The Nation - News from May 1, 1989

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu said President Bush has told him that there was no quid pro quo discussion of expedited military and economic aid to Honduras in return for that country’s assisting the Nicaraguan Contras when Bush met then-President Roberto Suazo Cordova there in March, 1985. Documents released at the Oliver L. North trial have implied that Bush played some role in a U.S. plan to expedite aid to Honduras in return for its assistance to the Contras. White House officials said secret documents will be released to buttress the claim that Bush’s visit was not part of the quid pro quo deal. They will include a State Department cable from then-Ambassador John Negroponte, which, Sununu said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “makes it very obvious that there was no quid pro quo .”