Managua Accuses U.S. of Undermining Accord

Nicaragua accused the Reagan Administration on Wednesday of trying to undermine a regional peace accord with continuous spying on the country from reconnaissance planes and warships.

A diplomatic protest by the Sandinista government also said U.S.-supplied weapons had been dropped to rebels inside Nicaragua from six CIA-supervised flights since Central American nations signed a peace agreement Aug. 7.

“All of these actions show the U.S. government is promoting a policy aimed at frustrating and blocking the peace plan,” said the protest note to Washington, which was also sent to the governments of Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

The five-nation peace agreement sets a 90-day deadline for cease-fires in the region’s guerrilla wars and an end to foreign aid to the Nicaraguan contras and other insurgent forces. With the cease-fire, governments must guarantee freedom of press and assembly as well as amnesty for rebels.

While none of these conditions is required before Nov. 5, Nicaragua took its first step toward complying with the accord Tuesday by lifting expulsion orders against three exiled Roman Catholic priests and naming a National Reconciliation Commission to monitor the accord.

At a news conference Wednesday in Managua, Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto said his government expected similar concessions from the United States before the 90-day deadline.

“While we have made gestures of good faith, the aggression against us has not diminished one bit,” he said. “We cannot be faulted for lack of compliance if President Reagan continues to act in a way that is totally against the spirit of the agreement.”

The protest note said the United States stationed warships off Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast for a six-day period and sent spy planes over the country on five occasions since the peace accord was signed.

Meanwhile, the note said, five planes have taken off from Honduras and one from Costa Rica to drop weapons to contras in Nicaragua. It accused the United States of running the flights “in open defiance” of those countries’ governments.

The protest was the latest in a series of exchanges between Washington and Managua casting doubt on each other’s willingness to respect the peace accord.

President Reagan told the contras in a Monday night broadcast over their clandestine radio that “no one believes the Sandinistas.” He promised to keep backing the rebel army “until the people of Nicaragua are guaranteed basic liberties.”

Nicaraguan opposition leaders welcomed the end of the ban against the priests but urged the government to restore civic freedoms immediately. Some claimed the four-man reconciliation commission was stacked 3 to 1 in the government’s favor.