Baker Defends Decision on Castro, Ortega Visas

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, defending the State Department’s decision to prevent Cuban President Fidel Castro and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega from addressing a convention of newspaper executives, said Friday that if the editors gave a forum to the Latin American leftist leaders “it would be harmful to our diplomatic efforts.”

Answering questions following his own speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Baker said that if the department had approved the visa requests of Castro and Ortega “it would be far more difficult for us to implement a policy of incentives and disincentives” backing the Bush Administration’s Central American policy.

In the course of his reply, Baker seemed to display confusion about the status of U.S. relations with the two nations, lumping them into the same category. The United States has diplomatic relations with Nicaragua but not with Cuba.

Baker said the decision to bar Castro and Ortega showed “a certain amount of discretion, I think, that the executive or the federal Establishment should have in determining who we have diplomatic relations with and who we do not have diplomatic relations with.

“There are some very good reasons why we cannot move toward normalizing relations with either of those countries until we see some evidence on their part of a desire to accept some very basic standards with respect to human rights. . . . That’s why we don’t have relations with those countries,” he said.

In his speech, Baker delivered an upbeat assessment of Bush Administration foreign policy, which he characterized as “the careful movements of a step-by-step program and slow but steady change for the better.”

He also touched briefly on the Soviet Union, saying that the leadership and other changes have created a global situation that “is less susceptible to the grand gesture, the single solution or the over-arching doctrine. We face a seesaw contest on many fronts.”

He listed some of those fronts, and the Administration’s agenda:

-- In the Western Hemisphere, the United States will look for evidence that the Soviet Union has really given up its policy of “export of the revolution.” Baker called anew for an end to the export of Soviet arms to Nicaragua.

-- In the Middle East, he said, “It is clear that the substantive gap between the parties is too wide, and the atmosphere too clouded by violence and tension to launch negotiations now.”

-- As for U.S. allies in Europe and Asia, Baker pledged the Administration will follow a policy of consultation and consensus on East-West issues, as well as such matters as environment and trade.