5 Latin Leaders Open Talks on Regional Peace Plan

Presidents of the five Central American nations met Thursday in their first joint effort to settle the region’s guerrilla wars by themselves.

Their two-day summit opened a day after the Reagan Administration unveiled its own cease-fire plan for Nicaragua, but that initiative was not formally on the table here.

Instead the presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua began a long-awaited effort to resolve major differences over a Costa Rican peace proposal first unveiled six months ago. It calls for cease-fires and national reconciliation in El Salvador and Guatemala as well as in Nicaragua.

“The Reagan plan is truly interesting, but what is more important today is that we Central Americans decide our own destiny,” President Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo of Guatemala said. “Later we can talk about proposals from the United States, or maybe one from Cuba or the Soviet Union.”

Rebel Leaders Arrive

The importance of the summit was underscored by the arrival of the six-member leadership of the U.S.-backed contras to monitor the outcome. The Nicaraguan rebel leaders said they would abide by any peace agreement achieved here.

The 10-point Costa Rican plan calls for immediate cease-fires in the region’s guerrilla conflicts and a cutoff of all outside aid to insurgent forces, followed by amnesties for rebels and talks between the governments and their unarmed opponents.

Countries signing the plan would agree to practice “total political pluralism,” respect human rights and consent to international monitoring of future elections. Complete freedom of press and assembly would have to be permitted within 60 days of signing.

A point-by-point debate of the plan by the five nations’ foreign ministers here Tuesday and Wednesday failed to resolve the most important differences: How to achieve a cease-fire and how to define “political pluralism.”

Concerns of Honduras

Honduras, one of the region’s closest U.S. allies, is insisting that rebel groups play a role in negotiating a cease-fires. Worried by the prospects of a disintegrating force of contras based on its soil, Honduras also wants continued U.S. aid to the Nicaraguan rebels for six months after any cease-fire.

El Salvador’s U.S.-backed government, under pressure from its armed forces and right-wing groups, is reluctant to accept a cease-fire and an amnesty in its own war with leftist guerrillas unless Nicaragua’s Sandinista rulers drop their refusal to negotiate with the contras.

Repeating his insistence on direct cease-fire talks with the United States, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua told reporters Thursday that he will “negotiate with the circus owner, not with the clowns.”

Ortega said talks with Washington must be a first step in any consideration of the U.S. peace initiative, but he ruled out internal political changes in Nicaragua as part of any cease-fire.

Hard-Line Voiced

“We already have a democracy in Nicaragua,” he asserted. “What each country does internally is its own business. This is not subject to negotiation here.”

That remark put Ortega sharply at odds with a fundamental aim of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez’s plan, which is to force democratic reforms in Nicaragua in exchange for peace.

“We cannot have different definitions of democracy,” Arias said. “If it is really midnight, you cannot claim it is noon. . . . Peace will not be possible until every country chooses its leaders freely.”