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Secretary of State Alexander Haig said last week that the renewed attention the Reagan Administration is placing on its Central American policy is designed to "put the current state of play into sharper focus." Yet the play at his State Department seemed, as Alice said of her own Wonderland, curiouser and curiouser. Does Washington sincerely want to pursue negotiations to reduce tensions between the U.S. and Nicaragua? Is Central America a "global" problem that requires the participation of the Soviet Union and Cuba? Should the U.S. keep trying to prove outside involvement in El Salvador? Another week of mixed signals...
...Haig concluded discussions a week ago with Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda, the prospect for negotiations between Washington and the left-wing Sandinista regime in Nicaragua seemed better than ever. Mexican President José López Portillo recommended such talks as a way to reduce the tensions arising out of the U.S. contention that Nicaragua is directing the subversion of El Salvador. "A process of negotiating may be starting," predicted Castaneda. Haig, who had earlier reacted coolly to the plan because it did not deal with arms shipments to rebels in El Salvador, said that "these differences...
...Haig became upset, however, at the public interpretation that Mexico was negotiating on behalf of the U.S. The next day, he told reporters that the proposals being discussed are merely reiterations of ones made by Washington last August, namely that the U.S. would restore aid and friendly relations with Nicaragua if that country scaled down its military buildup and ended arms shipments to the Salvadoran rebels. Haig downplayed Mexico's role. Said he: "The U.S. will present and receive proposals on its own behalf." One of the main reasons for the Haig-Castaneda meetings, U.S. officials said, was simply...
Castańeda, unfazed, forged ahead with a series of meetings with Nicaraguan and Cuban leaders. In so doing, he allowed the Sandinistas to call Haig's hand. "We have never accepted the U.S. charge of an arms flow through here, but that does not mean we are unwilling to discuss the point," said Sergio Ramirez Mercado, a member of Nicaragua's three-man junta. Nicaragua also called for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council so that it could present its case. The Administration, whose sincerity about desiring a negotiated accommodation with the Sandinistas has been...
...Haig contended that the proposed freeze would be "devastating" since it would preserve as much as a "six-to-one" Soviet advantage in nuclear weapons in Europe. Kennedy and Hatfield shot back that the Secretary chose "to use misleading figures to attack his caricature of that resolution." In Europe, they argued, the Soviets have 2,000 nuclear warheads, vs. 1,200 for NATO. The Senators stressed that the proposed freeze would be worldwide, not just in Europe, and that overall the U.S. has 9,000 warheads, vs. only 7,000 for the Soviet Union. (The London-based International Institute...