Clandestine Station Jammed by Sandinistas : Reagan Speech Is Broadcast to Contras

President Reagan told Nicaraguan rebels in a broadcast on their clandestine radio station Monday night that the United States will keep backing them until the Sandinista government lives up to its promises under a regional peace plan.

“Your struggle has and always will have our support because our goal is the same,” the President said in an unprecedented broadcast over Radio Liberacion, which was monitored in Costa Rica.

“Until the people of Nicaragua are guaranteed basic liberties, I know you will keep on with the struggle. And the United States will be with you. The journey’s end is Nicaragua Libre (Free Nicaragua),” he added.

Reagan’s three-minute taped speech in English, followed by a Spanish translation, was heard in much of Nicaragua and Central America but was jammed by the leftist government in Managua, the Nicaraguan capital.

Taped at his ranch near Santa Barbara on Saturday, the message was another in the President’s efforts to reassure U.S. conservatives and Nicaraguan opposition leaders about the limits of his support for the preliminary peace accord signed Aug. 7 by Nicaragua and its four Central American neighbors.

The President is expected to repeat his message Thursday in Los Angeles at a meeting with the six political directors of the Nicaraguan Resistance, as the contras are formally called.

The peace accord sets a 90-day timetable for cease-fires in the region’s guerrilla wars, including the contras’ struggle against the Sandinista regime. At the time of the cease-fires, it requires a cutoff of outside aid to insurgent forces; freedom of the press and of assembly and religion, and steps to guarantee democratic elections in each country.

Will Seek More Aid

Reagan’s speech appeared to confirm the White House’s stated intent to ask Congress for new military or “humanitarian” aid for the rebels sometime after Sept. 30.

While his speech did not endorse the contras’ insistence on a direct role in negotiating a cease-fire, Reagan said he doubts the Sandinistas’ commitment to the peace accord.

“The Sandinistas are now promising democracy, with the world as a witness,” he said. “Like you, I hope they keep their promise. But like you, I also know that the civil war in Nicaragua began when the Sandinistas promised you democracy but failed to meet their commitment.”

“The Sandinistas have agreed that the repression must stop at the same time the fighting stops,” Reagan said. “The Sandinistas have told us this before, and no one believes the Sandinistas any more. Simultaneity must mean freedom up front and no deals.”

The speech was scheduled to be repeated four times during a dusk-to-dawn broadcast by Radio Liberacion, which was set up with U.S. funding and transmits from an undisclosed location in Central America.

Shortly after the nightly broadcasts began in January, the Sandinistas began jamming them in most parts of Managua. Just after 6 p.m. Monday, the station’s “Liberator News” announced that “today and for the first time, the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, will address the heroic people of Nicaragua via Radio Liberacion. . . . We invite you to hear this special message from (Reagan) to the suffering Nicaraguan people.”

Within seconds, the broadcast in most parts of Managua was drowned out by a deep, continuous buzz.