Bush, Nicaraguans Discuss Aid Package

Bush Administration officials met Monday with advisers to Nicaraguan President-elect Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and said afterward that they plan to propose hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid for Nicaragua even before Chamorro is inaugurated April 25.

Both American and Nicaraguan officials who participated in the talks declined to divulge the amount under discussion.

But officials said they expect that the total aid package will go higher than the $300 million that Francisco Mayorga, Chamorro’s chief economic adviser, has requested to address Nicaragua’s immediate needs.

“We want to have a package of recommendations very, very quickly, and hope to have that before the President within a week or 10 days,” Bernard Aronson, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, told reporters.