Managua Ready to Talk About Curbing Buildup : Contra Fund Outlook Improves in Congress

The Democratic-controlled Congress, reacting to reports of a planned military buildup in Nicaragua, appeared Monday to be moving toward approval of President Reagan’s request for $9 million in new U.S. assistance to the anti-Sandinista resistance.

Reagan Administration officials, meanwhile, sought to capitalize on the emerging shift in congressional opinion by arranging a news conference at the State Department for a Sandinista defector, Roger Miranda Bengoechea, who has claimed that the impetus for the military buildup comes directly from the Soviet Union.

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), clearly miffed by what he describes as “preposterous” reports that the Sandinistas are planning to amass a 600,000-man army, acknowledged that the developments could undermine congressional opposition to additional aid for the Contras.

“The Sandinistas have had a history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,” Wright said.

Most of Miranda’s allegations, including the anticipated purchase of a squadron of MIG-21 jet fighters from the Soviet Union and the plans to put as much as one-fifth of the Nicaraguan population under arms, were confirmed Saturday by Nicaraguan Defense Minister Humberto Ortega.

Until the weekend, when members of Congress first heard the reports of the planned buildup, the House appeared to be overwhelmingly opposed to the Senate-passed aid package for the Contras.

The assistance package was attached by the Senate on Friday night to its version of a massive spending bill funding the government through the remaining nine months of the 1988 fiscal year. A House-passed version of the same bill contained no money for the Contras.

Apparent Erosion

But as members of a Senate-House conference committee gathered Monday to work out differences between the two chambers over the $600-billion spending measure, it appeared that House opposition to new Contra aid was eroding as a direct result of the reports from Managua.

Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), a member of the conference committee, said this development “makes it very likely” that the full $9 million in Contra aid contained in the Senate measure will be approved by the committee. The funding is for non-military supplies and assistance.

“They’re building up like gang busters, and we’re arguing about humanitarian aid--timid and frightened that we might not be living within the Guatemala accord,” said Hollings, referring to the cease-fire plan signed by five Central American leaders for the region. “The burden is on them to show they’re living within the Guatemala accord.”

Goods Transportation

Although the $9 million approved by the Senate is much less than the $22.8 million originally sought by the President, the Senate bill also permits the Defense Department to use some previously approved funds for transportation of goods for the rebels. Sen. David L. Boren (D-Okla.) estimates that the transportation costs would be at least $6 million to $7 million.

At the White House, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that the prospect of a Soviet-fueled arms buildup in Nicaragua is “clearly destabilizing and a threat to the other countries in the region.” He said that U.S. officials have registered their concern with the Soviet Union through diplomatic channels and are demanding that the Soviets “explain what their position is and what they’re doing there.”

Wright said that any additional Contra aid approved by Congress “would have to be tied to the peace process” in Central America. He apparently was thinking about a provision similar to one rejected in the Senate that would give the five Central American presidents the right to decide how the aid will be administered.

Initiation of Accord

Miranda, a former administrative aide to Humberto Ortega who defected on Oct. 25, told reporters during his news conference that the chief of the Soviet military mission to Managua--a man he identified as “Maj. Gen. Petrochenko”--last September initiated the signing of a Soviet-Nicaraguan agreement to supply a squadron of MIG-21 jet fighters to the Sandinistas in 1988 and a second squadron later.

Miranda cited the planned military buildup aimed at putting 600,000 Nicaraguans in the military forces by 1995 as clear evidence that the Sandinistas have no intention of adhering to the Central American peace plan.

In addition, the defector asserted that the Sandinista army has been training Salvadoran guerrillas since Oct. 15 in the use of portable anti-aircraft missiles, a violation of the peace agreement’s ban on aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow other Central American governments.

Times staff writers Karen Tumulty, Paul Houston, Jim Mann and Don Shannon contributed to this report.