Senate OKs Aid for Contras and War-Injured Children : 87-7 Vote Sends Bill to Reagan

L.A. Times Archives

March 31, 1988 12 AM PT

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Senate gave lopsided approval today to a $48-million humanitarian aid bill that will break a one-month drought in the flow of U.S. supplies to Nicaragua’s Contra rebels and send medical care to war-injured children.

Approval on an 87-7 vote sent the measure to President Reagan, who has promised to sign it into law so that rebel fighters can be sustained in the field as they wait for agreement with the leftist Sandinista government on a long-term cease-fire and a reconciliation between the two warring sides.

Congress had twice earlier this year rejected aid proposals for the rebels, and their last U.S. support had expired on Feb. 29.

The easy passage of the bill in the Senate, and a day earlier by a 345-70 margin in the House, was made possible by a March 23 accord on a 60-day truce between the Contras and the Managua regime reached after talks in Sapoa, Nicaragua.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) noted that the aid bill fell short of the desires of Contra supporters, who would have preferred to send weapons to the rebels, and also bothered rebel opponents who oppose sending any aid.

“This package strikes a balance, and is for the sole purpose of supporting that agreement in Sapoa,” Dodd said during a harmonious floor debate on the measure. “If not for that agreement, we wouldn’t be doing this today.”

‘Not Being Abandoned’

A Contra proponent, Sen. David L. Boren (D-Okla.) said the action will “send a strong signal that the Contras are not being abandoned. . . . If the Sandinistas knew they could simply wait out the Contras, they would have no incentive to continue to negotiate.”

But Boren also said the failure of Congress to agree on military support for the rebels would prove to be “one of the gravest mistakes in American foreign policy ever made.” He predicted that the leftist Managua government will never live up to promises it has made to restore democratic freedoms and said lack of military pressure from the rebels is already encouraging the leftist insurgency in El Salvador.

Sen. Brock Adams (D-Wash.) spoke out against the package, saying it maintains U.S. involvement in a conflict that it should be up to Central Americans to resolve. “This vote today is to maintain a fighting force in existence,” Adams said.

And Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.) said the appearance of near-unanimity on the aid bill was illusory.

“I don’t think the course . . . Nicaragua is on is the beginning of the end of this problem,” he said. “It is a hiatus, the end of one American policy awaiting the beginning of another.”

“I have my doubts” whether it will solve anything, he added.

$2.7 Million Monthly

Among major features of the aid legislation:

--Contra “humanitarian” aid totaling $17.7 million over the next six months. The money would flow at a rate of $2.7 million monthly to buy food, clothing and medical supplies. It could also include $1.5 million for communications equipment, if that is deemed in accord with a Nicaraguan cease-fire agreement.

--A new $17.7-million program to pay for medical care for children who are victims of the Nicaraguan civil war.

--About $10 million to pay the expenses of a commission set up to verify compliance with the provisions of the cease-fire. The commission includes Nicaraguan Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo and Joao Baena Soares, secretary general of the Organization of American States.

--Another $2.5 million for the State Department’s Agency for International Development, to pay costs of administering the aid program.