Shultz Opens Latin Journey, Blasts Managua

Secretary of State George P. Shultz on Wednesday began a three-day trip to Central America aimed at reviving the Reagan Administration’s moribund diplomacy in the area and persuading U.S. allies in the region to put more pressure on Nicaragua.

Shultz arrived in Guatemala City on Wednesday evening and accused Nicaragua’s leftist regime of breaking promises to move toward democracy and of “having no compassion for the people of Nicaragua.”

Shultz plans to reassure the leaders of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica that the United States will continue to support their governments if the Sandinista regime defeats the U.S.-supported Contras on the battlefield, aides said.

They added that Shultz hopes the trip will increase the Administration’s chances of winning renewed aid for the Contras from Congress.

‘Heart’ of U.S. Policy

Shultz said the Contras are “the heart” of U.S. policy toward Nicaragua and hinted that he favors asking Congress for new military aid for the rebels. Republican leaders in the House have said it may be possible to obtain non-military aid, but they have warned the Administration that it will be impossible to win a vote for military funding.

“When the resistance had the support to give a real account of themselves, the Nicaraguan government’s seriousness in negotiations seemed to be quite high,” Shultz told reporters aboard his plane en route to Guatemala.

Aides said that Shultz will not be announcing any major new diplomatic initiative or meeting with any officials of Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime.

“He can’t announce a policy because we haven’t found one yet,” one official said. “At this point, a trip like this is largely a holding action.”

The Administration has been relatively inactive in Central American diplomacy for the last year, in large part because competing officials could not agree on what their goals should be.

Some officials have argued privately for a major new initiative that would recognize that the Contras are slowly losing their guerrilla war and seek the best available negotiated settlement. Others, led by Elliott Abrams, the assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, have insisted that the Contras can still place serious military pressure on the Sandinista regime if Congress can only be persuaded to grant them aid.

That disagreement remains unresolved, officials said. But as the chances of winning new aid for the Contras has waned, Abrams has dropped his objections to a more active U.S. diplomatic role, they added.

The final impetus for the trip came when the Contra leadership and several key Republicans in Congress agreed that their campaign for new aid would be helped if Shultz made the trip. The secretary of state plans to reaffirm U.S. support for a negotiated settlement, but he also will insist that the Contras can only negotiate a permanent peace from a position of strength--the crux of the Administration’s appeal for new aid.