Word: contras
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...they trooped to the Capitol Building for closed-door sessions with House Speaker Jim Wright. First came Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra, toting a proposal for cease-fire talks between his Sandinista government and the U.S.-backed contras. After Ortega left, Secretary of State George Shultz arrived, followed by the contra leaders. Finally, Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo, Nicaragua's ranking churchman, disappeared into Wright's office. An exasperated Reagan Administration, its policymaking efforts sidelined by the frenzy of congressional diplomacy, was forced like the rest of Washington to wait and see what might come of Wright's highly unusual...
...really know what's in this Ortega-Wright plan, and we just have to wait and see what they're talking about," said Fitzwater. Privately, officials denounced the scheme. "It sounds a lot like the Sandinistas' old unilateral cease-fire," said a naysayer at State. Although Contra Leader Adolfo Calero shot down Ortega's call for the rebels to disarm, the contras seemed to withhold judgment...
...hard to regard his mysterious behind-the-scenes maneuverings as anything short of mediation. Wright's attempts to edge the Sandinistas and contras closer to talks made the Reagan Administration uneasy, if not downright furious. "We don't think it's desirable for the U.S. to inject itself directly into these talks," said State Department Spokesman Charles Redman. Fitzwater was blunter. "Anytime you start seeing stories of independent plans," he said, "you have to start being a little nervous." Others in Washington charged that Wright's horse trading usurped Reagan's foreign policy authority. Said Republican Senator John McCain...
...since the signing of the Guatemala plan, Reagan had made a concrete gesture to advance the peace process. The next day, the Secretary of State announced before the OAS that the Administration would withhold until next year a request to Congress for $270 million in additional aid to the contras. His too was a mixed message. Shultz pledged to "give peace every chance," then vowed that contra funding would continue until "full democracy is established" in Nicaragua...
Ortega, however, appeared to read encouragement into Washington's more conciliatory approach. In a midair interview en route to the OAS meeting, he told the New York Times that if Reagan invited him to talk, Ortega would be willing to have contra leaders at the meeting. For the first time, a Sandinista official was publicly expressing a willingness to meet contra leaders face to face. The Administration rejected the offer, claiming that such an arrangement would devalue the contras' negotiating position...