Not ‘Up-Tight’ on Ortega, Bush Says

WASHINGTON —  President Bush has no intention of meeting with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega during the hemispheric summit that begins today in Costa Rica, but Bush said he is not “up-tight” about encountering the leftist Sandinista leader.

“What we don’t want to do is inject a lot of regional tensions” into the meeting, which will mark the 100th anniversary of Costa Rican democracy, Bush said in an interview with Latin American journalists that was made public Thursday.

“I’m going to be polite, charming,” Bush said. “And if I had an encounter, it would be very firm because I don’t see why that one Sandinista regime is swimming against the tide.

“Everybody knows we have a tense relationship, so I don’t want to act like we’re waltzing around there in great harmony because we’re not,” he said of Ortega. But he added: “We’re not going down there to have some battle with Mr. Ortega.”

The President denounced Soviet Bloc shipments of weapons and ammunition to Nicaragua, saying, “I’ll bring it up every chance I get.” He also criticized Nicaragua’s preparations for presidential elections scheduled for Feb. 25, saying that they are unfair to opposition candidates.

Ortega’s anticipated presence in Costa Rica has led to a high degree of anxiety on the part of U.S. officials, who had sought to have him excluded.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez refused to snub Ortega. The United States then said that it would not sign any summit communique on which Ortega’s signature is affixed. As a result, the discussions will be considered informal and no document will be offered for signature.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the idea of a communique was abandoned, in part, because the participants are not “going to be reaching any consensus on specific issues,” or any timetables for action.

In the interview, conducted Wednesday at the White House, Bush resumed his criticism of members of Congress who are dissatisfied with his Administration’s performance during the failed uprising against Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega. Noriega and Cuban leader Fidel Castro have not been invited to the conference.

“We’ve got a lot of hawks out here; we’ve got a lot of macho guys out there that want me to send somebody else’s kid into battle,” Bush said, alluding to members of Congress who advocated a greater role for the United States in the failed coup Oct. 3.

The President said his reluctance to dispatch the U.S. military to support the coup should not be interpreted as a reluctance to use force in other situations.

“That doesn’t mean that under some provocation or some denial of our rights as the United States of America that I’d be afraid to use force,” Bush said. “If somebody lays a glove on an American citizen there in the canal zone or where we have certain treaty rights, then we’ve got a different story.”