Panama Pullout Is Near, Quayle Tells Latin Chiefs

The United States plans to complete its withdrawal of troops from Panama “in a time period of weeks rather than months,” Vice President Dan Quayle assured Latin American leaders Saturday as he began a three-day fence-mending trip to Central America.

Speaking to reporters after his first meeting of the day--a breakfast session with President Alfredo Cristiani of El Salvador--Quayle said he is telling the Latin leaders gathered here for the inauguration of new Honduran President Rafael L. Callejas that President Bush “is committed to pulling all the troops out to the levels we had before the intervention” Dec. 20 that ousted Manuel A. Noriega from power.

In addition to Cristiani and the Honduran leader, Quayle met with Presidents Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela and Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica and attended a lunch, hosted by Callejas, with all of the visiting chiefs of government, including the president of Guatemala and the prime minister of Belize.

After lunch, he said that the Latin leaders had made clear their desire that U.S. invasion troops be pulled out of Panama but that no “sour note” was sounded over the state of U.S.-Latin American relations, despite earlier comments by some deploring the invasion.

Earlier this month, when the White House had been striving to arrange official visits for Quayle to a number of Latin American capitals, Venezuela’s Perez and President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico had said it would not be “convenient” for the vice president to visit their countries at this time.

“It will help when we’re able to reduce our troops,” Quayle said after lunch. “That will be a positive contribution toward the building of democracy in Panama.”

About 10,000 American troops already have left Panama, bringing the U.S. force there down to roughly 17,000, or about 4,000 more than are stationed in Panama on a year-round basis. Under the Panama Canal Treaties of 1977, the United States is charged with the canal’s defense, and about 13,000 American soldiers are always assigned there. They man bases stretched along the length of the canal and at Quarry Heights near Panama City, headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command, overseer of all U.S. military activity south of the border.

During their meeting, El Salvador’s Cristiani promised Quayle that his government is determined to press ahead with the investigation and prosecution of army men accused in the massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter. The killings took place Nov. 16 on the campus of San Salvador’s Jesuit-operated Central American University. The slain priests were all faculty members.

The slayings have become a major symbol for opponents of U.S. aid to Cristiani’s government, and congressional leaders have made clear that Washington would almost certainly cut off the funds if the murder case is not resolved.

Cristiani voiced the conviction that Salvadoran army Col. Guillermo Alfredo Benavides Moreno, now under arrest, is the man who ordered the killings. Three lieutenants, two of whom were directly involved in the massacre, have made sworn statements. “With their testimony, we know who gave the orders,” Cristiani said.

The investigation will continue in an effort to determine if others were involved in instigating the killings, the Salvadoran leader said, adding that as new leads develop, “the investigation would follow those leads.”

Despite repeated accusations over the past decade that army officers and right-wing politicians were involved in death-squad killings, no high-ranking Salvadoran political figure or military man has ever has been convicted of such a crime.

With this case, “We think that we have to set an example in El Salvador about impunity,” Cristiani said. “I think we are very well about our way.”

Despite Quayle’s assurances about the withdrawal of invasion troops from Panama, it is clear that the invasion’s aftermath continues to trouble Latin American leaders, including even those with close U.S. ties.

The chief problem, said Callejas, is “the uncertainty--that if conditions within Latin America are not to the liking of the United States” in the future, “force could be used again.”

Quayle, however, insisted after his meetings with the heads of state that the concerns “will not be a negative factor” in the future. “Of course there are sensitivities,” he said, “that’s why I’m here.” But, he said, “there’s no strains on the relationship. . . . The friendship is deep.”

The friendship is being tested, however, not only by the invasion of Panama but by a marked decline of U.S. economic aid, which is particularly noticeable here.

Callejas, in his inauguration address, told his fellow citizens that he is taking office during “the biggest economic crisis in Honduran history.” The sharp economic decline the country has suffered in recent years will require difficult austerity measures, he said, made more complicated by U.S. aid reductions.

“We talked in some detail about that,” Quayle said after meeting with Callejas. “We know he has tremendous economic challenges ahead of him.” At the same time, “he knows our fiscal problems,” Quayle said.

“In between the two, there is a way,” Quayle said. “We’re two good friends.”

Aid to Honduras and other countries in the region is being badly squeezed by the combination of tight U.S. budgets and the Administration’s desire to boost aid to Panama and to the emerging democracies in Eastern Europe.