myers@uwvax.ARPA (Jeff Myers) (09/25/84)
The Nicaraguan government has agreed to the conditions stipulated in the draft treaty proposed by the Contadora nations (Venezuela, Columbia, Panama, and Mexico), a long-standing pre-condition to peace in the area according to the Reagan administration, which did not expect Nicaragua to agree to the terms, especially to the security provisions. Following the announcement Friday, State Dept officials criticized the announcement as a "public relations ploy". (What does that say about the talks between RR and Gromyko?) The announcement came along with another saying that the govt would not postpone the long-awaited elections in Nov. State Dept officials have criticized this refusal to postpone (after saying last year that elections couldn't come too early...). One enlightened State Departmenter said: "I'm not sure what there's left to talk about at Manzanillo [Mexico, site of informal US/Nicaraguan talks]. The whole point was to get the Nicaraguans to accept the Contadora proposals. Now they have, but we say we aren't satisfied. I'm not sure I would blame the Nicaraguans if they were confused." Another official said, "No one expected the Nicaraguans to accept it, so we really didn't worry about the treaty." I'd like to unload with alot of expletives at this point, but I'll just calmly assert that it's likely that noone in the Reagan Administration has ever monkey-proofed a program. Information gleaned from stories on pages 1 and 8 of the *New York Times*, Monday, September 24. --- "...Some folks trust in reason, others trust in lies... Some folks look for answers, others look for fights..." Jeff Myers@El pais de los Yanquis