Shultz Urges Latin Allies to Put Pressure on Nicaragua

Secretary of State George P. Shultz called on U.S. allies in Latin America on Monday to abandon their taboo against intervening in each others’ affairs and to join the United States in putting diplomatic pressure on leftist-ruled Nicaragua.

“The time is right for a new diplomacy, a diplomacy based on democratic solidarity and on the aggressive advocacy of democracy by democratic states,” Shultz told the general assembly of the Organization of American States. “The dictators and the totalitarians must be told that they are not free to subjugate their peoples.”

Shultz told reporters that he would like the OAS to consider joint action to “isolate” Nicaragua, but he acknowledged that there has been little movement among Latin Americans to do so.

“Whether that would be possible or appropriate, I don’t know,” he said. Another U.S. official called the real chance of OAS action “slim.”

The United States has maintained an economic embargo against Nicaragua since 1985, but is the only country in the hemisphere that has taken such formal action against Managua.

With the notable exception of the OAS-endorsed embargo against Cuba in the early 1960s, Latin American countries historically have been cautious about U.S. proposals for joint pressure on countries of the region. Brazil’s foreign minister, Roberto Sodre, complained mildly in his speech Monday that “continued interference by foreign interests” has “paralyzed” negotiations among Nicaraguan factions.

The Reagan Administration has sought for most of its eight years to dislodge the Sandinistas from power, relying largely on military pressure from U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels, the Contras. Since Congress refused to provide more military aid for the Contras last February, however, Shultz has put increasing weight on the idea of rallying the countries of the region toward joint diplomatic and economic pressure against Nicaragua.

Shultz’s one-day visit to the OAS assembly on Monday was his last scheduled trip to Central America before leaving office, and he took the occasion both to celebrate the increasing number of functioning democracies in the area and to lament the intractability of its problems.

“Sometimes . . . our labors have seemed like those of Sisyphus, with new problems and crises appearing at every turn,” he told the OAS assembly, which included many of the foreign ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean.

And he bluntly complained that the OAS itself has failed to press its rhetorical commitments to democracy in Nicaragua and elsewhere.

“If new democracies are threatened, we must rally to support them,” Shultz said. “ . . . No would-be coup plotters looking to overthrow a democratic government--whether they be of the left or right, civilian or military--should count on our indifference.”

He said he would refuse to meet with any Nicaraguan officials at the OAS session because, he charged, “they operated in total bad faith” in earlier talks with the United States. Sandinista officials have accused the United States of acting in bad faith in those talks.

Other U.S. officials said, however, that the Administration of President-elect George Bush may open talks with the Managua regime as part of a new diplomatic initiative.