Word: wrighting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...diplomacy that included conciliatory gestures, intransigent demands, petty snubs and perhaps the promise of some real movement. But while talks between the Sandinistas and contras looked more promising, the prospects for talks between Managua's comandantes and U.S. officials remained dim, despite expressions of interest on both sides. Once Wright entered the picture, the bizarre possibility emerged that Ortega might try an end run on the White House and secure congressional approval for his plans through Wright...
Certainly Wright was at the center of the action. Last August the Texas Democrat and President Reagan co-sponsored a peace plan for Central America. Two days later in Guatemala City, five of the region's Presidents, including Ortega, signed a different accord, this one championed by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez. Wright quickly threw his support behind the homegrown pact and invited Arias to address Congress. Since then Wright has repeatedly warned the Reagan Administration that no new funds for military aid to the contras will be approved so long as the peace process remains alive...
...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...
Ortega struck back in his address before the 31-nation OAS. He indulged in a hefty dose of eye-glazing anti-Reagan rhetoric, charging that the President was reneging on a promise made in the Reagan-Wright plan to open a "direct dialogue, government to government," once the Sandinistas initiated contacts with the the contra leadership. In fact, only an early draft called for bilateral negotiations; the final version insisted on regional talks...
Washington's position reflects the anxiety of its allies in the region. The leaders of El Salvador and Honduras, for example, fear that their concerns will be neglected if they are excluded from the negotiations. "We've been burned before," said a Honduran official, alluding to the Reagan-Wright plan, which was unveiled without consulting the allies. Last week State Department officials continued to insist publicly that any U.S. talks with Nicaragua must include the other Central American countries. But privately they said Shultz was pushing Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica to back bilateral talks...