Central America Giving Peace Another Chance

For Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez, it was a moment of truth. He had won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize with a plan to end the violent political struggles that have long plagued Central America. But his five-month-old blueprint, far from halting the region's civil wars, had not even kept the combatants at the bargaining table. "The will for peace does not exist right now," conceded Arias before meeting last week with the four other Central American Presidents who had originally endorsed his plan in Guatemala City. "In 150 days, we have not been able to advance by much in the agreements to which we subscribed."

So it was all the 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 -- and perhaps the whole peace process -- from total collapse. "War is easy," declared Arias at a postsummit press conference. "Peace requires goodwill from many people."

Yet the Sandinistas' methods and motives left ample room for skepticism. Even as the Presidents were talking 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 to show that there was no further need for more contra funds. After the meeting, Ortega declared that Congress no longer had any reason to vote aid to the rebels, "not one dollar more, not one cent more."

On the eve of the summit, the region's peace prospects had seemed anything but bright. Since the Arias plan was signed last August, its calls for regional cease-fires, democratic reforms and an end to foreign support for rebels have been virtually ignored. In Nicaragua, the contras last month launched the heaviest assault of the war. The Sandinistas, for their part, virtually ensured that the bloodshed would continue by refusing to talk directly to the contras and by flaunting plans for a military buildup. In El Salvador, meanwhile, leftist guerrillas pursued their struggle against the government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte, while right-wing death squads claimed new victims with impunity.

1. McCain's Foreign Policy Frustration
2. Banksy: An Artist Unmasked
3. LeBron's Gold Guarantee
4. Berlin Awaits the 'Next JFK'
5. When Jellyfish Attack
6. A New Cold War in the Caribbean?
7. Woman Kills Self Before Foreclosure
8. Facebook: Movement or Business?
9. Goodbye to France's 35-Hour Week
10. Dr. Dre's Headphones: Chronically Good