Nicaragua Cease-Fire Talks Suspended; Future in Limbo

Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, Nicaragua’s Roman Catholic primate, abruptly suspended the cease-fire talks that he was mediating between representatives of the Managua government and the U.S.-backed Contras here Friday, leaving the future of the negotiations in limbo.

The move appeared to take the Sandinistas and Contras by surprise, and both sides immediately lashed out at each other for the collapse of the talks. The meeting began Thursday at the offices of the archbishop of Guatemala City and had been scheduled to continue today.

Obando implicitly blamed the Sandinistas, saying they had failed to endorse a peace proposal that he unexpectedly submitted to the negotiators Thursday night.

Had Endorsed Plan

The Sandinistas, however, endorsed the cardinal’s plan at a press conference Friday afternoon and said that Obando had suspended the talks before the government could give him its response.

The Sandinistas added a new concession, saying that once a truce is signed, they would let the Contras come to Managua with safe-conduct passes as observers at a political dialogue between the government and its internal political opposition. The Sandinistas said the talks here were suspended before they could make the offer to Obando or to the Contras.

Obando had made his peace proposal not long after the talks began Thursday. It called for the government to take four steps: grant amnesty to all political prisoners, allow complete press freedom, hold a dialogue about political reforms with the civic opposition and “reconsider” the nation’s military conscription law. The Contras would be required to gather in specified zones for a 30-day cease-fire.

Proposal Was Surprise

The proposal apparently caught both sides off guard. The Contras accepted it “in principle,” although they are opposed to gathering their troops in cease-fire zones. The Sandinistas initially called the proposal “constructive” but said they wanted a clearer definition of the cease-fire.

The Sandinistas have insisted on focusing the negotiations on technical aspects of a cease-fire; the Contras want sweeping political reforms before they will agree to a cease-fire.

The Sandinistas and Contras spent hours in separate late night meetings Thursday, analyzing the cardinal’s proposal. The Sandinista team consulted by telephone with President Daniel Ortega in Managua.

Refused to Discuss Plan

The Sandinistas met with Obando and his mediation team Friday morning. Bishop Bosco Vivas, a member of the team, said the Sandinistas told Obando they did not want to discuss his proposal.

“In the morning, they never indicated they would give a positive response to the proposal,” Vivas said.

He also said it was not until after Obando announced he was suspending the talks that the Sandinistas accepted the cardinal’s proposal “in principle.”

According to Vivas, Obando said that he would not have cut off the talks if he had known the Sandinistas’ response would be positive.

After his morning meeting with the Sandinistas, the cardinal met with the Contras and then called both sides together to announce suspension of the talks.

Seen as a Bridge

At a brief press conference, Obando read a statement saying that he considered his proposal to be a bridge between the government, which believes the rebels are unwilling to negotiate a cease-fire, and the Contras, who believe the government is unwilling to make real democratic reforms.

“As there is no consensus on the mediator’s proposal, the mediation believes there is no reason, for the moment, to continue this round of conversation,” Obando said.

Obando charged that neither negotiating team had sufficient authority to make decisions during negotiations. He said that they should be given more authority by their principals and that he hopes the talks can resume “at an opportune date.”

Immediately after Obando’s press conference, the Sandinistas met with reporters, insisting that the talks here fell apart because the Contras refused to discuss specifics of a cease-fire.

“The Contras are still advised by the rightists of the (Reagan) Administration who want to continue the war in Central America and don’t want a cease-fire,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Victor Hugo Tinoco, head of the government negotiating team.

Jaime Morales, head of the Contra team, responded that the rebels were willing to discuss a cease-fire. “They lie, they lie,” he said of the Sandinistas.

Morales charged that the Sandinistas had hardened their “tone and attitude” since Congress rejected further military aid for the rebels earlier this month.