Costa Rica’s Arias to Address Congress

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) said Tuesday that he has arranged for Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez to address Congress on his region’s peace plan Sept. 22, only days before the Reagan Administration is expected to ask for new funds for the Nicaraguan contras.

Wright, intensifying his active role in the Central American peace process, made the announcement after a luncheon meeting with ambassadors from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras.

The Speaker reported that the envoys were “guardedly optimistic” about the peace proposal signed Aug. 7 in Guatemala by the five Central American presidents. Wright said that the ambassador from Guatemala was unable to attend the luncheon at the Capitol because of illness.

Wright told reporters after the meeting that Arias, chief architect of the peace plan, had accepted his invitation to make a progress report in an informal speech to both houses of Congress. The speech is certain to figure prominently in the next battle over contra funding.

Wright strongly suggested that he would oppose an expected Administration request that contra aid be renewed soon after the current appropriation expires Sept. 30. He contended that, despite the formal expiration, there would be “enough money in the pipeline” to meet “any foreseeable needs” of the contras “well through November.”

A senior Administration official said last week that renewed funding would be sought soon after Sept. 30 because the contras will need military aid before a scheduled cease-fire takes effect Nov. 7 under the peace plan. Even if the fighting stops by Nov. 7, the official said, the contras will need non-lethal, “humanitarian” aid for months while they wait to see if Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinistas make promised domestic reforms.

While indicating that he would resist an immediate renewal of contra aid, Wright hinted that sometime after November, he might support more humanitarian aid for the contras as well as money to help Honduras care for refugees from Nicaragua.

Humanitarian Aid Possible

“Once a cease-fire is in effect, obviously there isn’t need for a lot of military stockpiling and weaponry,” Wright said. But, he added: “We recognize that the contras would have some very legitimate claim on assistance of a humanitarian character once peace was established. . . . We realize they have a legitimate interest in seeing to it that the amnesty and reconciliation process carried out in Nicaragua will be truly what it is advertised to be.”

A State Department official, asked about Wright’s arrangement for Arias’ speech and his position on contra aid, said: “Jim Wright has made off with our whole Central America policy. Our main worry is how long can the contras stay together without disintegrating.”

The official, who requested anonymity, said that the Administration wants to be able to assure the contras--before current funding runs out--that they could depend on more money being available down the road.

Wright reiterated his belief that a peace proposal he co-authored with President Reagan has been superseded by the Central American presidents’ plan.

As for Reagan’s scheduled meeting with contra leaders in Los Angeles on Thursday, Wright said he had told the Central American ambassadors that the President faces a difficult political problem similar to one facing some of Nicaragua’s leaders.

Reagan has to deal with “a virulent right-wing faction which is deeply mistrustful of the peace process,” Wright said. “Some of them don’t want . . . anything but a military solution.

“On the other hand,” he added, “at the other extreme . . . there is a similar situation in Nicaragua in which the far-left hard core doesn’t really have any faith in the peace process. All they want is a military solution. If there is ever going to be any peace, those extremes have to be pacified to a degree.”