Hinton Reportedly Will Be Envoy to Costa Rica

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Deane R. Hinton, who was head of the American mission in El Salvador during some of the most turbulent years there, has been chosen by the Reagan Administration as the new ambassador to Costa Rica, according to U.S. sources in Washington and Central America.

If confirmed by Congress, Hinton will take over the post at a time when relations between the United States and Costa Rica are strained over the U.S. aid to contras fighting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.

Hinton would officially replace Lewis A. Tambs, who resigned unexpectedly last December in the wake of reports that he and the CIA station chief in Costa Rica had secretly aided the rebels in defiance of a congressional ban. The embassy has since been run by Richard Melton, the charge d’affaires.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez is pushing for a political rather than a military solution to the conflict in Nicaragua and has moved to limit contra operations in his country. Washington has strongly objected to a peace plan proposed by Arias that calls for a cease-fire and a cutoff of aid to the insurgents.

Needed ‘a Big Gun’

The Administration picked Hinton, a blunt-spoken career diplomat, because officials felt they needed “a big gun” in Costa Rica now, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The Costa Rican embassy is a mess,” one diplomat said. “Arias is a problem. You need someone who can handle him.”

In recent months, Arias has arrested contra commanders and warned political leaders of the United Nicaraguan Opposition that they cannot continue to live in Costa Rica if they hold military positions in the rebel organization.

Late last year, Arias ordered the closure of a secret airstrip built with the help of associates of Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, a former National Security Council aide and a major figure in the secret diversion to the contras of profits from the sale of U.S. arms to Iran. Tambs allegedly pressured the Costa Rican government to allow the 6,250-foot dirt runway, near Cape Santa Elena, to operate from July, 1985, to late 1986.

The CIA station chief in Costa Rica, who used the pseudonym Tomas Castillo, was forced into retirement once his involvement with the contras became known.

The U.S. mission in Costa Rica is much smaller--and located in a much smaller country--than the U.S. mission in Pakistan, but sources said the job does not represent a demotion for Hinton.

“Hinton likes Central America, and there’s going to be enough action there to keep him happy,” said a State Department source.

Hinton, believed to be in his mid-60s, was ambassador to El Salvador from May, 1981, to July, 1983, and married a woman from El Salvador’s elite before taking the Pakistan post in late 1983.

During his tenure in El Salvador, Hinton stirred controversy by publicly denouncing right-wing death squads and human rights abuses by the government and by threatening a cutoff of U.S. aid if the then-widespread political killings did not stop.

“The mafia must be stopped. Your survival depends on it,” he told the U.S.-Salvador Chamber of Commerce in 1982. “The gorillas of this mafia, every bit as much as the guerrillas of (the provinces of) Morazan and Chalatenango, are destroying El Salvador.”

The speech drew a White House warning to tone down his criticism and denials from Washington that there was any change in U.S. policy, which had been one of largely ignoring the abuses.