Bush Referred Contra Supporter to North, Paper Says

Vice President George Bush suggested in a 1985 letter that a Guatemalan physician interested in supplying medical aid to the Nicaraguan rebels contact White House aide Oliver L. North, according to a published report.

The letter to Dr. Mario Castejon, dated March 3, 1985, was written at a time when aid to the contras was forbidden by Congress, according to the Miami Herald, which obtained a copy of the letter.

Castejon, a Guatemala City pediatrician who heads the National Conservative Party in Guatemala and is campaigning for president, requested U.S. help in setting up an international medical brigade to help the contras, the Herald reported.

The newspaper, in its Sunday editions, characterized the letter as “the first documentary evidence linking Vice President Bush to North and the secret network he forged to aid the contras.”

North, a National Security Council staff member, was dismissed last Nov. 25 for his role in the Iran-contra affair.

Bush’s chief of staff, Craig Fuller, said Saturday night that “there’s no indication that the vice president was aware of anything more than the fact that within the NSC Oliver North was responsible for monitoring activities in Central America related to the contras.”

Fuller said that when he asked Bush about the letter, the vice president could not recall Castejon.

“The vice president’s only action was to sign a response drafted by a member of his staff to Dr. Castejon,” Fuller said.

The original letter from Castejon was written in Spanish, which Bush does not read, and the vice president “was in no way familiar with the specific request contained in the letter or the nature of the request,” Fuller said.