The World - News from Oct. 28, 1987

Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Nicaragua, said he met with Contra leaders last week to try to arrange a cease-fire or at least scale down their war against the leftist Sandinista government. Obando said he met with Azucena Ferrey of the umbrella group called Nicaraguan Resistance and Fernando Aguero Rocha, head of the Nicaraguan Conservative Party in exile. He refused to go into details. “They (the Contras) told me they were interested in reconciliation and in holding a dialogue with the government of Nicaragua,” the cardinal said. Obando, who is head of a national reconciliation commission formed as part of a wider Central American peace plan, spoke on the Sandinistas’ Radio Sandino.