U.S. Readies New Latin Peace Plan : Would Curb Contra Aid During Truce, Require Liberalization by Sandinistas

The Reagan Administration and congressional leaders neared agreement Tuesday on a Central American peace effort that would suspend current U.S. military support for the Nicaraguan rebels and delay a request for new contra aid while an attempt is made to launch peace talks, Administration officials and congressional sources said.

The plan also would call for a cease-fire and would be conditional on Nicaragua’s leftist government lifting restrictions on civil liberties and agreeing to new elections in exchange for the halt in funding for the contras, the officials said. But non-military aid to the rebels would continue through the period of the cease-fire, they said.

The plan, many details of which remain to be hammered out, is an effort to avoid an extended confrontation between the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate on the one hand and the White House on the other over renewed funding for the anti-Sandinista forces when the current allocation of $100 million runs out on Sept. 30.

Plan’s Prospects Uncertain

But prospects for implementing the plan, despite the initial show of bipartisan support, remain uncertain.

In Congress, some liberals said they fear that the plan is merely a ploy to broaden support for the contras, and some conservatives said they fear that it would hurt their chances of winning renewed funding for the rebels at a time when the just-concluded congressional Iran-contra hearings have drawn attention to their cause.

And, officials stressed, the implementation of the plan would depend on the reaction of both the Sandinistas and the contras.

U.S. officials said they believe the six-member contra leadership, scheduled to meet with President Reagan today, would accept the plan. But rebel leader Adolfo Calero, in Washington on a lobbying trip, complained Tuesday evening: “I can’t accept it or reject it. I haven’t been told what it is.”

There was no indication whether the Sandinista leaders in Nicaragua would support it.

Tentative Provisions

An Administration official who worked on the plan said it includes these provisions, although details are subject to change:

-- The cease-fire, “negotiated . . . on terms acceptable to both sides” and monitored by the Organization of American States.

-- After the cease-fire is negotiated, a suspension of U.S. military aid to the contras and of military exercises in Central America; also a suspension of military aid to the Sandinistas from the Soviet Bloc.

-- In exchange, the Sandinistas would meet several other U.S. conditions, including suspension of Nicaragua’s internal state of emergency, restoration of civil liberties and formation of a multiparty elections commission to plan new elections.

-- Negotiations among the United States and the five Central American countries over military security, including reducing the size of the area’s armed forces, removing foreign military advisers and establishing a new military balance. Those negotiations would include direct U.S.-Nicaraguan talks, which the Administration previously has rejected unless the Sandinistas first opened negotiations with the contras.

-- The Reagan Administration would not send a formal request to Congress for new aid for the contras--and would not campaign informally for new aid--before Sept. 30.

The new approach is the result of two weeks of bargaining between House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), described as the driving force behind the plan, White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., and former Rep. Tom Loeffler, the Administration’s new liaison official with Congress on contra issues.

An Administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that he considers the plan weighted in the Adminstration’s favor.

“We’re not giving up all that much,” he said. “We’re delaying the new aid request by maybe 20 days beyond when it was going up anyway. This focuses heavily on the democratization of Nicaragua, which is what we’ve been calling for all along.”

He said that the Administration would be “pleasantly surprised” if the Sandinistas accept the plan. He added:

“When they say no, then we’ll go back and get contra aid. If the Sandinistas reject the proposal, where will that leave the moderate Democrats? They’ll have to support contra aid. . . . It gets them on the hook.”

But on Capitol Hill, a Democratic congressional source praised the plan because “it includes a specific statement about bilateral negotiations with Nicaragua, and that’s something we (Democrats) have been calling for for a long time.”

Reflecting a view that was in contrast with that of the Administration official, he said: “They have assured us that this is a one-track policy. It’s not part of a campaign for contra aid.”

A source close to the House Democratic leadership said the plan also provides that there can be “no pro-contra offensive out of the White House for the next two months”--a provision insisted upon by the Democrats to make sure that the plan would not be used as “a gimmick to build support for contra aid” before a formal request is submitted.

The proposal was criticized by California Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), one of the contras’ fiercest champions, who said: “This could be very harmful to the freedom fighters. If I were (Nicaraguan President) Daniel Ortega, that’s exactly the kind of thing I would want to put my signature to.”

The plan was disclosed as Central American presidents prepared to meet in Guatemala to discuss their own peace plan, one calling for an immediate end to U.S. aid to the contras, followed by democratic reforms in Nicaragua.