Reagan Urges Bipartisan Plan to Aid Contras : Cites New Repression by Sandinistas in Asking for Democrats’ Support

President Reagan, reminding Democrats of their vice presidential nominee’s past support for Contra funding, said Saturday that the Sandinistas’ renewed crackdown on political dissent has created an opportunity for “a real bipartisan consensus” in support of new aid for the armed Nicaraguan opposition.

In a bid to win Democrats’ backing for a new Contra funding bill, Reagan, in his weekly radio address, complained that the Democrat-controlled House “removed the principal prod . . . and sent an immediate signal of American weakness to the (Nicaraguan) Communists” when it rejected his proposed $36.4-million Contra aid package last February.

“And yet, while the cutoff of aid to the freedom fighters was a dreadful mistake, getting the cause of peace and freedom back on track, not recrimination, must now be our goal,” he added.

Dole Legislation

Legislation introduced in the Senate by Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), himself a possible vice presidential candidate, would provide $27 million in food, medicine and other humanitarian aid to the Contras, as well as $20 million in fresh military aid, to be released following a second congressional vote in September. It could come to a Senate vote as early as this week, possibly as a rider to a $299.5-billion Pentagon spending bill.

Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, has voted for Contra aid, although Dukakis opposes further military aid to the rebels.

The new Contra aid package comes in the wake of widespread crackdowns on internal opposition by the Sandinista government. Following the breakdown last month of its direct negotiations with rebel leaders, the Managua regime has arrested prominent members of the opposition, closed Nicaragua’s Roman Catholic radio station and halted for two weeks publication of the key opposition newspaper La Prensa. On July 11, the Nicaraguan government expelled eight U.S. diplomats, including Ambassador Richard Melton.

The repression has been the most sweeping since the Sandinistas agreed in late March to a package of reforms, including direct negotiations with the Contras, in exchange for a cease-fire.

Reagan said the latest round of restrictions is being enforced by Nicaragua’s interior minister and head of its secret police, Tomas Borge, a man Reagan described as “a dedicated Communist and grim, hardened repressor of human rights, whose office . . . has also been actively engaged in the international drug trade.”

More Support for Aid

In an election year and against the backdrop of renewed repression in Nicaragua, a new Contra aid package may encounter less resistance than in the past.

“The Nicaraguan government’s recent actions have shifted the blame onto the Sandinistas and given the advantage back to the Contras” on Capitol Hill, said Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-Okla.). If a new aid package contains calls for Contra military funds to be released only after a second round of congressional votes, “there’s a darn good chance it would pass,” McCurdy said in an interview.

McCurdy, a moderate who has helped draft compromise Contra aid packages in the House, said lawmakers who have never supported Contra aid have told him they would now vote for a new aid package. Such shifts could narrow the eight-vote margin by which the House defeated the President’s last Contra aid request in February and hand the Reagan Administration a victory.

Praise for Duarte

Reagan on Saturday also praised Jose Napoleon Duarte, the ailing president of El Salvador, while plugging his own vice president, George Bush, the certain Republican nominee. Underscoring Bush’s oft-repeated claim of high-level foreign policy experience, Reagan told of a visit the two made to Duarte while he was being treated for terminal cancer in Washington.

“I cannot tell you how deeply moved Vice President Bush and I were by our visit to this brave and remarkable man,” Reagan said. “And how determined we both were that his dream for his people and all the peoples of Central America should be made a reality.”