CContadora’ plan hinges on Washington

Press, 5 October 1984, Page 6

CContadora’ plan hinges on Washington

NZPA-Reuter New York The “Contadora” group disclosed yesterday its longawaited plan for peace in Central America, but did nothing to calm fears that unless the proposal won United States support the plan was doomed. The group — Panama, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela — presented its draft plan to the United Nations Security Council yesterday. Press reports said that the United States would not sign a protocol supporting its

aims unless the plan was reworked. The Mexican Foreign Minister, Mr Bernardo Sepulveda Amor, speaking for the group, said that it hoped the plan could bring peace to the region, but was not naive and realised that United States disapproval could influence its Central American allies, such as Honduras and El Salvador. “It is the Central American States themselves which have to adopt this political decision to eliminate any type of foreign military presence in their territory

and, once that first and fundamental decision is taken, it is up to other parties that have links in that region to respect their decision,” he said. He told a news conference that there had been no official United States reaction to the proposed Contadora Act, the details of which were the subject of 20 months of negotiations with El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The peace process was too evolved for the act to be rewritten, he said.