Reagan Offers Guarded Welcome to Latin Peace Plan

President Reagan on Saturday extended a guarded welcome to the tentative peace accord signed by the five Central American countries as a “commitment to peace and democracy.” He said he hopes the agreement’s intent will be fulfilled but added pointedly that its promises “can only be realized in its implementation.”

In a statement released by the White House while the President was at Camp David, Md., Reagan said he was encouraged by the accord’s emphasis on “reconciliation, democracy and full respect for political and civil rights.” Americans look forward, he said, to the day when the commitments become “part of everyday life in Central America.”

The United States will study the agreement carefully, he added, and “will be as helpful as possible consistent with our interests and the interests of the Nicaraguan Resistance (the contras ) who have already stated their readiness to take part in genuine negotiations for peace and democracy in Nicaragua.”

Different Proposals

On Friday, the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica signed a preliminary agreement in Guatemala City which was significantly different from a peace proposal offered earlier in the week by the Reagan Administration with major contributions from Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas.

The Administration did not have any immediate comment on the Guatemala City declaration then, and while there was some discussion of rejecting it, the White House apparently felt that such a move would raise doubts about the sincerity of its own commitment to peace.

Similarly, the Nicaraguan government did not turn down the U.S. proposal but demanded immediate talks aimed at an “unconditional dialogue” with the United States on outstanding issues. The Administration later rejected that idea as a bid for a bilateral settlement of problems affecting all of Central America.

Both the Administration in its peace proposal, and the Nicaraguan government in signing the Guatemala accord, are suspected by their critics of being conciliatory only to influence Congress on any vote on new U.S. aid for the contras.

The current $100 million in military and other assistance to the rebels fighting the Managua regime runs out next month. The White House reportedly is considering asking $150 million in new funds to cover the final 18 months of Reagan’s term.

‘Our Unflinching Help’

Wright on Saturday repeated his support for the Guatemala accord even as he again endorsed the Administration’s plan. As long as the President is sincerely seeking peace, he said in the Democratic response to Reagan’s weekly radio address, “the legislative branch and his loyal Democratic domestic opposition owe that effort our unflinching help.”

The House Speaker, who has been criticized by liberal Democrats for his position on Central America, said the United States has three concerns:

-- That no Soviet, Cuban or Communist Bloc base be established in Nicaragua.

-- That the Marxist government of Nicaragua poses no military threat to its neighbors or becomes a base for their subversion.

-- That it respect the basic human rights of its people to freedom of the press, speech, religion and free elections--”the rights embraced in its own constitution,” Wright said.

‘That’s Their Business’

“Beyond this, we make it clear that the United States claims no right whatever to influence or determine who the political leaders of Nicaragua shall be nor the social and economic system that country may choose,” he added. “Those are matters wholly within the right of the Nicaraguan people. That’s their business.”

The Guatemala proposal seeks to address the rightist insurgency in Nicaragua and the leftist rebellion in El Salvador, as well as the less-publicized leftist insurgency that has plagued the Guatemalan countryside for years. It would create a timetable for achieving cease-fires and for setting up international verification bodies.

However, significant parts of the plan, such as limits on the size of armies and numbers of foreign military advisers, are not spelled out and will be the subject of further negotiations. There are also no penalties for non-compliance. Some language is vague enough to be open to different interpretations.

In some more specific comparisons:

-- The Reagan proposal calls for a cease-fire in Nicaragua’s guerrilla war and for acceptance of certain political and military agreements by Sept. 30, less than two months from now. The Guatemala pact calls for a cease-fire within 90 days from Friday, with the simultaneous implementation of a complex series of additional steps.

Permit Humanitarian Aid

-- The Reagan proposal calls for a cutoff in both U.S. and Soviet Bloc military aid to the contras and Nicaraguan government, respectively, but would allow humanitarian aid to the rebels to continue. The Guatemala pact calls for an end to all outside aid to rebel movements but would not halt U.S. or Soviet supplies to governments in the area.

-- The Reagan proposal would set a timetable for free elections in Nicaragua within 60 days after a cease-fire, while the Guatemala pact does not require an early election. Instead, it calls more generally for “an authentic democratic, pluralistic and participatory democratic process.”

The Guatemala plan does make several bows in the direction of the Administration’s demands, most notably by requiring that Nicaragua restore freedom of the press and other civil liberties at the same time that a cease-fire becomes effective.