Word: ortega
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...more stunning when Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra climaxed the heated session with what appeared to be a remarkable set of concessions. Ortega agreed to meet within days with leaders of the U.S.-backed contras and to open direct negotiations for a cease-fire in Nicaragua's civil war, now in its seventh year. Once the shooting stopped, Ortega said, his Marxist-oriented Sandinista government would release its political prisoners. He also promised to lift the six-year state of emergency that had allowed the Managua regime to impose its dictatorial rule. Those last-minute pledges saved the meeting...
...peace in Costa Rica, Nicaraguan security agents in Managua arrested four prominent opposition leaders as suspects in an alleged CIA conspiracy. Opposition sources saw the move as a sign that hard- line Interior Minister Tomas Borge Martinez was unhappy with the concessions being made at the peace talks. And Ortega's aim was not purely altruistic. His main goal, apparently, was to ensure that the U.S. Congress turns down a Reagan Administration request next month for some $150 million in new contra aid. By agreeing to take the very steps sought by Washington and Nicaragua's neighbors, Ortega sought...
...three, Alfonso Robelo, Alfredo Cesar and Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, sit on the six-member board that directs the contras' political affairs and produces a steady stream of anti-Sandinista propaganda. The next day Arias counterbalanced his anti-contra blast with a blunt four-page letter accusing Nicaragua's Ortega of failing to comply with the peace agreement. While the Sandinistas allowed a single opposition newspaper, La Prensa, to reopen last October, they have shown little readiness to allow broader political freedoms. Admonished Arias: "There is no room for legal structures that deny democratic process...
Reagan, in his speech, did not mention Ortega's weekend offers...
...Reagan administration has announced its intention to request a renewal of aid on Jan. 26, and top administration officials have dismissed Ortega's promises at a weekend regional summit in Costa Rica as a ploy to fool Congress and undercut the rebels, who have become Reagan's top foreign policy priority...