Why Contra Aid Must End

President Reagan is expected to push next week for $30 million in “non-lethal” aid to the Contras fighting the government of Nicaragua.

On the face of it, any American assistance at this time is a violation of the terms of the Aug. 7 peace accord signed by the five Central American presidents. Under the terms of that agreement, all governments were asked to suspend assistance to irregular forces and insurrectionist movements, and those forces were asked “to abstain, in yearnings for a true Latin American spirit, from receiving such assistance.”

This has not deterred the U.S. government from proposing assistance of food, medicine, clothing and, to make matters worse, much more. Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell, the President’s new nationalsecurity adviser, wants to include in the aid package both military training and helicopters.

If there is any case to be made for assistance to the Contras at this time, it is to meet urgent humanitarian needs for food and medicine while the cease-fire is being put into place. In the absence of evidence of a food emergency, there should be no aid at all.

The goal of the Reagan Administration obviously remains what it has been all along: supporting a continuation of the Contra military campaign at least until it forces out the Sandinista regime in Managua. Only reluctantly has the President agreed to postpone until next year a request for $270 million in military assistance to the Contras. But next year is only a month away.

Efforts to implement the peace treaty are running into heavy going--hardly a surprise, given the historic factors that are obstacles to democracy and to credible economic reforms, including land reform. But even if the peace accord fails to achieve all that it is intended to achieve, it has already created a new situation in the region that makes continued U.S. intervention an even more unwelcome anomaly. The Latin Americans have taken charge. They have assumed responsibility for security in the region. They have, in this way, unanimously rejected the efforts of the President to write the rules and adjudicate the outcome. A continuation of assistance to the Contras would perpetuate the war but would not bring peace. That is why it must be ended.