Calero Resigns Key Post in Contras’ Umbrella Group

Conservative contra chief Adolfo Calero on Monday resigned his position on the directorate of the Nicaraguan rebels’ umbrella group, a move that his two more moderate rivals greeted with optimism.

Calero said he is staying on as head of the contras’ largest armed force, although he added that he would be willing to dissolve his organization into the United Nicaraguan Opposition umbrella group if the coalition’s directorate is broadened.

“I am leaving for the sake of unity and national spirit to facilitate the total integration of all organizations into one organization,” Calero said.

He proposed Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Jr., son of the slain editor of the Nicaraguan daily newspaper La Prensa, to replace him on the present three-man directorate of the coalition, known by its initials UNO.

Choice Praised

The other two leaders of the coalition, Arturo Cruz and Alfonso Robelo, praised the nomination of Chamorro, 35, who edits a weekly contra newspaper, Nicaragua Hoy.

Cruz and Robelo had threatened to quit the alliance, which seeks the overthrow of the Marxist-led Sandinista regime in Managua, unless Calero resigned and his power in the rebel movement was curtailed. After hearing Calero’s announcement, Robelo told reporters in Costa Rica that it would lead to “deep reform” in the rebel movement.

“This is good for the cause. I am very happy about it,” Robelo said. “Calero came to the conclusion that in order to save the organization, he had to sacrifice himself.”

Cruz was more cautious about the impact of Calero’s resignation from the UNO directorate, but he said he is reconsidering his own decision to resign and may be willing to participate in a provisional directorate to implement reforms.

‘1 Army, 1 Directorate’

“The only way to change the situation is for the national directorate to have full control over one army,” Cruz said. “There has to be only one army under one national directorate.”

Cruz said that Calero’s statement alone does not accomplish that, and some supporters of Cruz have suggested that the changes are purely cosmetic.

In five years of war against the Sandinistas, the rebels have never been able to forge a single combat organization with a unified leadership. Currently there are three armed groups under the UNO banner:

--The Nicaraguan Democratic Force, Calero’s Honduras-based group, with about 10,000 combatants fighting principally in northern and central Nicaragua.

--KISAN, a Honduras-based Indian group of about 1,000 combatants fighting in the eastern Atlantic Coast region and loosely allied with Calero’s group.

--UNO-South, a Costa Rica-based force of about 1,000 fighting in southern Nicaragua and allied with Robelo.

Southern Bloc

There is yet another Costa Rica-based rebel group, the Southern Opposition Bloc, that has refused to join UNO because of its domination by the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, which numbers among its leaders on the battlefield several former officers of the old Nicaraguan National Guard of the late toppled dictator, Anastasio Somoza.

The UNO coalition was organized in 1985 at the prodding of the Reagan Administration, which sought to win congressional approval of funds to aid the contras by demonstrating that they could function together in a broad-based political alliance. But the alliance has been shaky from the outset.

Cruz, who has twice before threatened to quit, accuses Calero and “a clique” of his political allies of being anti-democratic in their control of the contra movement.

“The clique has to be neutralized,” he said Monday.

Certification Due

The rebels’ present internal conflict comes at a time when President Reagan must certify that they are making progress toward unity to secure release of $40 million in appropriated funds pending for military and other aid to the contras this year. That aid has been in jeopardy from congressional moderates who objected to Calero’s domination of the movement.

The Administration has also said it plans to ask Congress for $105 million for the contras next year.

On Monday, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Calero’s resignation “was forced by higher officials in the State Department who are seeking a capitulation to the Communists.”

“If the State Department is allowed to push Mr. Calero out of UNO, this means the end of the Reagan Doctrine,” Helms said in a statement. Calero, he added, “is the only person within UNO who truly represents the freedom fighters.”

Times staff writers Richard Boudreaux in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Don Irwin in Washington contributed to this story.