Facing Arrest, Nicaragua’s Envoy Leaves

Nicaraguan Ambassador Carlos Tunnermann, threatened with arrest if he did not comply with U.S. orders to get out of the country, indignantly left the Nicaraguan Embassy en route to Managua on Friday but vowed to fight his expulsion in international courts.

Minutes after a news conference in which he lashed out at the “imperialist bullies” of the Reagan Administration, the ambassador waved goodby to family and friends gathered outside the embassy and shouted, “God bless the American people!”

Earlier in the day, the Administration was preparing to arrest Tunnermann and seven of his aides here if they were not out of town by late afternoon, officials said. The expulsions were ordered earlier this week in retaliation for the ousting of eight American diplomats in Nicaragua.

“They blinked,” one State Department official said after Tunnermann announced that he and his aides would obey the expulsion order.

“Ambassador Tunnermann understood that if he locked himself in his embassy, whenever that ended he would be faced with prosecution under U.S. immigration laws,” said the State Department official, who asked not to be identified. “Maybe it means that the Sandinistas have decided not to escalate this confrontation any further.”

Yet, both sides agreed that the events of the last few days have seriously jeopardized the already tenuous diplomatic ties between Washington and Managua.

“Someday, we will have normal diplomatic relations with this country, but with this Administration that will be so difficult,” Tunnermann said.

The Reagan Administration, hoping to resume aid to Nicaragua’s Contra rebels, who have been trying to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government, has opposed resumption of the peace talks that broke up last month.

Administration officials cite the Sandinista government’s jailing of opposition leaders, its closing of the Roman Catholic Church’s radio station and an opposition newspaper and, most recently, its expulsion of the American diplomats as evidence of the regime’s escalated oppression and aversion to peace.

But State Department officials, holding out some hope for maintaining relations, said Friday that they expect to begin discussions with Nicaragua in coming weeks over replacing the eight diplomats evicted from each country.

Family Stays in U.S.

Tunnermann left on a commercial airline flight to Mexico City at 2:25 PDT--five minutes before the Administration’s deadline for his departure--and is expected to leave today for Managua. His family is to remain in Washington.

In Managua, Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto accused the Administration of breaking international law by forcing Tunnermann out of the country and said the action sets a dangerous precedent for the Organization of American States. Tunnermann serves as Nicaragua’s representative to the OAS, which is based in Washington.

D’Escoto, calling the expulsion an “arrogant” abuse of power, demanded that Tunnermann’s case be settled by the judicial branch of the OAS.

At a news conference, he said the Administration was seizing the right to veto another nation’s representative to an international body. And he declared: “The United States breaks every rule in the book. (The expulsion) is simply a new demonstration of the policy of state thuggery that characterizes the Reagan Administration.”

An official in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington said the Nicaraguan government decided late Thursday that Tunnermann and his aides should comply with the U.S. expulsion order.

Defiance Discussed

That decision followed extensive discussions between embassy officials in Washington and the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry in Managua over whether to defy the expulsion order on the grounds that it violated the terms of Tunnermann’s dual appointment as ambassador to the United States and to the OAS.

In the end, however, the Nicaraguans decided against defying the order because, Tunnermann said, “We think that the U.S. Administration could have used this as an argument against us in order to continue its aggression against our people.”

In a statement read in Washington, the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry promised to challenge the validity of the order through legal channels, perhaps within the OAS or in international courts of law. But when Tunnermann made an appeal Thursday to the OAS, he received no strong signs of backing from the organization.

In expelling Tunnermann and another diplomat to the OAS, military envoy Pedro Sampson Mendoza, the Administration maintained that these two officials “abused” their privileges in this country.

Administration officials have refused to specify the alleged abuses. But the State Department official elaborated on the charges Friday, saying that the case involved several intelligence-related incidents that would clearly be recognized “as a violation of diplomatic status.”

“We hadn’t moved against (Tunnermann) before because of the fear that they would simply retaliate against our staff in Managua,” the official said. “But once they expelled our people, that was no longer a problem.”

Meanwhile, Tunnermann expanded on the charges that the Nicaragua government says prompted it to expel U.S. Ambassador Richard Melton and seven other diplomats in Managua.

“He was interfering in our political offices, and he was trying to create a political movement against our government,” Tunnermann said, mentioning several unspecified meetings that he said Melton attended.

Times staff writers Doyle McManus, in Washington, and Tracy Wilkinson, in Managua, contributed to this story.