REAGAN AND STONE CONFER ON U.S. ROLE IN CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090042-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: June 21, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
k Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090042-7
MIAMI HERALD
21 June:1983
R4T[f.LE &PPFARfD
DNPAr,E t~ih
Meagan and Stone
confer on U.S. role
in Central America
By ALFONSO CHARDY
Herald WashingtonBureau .
WASHINGTON - President
Reagan conferred Monday--with
special envoy Richard Stone ion the
future of U.S. policies in violence-
lashed Central America, administra-
tion spokesmen said.
Neither Reagan nor Stone made
annN' comments after their 45-minute
conversation at the White House.
Administration spokesmen said
they reviewed Stone's recent visit
to the region and future steps that
the United States may undertake in
Central America.
Hours later, in Jackson. Miss.,
Reagan warned that "the Soviet-
Cuban-Nicaraguan axis" could
- "take over Central America" if
Congress refuses more military as-
with Reagan and said he "still had
nothing new to report."
White House officials said Stone
would confer privately with mem
sistance for Central American na-
tions friendly to the United States.
"We must not listen to those who
would disarm our friends and allow
Central America to be turned into a
string of anti-American Marxist
dictatorships," the President said at
a Republican fund-raiser.
Meanwhile, Stone also went to
Capitol Hill to brief congressional
leaders on his 12-day, I0-nation trip
and his meeting with Reagan.
A spokesman for Rep. Clarence
Long (D., Md.), chairman of the
subcommittee that supervises U.S.
military aid to El Salvador, said
Stone telephoned after meeting
hers of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and the House Foreign
Affairs Committee about Central
America, especially El Salvador.
At a White House briefing before
'Stone met with Reagan, Speakes
said the President had not decided
whether his special envoy should
meet with Salvadoran guerrilla rep-
resentatives.
"We are discussing now the next
steps in Central America," Speakes
said, stressing that any meeting be-
tween Stone and rebel envoys
would be limited to conditions for
leftist participation in El Salvador's
presidential elections, scheduled for
December.
State Department spokesman
Alan Romberg, asked if Stone
would meet ,later this week with a
rebel representative, said: "I'm not
going to address the question of
what might or might not be done."
Congressional sources involved in
the Salvadoran issue have said
Stone might meet this week with
Ruben Zamora, a rebel spokesman
who has been in Washington since
last week.
Zamora has asked for a meeting
with Stone, but he ruled out guer-
rilla participation in the elections,
saying there would be no guaran-
tees for the lives of leftist candi-
dates or their campaign workers.
In another development, Spanish
Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez ar-
rived in Washington Monday, ap-
parently ready to call on Reagan to
endorse the Contadora Group's ini-
tiative, which is aimed at negotiat-
ing a peaceful end to the violence in
Central America. The Contadora
Group is composed of Colombia,
Venezuela, Panama and Mexico.
Gonzalez told reporters in Madrid
last week that a regional war in
Central America could have "unfor-
eseeable consequences" and called
on the Reagan Administration "to
avoid at all costs triggering a gener-
al conflict."
Gonzalez, a Socialist who recent-
ly visited Central America, is sched-
uled to meet with Reagan today and
later address the Organization of
American States.
Spanish embassy officials said
Monday that Gonzalez may try to
persuade Reagan to converse with
Nicaragua, Cuba and the Salvado-
ran rebels as a way to reduce ten-
sion.
Nicaragua has demanded negotia.
tions with the United States to re-
solve its grievances, such as CIA`
support for anti-Sandinista rebels.
Cuba has offered to wield its influ-
ence on the region's .leftist move-
ments in a search for negotiated
peace.
This report was supplemented by
Herald wire services.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090042-7