Contadora: Latin America Repudiates Washington 1983

Abstract

Towards late 1982 the increased cohesion amongst regional Latin American governments and the growing congressional wariness of the covert activities reduced the administration’s capacity to pursue its agenda. Though not totally cohesive, members of both groups moved towards curtailing contra funds against the thrust of the administration and the Central American governments provided with inducements to support the programme. The competing fora for dialogue and policy decisions became contentious diplomatic issues. As earlier surmised by Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda, Mexico again offered a new search for peace. A joint letter from President José López Portillo and his Venezuelan counterpart, Luis Herrera Campíns, in September described to Reagan the grave situation between Nicaragua and Honduras, exacerbating the economic difficulties of these countries. Though they claimed to share a common objective with Washington to attain international peace and economic development in an ‘environment of freedom’, their contribution would pursue different methods to those of the United States. The US response in an undated letter from Reagan to López Portillo sometime between 21 September and 4 October, welcomed the initiative, and set out four goals to be addressed in the regional context. Primarily, ‘democratic pluralism within each nation that includes free and fair elections,’ had to be achieved; support for ‘terrorist and insurgent’ groups had to stop; a verifiable agreement banning importation of heavy weapons had to be reached; and foreign ‘security and military advisors’ had to be limited.