Contra Leaders to Meet, Seek to Resolve Divisive Issues

Nicaraguan rebels, shaken by U.S. aid reductions and dissidents demanding changes within the Contra movement, are seeking to reorganize the Nicaraguan Resistance.

Leaders of the Contras from Miami, Venezuela, Costa Rica and other points will meet in the Concorde Hotel today and Monday to resolve issues that threaten to split the rebels fighting the leftist Sandinista government.

Nicaraguan Ambassador Danilo Valle said his government was disturbed that the Dominican government would allow “groups and people who . . . threatened to commit terrorist acts and assassination attempts against Sandinista government leaders to come here to organize themselves.”

But Dominican Foreign Minister Favio Herrera said the meeting would be a “private affair” and the government would not permit the Contra leaders “to issue extemporaneous declarations beyond those strictly related to the private character of the meeting that might affect the cordial relationship maintained with the Nicaraguan government.”

The Nicaraguan Resistance includes several different anti-Sandinista forces, grouped together after the dissolution of the umbrella organization, United Nicaraguan Opposition, more than a year ago.

Adolfo Calero heads the Conservatives; Azucena Ferry the Christian Democrats; Alfonso Robelo the Social Democrats; Aristides Sanchez the Liberals, and Alfredo Cesar the southern opposition. Col. Enrique Bermudez heads the labor, agrarian and business sectors as well as the Miskito Indians, and Pedro Joaquin Chamorro represents the “independent” sector.