrope

A key figure in any resolution of the dispute will be Enrique Bermudez, top military commander of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force. Bermudez has worked closely with Calero and has been a controversial figure in Congress because he was a colonel in the National Guard of Anastasio Somoza, the dictator overthrown by the Sandinista-led revolution in 1979. Aides to Cruz said in Guatemala last week that they want Bermudez removed from that post, but neither Robelo nor Abrams has taken up that demand.

“Bermudez is the head of a professional military leadership that has worked very effectively up until now,” Robelo said. “I would certainly like to keep him in his position under a clear subordination to civilian authority--a principle he accepts.

“We don’t want to let this political friction affect the military side,” he added.

In that sense, the Administration--and the contras--are walking a tightrope in the dispute: they want to reform the contra leadership enough to improve its chances of winning support in Congress and abroad, but not in such a way that would hamper the guerrilla force that Calero and Bermudez have built.

A Question of Control

The outcome of the struggle will reveal not only which contras are on top, but also which faction within the Administration is in control of policy on Nicaragua.

“This is a test of whether Elliott Abrams is really going to run this war or not,” one U.S. official said.

Until recently, he noted, the U.S. effort on behalf of the contras was largely controlled by William J. Casey, the CIA director who resigned two weeks ago and who tended to favor Calero in such disputes.

“There are a lot of people,” he said, “who believe this never would have happened if Casey were still around.”