A New Direction

President Reagan’s obsession with tiny Nicaragua during his two terms kept the U.S. government from dealing with more profound problems in the Western Hemisphere. Now an impressive array of 60 political leaders from the Americas, led by former U.S. Ambassador Sol M. Linowitz and former Costa Rican President Daniel Oduber, propose a new direction for President-elect Bush.

In a report, “The Americas in 1989: Consensus for Action,” the group, Inter-American Dialogue, says that general agreements have emerged since its first meetings in 1982 on how the hemisphere can best deal with several complex problems. The section of the Dialogue’s 59-page report understandably getting the most attention deals with ways to end the violence in Central America. The prestigious panel says that the peace plan proposed last year by Costa Rica’s President Oscar Arias Sanchez created the framework for an end to a decade of warfare. But before the plan can work, the report concludes, the United States and Nicaragua must reach a mutal security agreement. The U.S. government must give up any idea of over-throwing the Nicaraguan government, and Nicaragua’s Sandinista rulers must curtail their dependence on the Soviet Bloc. That means negotiations between Washington and Managua, which Reagan stubbornly refused to pursue but which should be among Bush’s first moves on taking office.

The report is equally forthright and sensible on other subjects, reporting that:

--After six years of economic depression, most Latin Americans are so much worse off todaythan they were a decade ago that the debt crisis could soon spark a political crisis.

--Latin America’s economy must grow by at least 5% a year to restore confidence. To do that, Latin American governments must restructure their economies and revamp their development strategies, the United States must deal with its own financial problems, there must be more lending to Latin America, and debt-reduction agreements must be negotiated between individual countries and creditor banks.

--The Western Hemisphere is losing the fight against drugs, and the best hope is to deemphasize police strategies of eradication, interdiction and political pressure in favor of programs to limit demand for drugs through education and rehabilitation.

--Environmental problems, especially the continued destruction of rain forests in Brazil and Central America, threaten not only the health and well-being of all Americans but even the future of the planet as well. The group urges governments to discourage environmentally destructive activities and to invest in better managing their natural resources. Protecting the environment will be costly for many poor nations; in the long run, neglect will be even more costly.

Members of the Dialogue include former Latin American presidents and ministers, as well as senior U.S. officials from both the Democratic and Republican parties. The final section of their report reflects a sincere concern for the preservation of democracy. They warn that unless these challenges are met, many democratic governments in the hemisphere could fall, to be replaced by repressive regimes of both the far right and the extreme left. Bush should heed the warning.