Contra Aid Is Still Needed, U.S. Says : Request Planned Despite Ortega Vows on Accord

Reagan Administration officials, unmoved by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s day-old promises to abide by the terms of a Central American peace proposal, said Sunday they will soon ask Congress to approve by early February a new military aid package for the Nicaraguan Contras.

“The President is committed to supporting the Resistance,” White House spokesman Roman Popadiuk said, adding that a funding request should reach lawmakers early next week. “Pressure by the Nicaraguan Resistance is what brought the Sandinistas to the negotiating table,” he said.

But Alejandro Bendana, general secretary of the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry, warned Sunday that the peace plan will be “fatally endangered” if the U.S. approves new aid for the Contras.

‘Back-Stabbing’ Move

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Bendana said, “We expect the Reagan Administration not to stab the Central American presidents (who signed the Aug. 7 accord) and their peace plan in the back” by seeking new Contra aid.

Bendana’s remarks were echoed by several lawmakers, who urged the Reagan Administration to delay any further request for aid to the Contras in the wake of Ortega’s concessions.

But the Administration reacted with sharp skepticism to Ortega’s announcement that he would lift the state of emergency, which has restricted civil rights in Nicaragua, and hold face-to-face talks about a cease-fire with the armed opposition.

Cease-fires in the region’s guerrilla wars and abolition of measures that curb civil rights are among the steps required under the Central American peace plan signed by the presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. On Saturday, at the conclusion of a two-day summit in San Jose, Costa Rica, of the five presidents, the Nicaraguan leader announced the lifting of the state of emergency and said for the first time that his government was willing to meet face-to-face with Contra leaders to discuss a cease-fire.

“Nicaragua has already had 150 days to comply” with the conditions of the peace accord, Popadiuk said, “but all we have seen is a track record of broken promises, much rhetoric and some cosmetic measures.”

State Department officials expressed concern over the detention on Friday and Saturday of five leaders of Nicaragua’s internal political opposition, accused by Nicaragua of plotting, with the backing of the CIA, “to instigate terrorist and conspiratorial action.”

The arrests took place as Ortega announced new measures that would ease the conditions for freeing about 8,000 political prisoners held in Nicaragua.

“It appears that he has been making one promise to the world audience, while at home he’s making again a chilling move on the opposition,” said one Administration official.

The Reagan Administration has not set the dollar amount on the additional Contra aid that it expects to request from Congress. The White House had expected last year to request another $270-million aid package for the Contras, but because of opposition in Congress to furnishing military assistance to the rebels while the peace process was unfolding, it requested and eventually received a much smaller appropriation for so-called non-lethal, or humanitarian assistance, which is now due to expire at the end of next month.

Lawmakers, bracing for a scheduled vote on Contra aid in early February, stressed that the future of such assistance will depend on whether the Sandinista government makes good in the next two weeks on Ortega’s assurances.

Rep. David E. Bonior (D-Mich.), chairman of a four-member congressional delegation that returned Saturday night from Costa Rica after observing the summit session, predicted that “the American people through their Congress will say no to Contra aid, although the vote will be very close.”

He said he had discussed the San Jose summit with House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), an early supporter of the Central American peace plan, and found him to be “very pleased with the concessions that were made (by Nicaragua).” He said he had not discussed the vote itself with Wright.

Rep. Matthew F. McHugh (D-N.Y.), a member of Bonior’s observer group, said, “The key to that (vote) is what happens between now and Feb. 3. It’s been close in the past and it’s gone both ways. In the House, it gets down to 40 to 50 members who have gone either way in the past. What they think on Feb. 3 will matter most.”

The House majority whip, California Rep. Tony Coelho (Merced), agreed with the estimate. He said the Democratic leadership’s “head count continues to increase,” sufficiently to cause concern to Administration lobbyists. He conceded that opponents could not yet claim an actual majority against the Contra aid, but he predicted that sufficient votes to block the aid’s extension will be found among the 40 to 50 “movable people” who are still uncommitted.

McHugh’s judgment was shared by President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica, the architect of the Central American peace plan, who also appeared on “Meet the Press.”

“If Ortega shows good faith,” Arias said, “then there’s no more reason for aid to the Contras, because there’s no more reason for war.”