U.S. Blocks Peace Plan, Costa Rican Says

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez complained Thursday that continued U.S. aid to Nicaragua’s contras is an obstacle to his peace plan for Central America, but he said he does not believe that the Reagan Administration is actively trying to sabotage his proposal.

Nicaragua “can’t become a pluralistic country if there is war,” Arias told a press conference after two days of talks with President Reagan and other U.S. officials.

“We believe the contras cannot do the job, we believe the contras are the best excuse for the Sandinista government, so I propose to get rid of the contras,” he said.

Arias and U.S. officials said the Administration used the meetings to explain its objections to the Costa Rican peace plan more bluntly than ever before. “We think we gave him a good dose of reality,” a State Department official said.

Seeks Halt in Aid

Arias’ plan, which he has been promoting for four months, calls on all countries to halt their aid to rebel groups as soon as the five Central American countries sign a peace treaty. The plan also calls for the five countries to conduct internationally supervised elections but does not require Nicaragua to vote until 1990.

In a half-hour meeting in the White House on Wednesday, Reagan told Arias firmly that he will not end U.S. aid to the contras until Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista regime institutes full democracy to Washington’s satisfaction, officials said.

“The greatest (U.S.) concern is the need for the Sandinistas to act on genuine democratization before pressure on the regime is removed in any way,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Wednesday.

The Reagan Administration also objects to the Costa Rican peace plan’s call for negotiations between the Sandinistas and unarmed opposition groups in Nicaragua, but not with the contras.

Sees No Move to Foil Plan

Asked if he believes that Reagan’s commitment to continued aid for the contras was an attempt to torpedo his proposal, Arias replied: “No, I don’t think the U.S. government has rejected my plan. We have the same objective of democracy, but we disagree on the means on how to obtain this democracy. I don’t think the contras are the answer.”

Administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity accused Arias of inflexibility and said that he has refused to alter his proposal to take into account U.S. views and objections from U.S. allies Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

“Arias has been saying that he can’t change a single comma of his plan,” one official said. “We told him that he has to be more flexible, and we think he understands that.”

The United States is not formally a party to the negotiations over the plan, which is intended for signature by Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Negotiations Stalled

But the negotiations among those five countries appear deadlocked. El Salvador’s President Jose Napoleon Duarte, whose government is heavily dependent on U.S. aid, has said that he cannot accept the plan as it stands and asked for postponement of a Central American summit meeting that was originally scheduled for next week.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega rejected any postponement Wednesday and charged that Duarte was merely representing Reagan’s position. “All that is happening in Central America is a reflection of the position of the North American government,” he told reporters in Managua.

Arias, the man in the middle, said that he will accept a brief postponement of the summit--it has been rescheduled for Aug. 6-7 in Esquipulas, Guatemala--but warned that he may abandon his initiative unless progress toward a settlement is made quickly.