9 GOP Congressmen on Nicaragua Tour : Favoring Aid to Contras, They Meet With Regime, Opposition
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Nine Republican congressmen who favor President Reagan’s proposed $100-million aid package to Nicaraguan rebels met here Friday with opposition and government leaders during a daylong fact-finding tour.
On arrival at Augusto Cesar Sandino International Airport, all nine told reporters that they either support giving military and other aid to the rebels or are leaning in that direction . They said that they came here to learn and to seek negotiations, not to seek publicity for the aid package.
“We are here to assess the hopes for negotiations (between the Sandinistas and the rebels) and to talk to government officials for one last time before the vote in the House on the 20th,” California Rep. Robert K. Dornan of Garden Grove said.
Close Vote Expected
The House vote is expected to be close, but even if the proposal is defeated, congressional observers believe that a compromise package will be worked out that will include military aid.
California Rep. David Dreier of La Verne said that whether or not the nine congressmen vote for the aid, “we still want to encourage the negotiation process. That’s why we are here.”
The delegation, accompanied by William Walker, a deputy assistant secretary of state, and a handful of other State Department and Pentagon officials, met for 45 minutes with Vice President Sergio Ramirez, Deputy Foreign Minister Victor Hugo Tinoco and other officials of the Foreign Ministry.
Afterward, Ramirez said, “If we speak with them, it is because we feel it is worthwhile to talk. . . . It doesn’t mean that we accept that the Congress is discussing giving any kind of help to the counterrevolutionary forces.”
‘Propaganda Tour’
Privately, one Sandinista official called the trip “a propaganda tour,” but Ramirez said, “I don’t think that the fact that nine congressmen who come to Nicaragua to confirm the opinions they already have will have great repercussions in the U.S. press or in U.S. public opinion.”
The congressmen spent most of their time with critics of the Sandinista government. During the day, they met with editors of the opposition newspaper, La Prensa, with Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo and with the independent local Permanent Commission on Human Rights. They had dinner with U.S. Ambassador Harold E. Bergold Jr. and conservative opposition business and political leaders.
Rep. Paul B. Henry of Michigan said that he was leaning strongly toward a “yes” vote on aid for the rebels, called contras, but that some of his constituents had objected.
“I am here to give the benefit of the doubt to those who would question that action,” Henry said.
“I am 100% in favor of the president’s position,” Rep. Thomas D. DeLay of Texas said. “But I am here because the opportunity was afforded to me yesterday to come down here and meet with the Nicaraguan government. . . . I want to take into consideration an opposition view as much as possible. I don’t want to be accused of not listening to the other side.”
The congressmen are scheduled to leave today for El Salvador, where they are to meet with President Jose Napoleon Duarte.
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