U.S. Moves to Improve Ties to Nicaragua

The Bush Administration today moved toward restoring normal relations with Nicaragua, announcing it will soon lift sanctions, return an ambassador to Managua and assemble a package of economic aid.

A key lawmaker briefed by President Bush said the package could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the United States is ready to help at “re-integrating Nicaragua into the international economy.”

But, in a message that seemed primarily aimed at the Contra rebels long supported by the Reagan and Bush Administrations, Fitzwater urged restraint. He reiterated a U.S. call for an immediate cease-fire “under U.N. supervision and that it be strictly respected by all sides.”

Fitzwater’s comments backed up the Administration’s message to Contra rebels to “cool it” and avoid provoking a hostile Sandinista response from loyalists to defeated President Daniel Ortega.

“We have always anticipated that the resistence would demobilize and repatriate under conditions of political freedom and personal security,” Fitzwater said.

The President’s spokesman said the Administration will respond to the changes in Nicaragua’s government with a series of steps designed to normalize relations.

“We intend to lift economic sanctions soon,” he said, referring to a series of economic and trade sanctions in place since 1985.

While saying he could not give a precise timetable, he added: “We are examining not only the narrow aspects of U.S. trade sanctions but are looking at the full range of economic options aimed at re-integrating Nicaragua into the international economy.”

Fitzwater also said that “we would expect to return an ambassador there” and that “we are looking at U.S. economic assistance.”

Although the United States has continued to maintain formal diplomatic relations with Nicaragua, there has not been a U.S. ambassador in Managua since 1988.

Bush invited President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro to send economic aides to Washington to discuss the aid package and economic restructuring, Fitzwater said.

The spokesman also said Bush called former President Ronald Reagan on Monday night “to acknowledge his years of support for the cause of freedom in Nicaragua.”

Earlier, Bush summoned Democats and Republicans in Congress to the White House for a briefing by Secretary of State James A. Baker III on the developments.

“The President indicated that there would be a dramatic and swift change in policy” by the United States, said assistant Democratic leader Alan Cranston of California. “What we can do in terms of aid depends upon what Congress can find along with the Administration in a very tight budget situation.”

However, Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) said, “You’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars” over a four- to five-year period.

He suggested creating an “emerging democracy account” in foreign policy aid to deal with countries emerging from communist or totalitarian rule.