Costa Rica Foreign Relations Nicaragua

President Oscar Arias Sanchez said Thursday that the Sandinista rulers in Nicaragua are "bad guys" who have "unmasked themselves" as anti-democratic and deserve to be punished for breaking the Central American peace agreement. In his harshest criticism of the Sandinistas, the author of the peace accord said he was prepared to urge non-military pressures on them to resume peace talks with U.S.-backed Contras and end political repression. He did not spell out any proposed sanctions.

When Oscar Arias Sanchez was elected to govern this country four years ago, his neighbor, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, sneered. Costa Rica's political system, envied by many in Latin America as a model of stability, was a "bourgeois democracy," Ortega said. "It's like a lottery," he added, in which power is "raffled" among factions of the upper class instead of being held by a "popular vanguard" like his Sandinista National Liberation Front.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez complained Thursday that continued U.S. aid to Nicaragua's contras is an obstacle to his peace plan for Central America, but he said he does not believe that the Reagan Administration is actively trying to sabotage his proposal. Nicaragua "can't become a pluralistic country if there is war," Arias told a press conference after two days of talks with President Reagan and other U.S. officials.

President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica urged the Salvadoran government and leftist guerrillas Sunday to declare a Christmas cease-fire after the bloodiest month of combat in that country's decade-old civil war. Arias made the appeal in a proposal submitted at a meeting here of the five Central American presidents. He called on the two sides in El Salvador to stop fighting from Tuesday through Jan.

Nicaraguan contras freed 80 prisoners of war Friday and urged similar steps by the Sandinista government to end the war. Only 20 of the prisoners, however, said they were willing to return to Nicaragua. The prisoners, half of them Sandinista army conscripts, were helicoptered from a jungle camp in Honduras near the Nicaraguan border to Honduras' Aguacate Air Base. From there, a pilot flew them in an old DC-6 to the commercial airport in this Costa Rican farming town.

Nicaragua told the World Court in The Hague that it is dropping its case against Costa Rica, in which the Sandinista government accused its Central American neighbor of tolerating U.S.-backed contra operations on its territory. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had said his government would drop the case in the wake of last week's five-nation peace plan for Central America.

The author of a Central American peace agreement on Thursday urged Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to negotiate a cease-fire with U.S.-backed contras through mediation by the country's Roman Catholic cardinal. President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica sent his proposal in a letter to the Sandinista leader as the five Central American foreign ministers opened two days of talks on how to carry out the accord.

President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica urged the Salvadoran government and leftist guerrillas Sunday to declare a Christmas cease-fire after the bloodiest month of combat in that country's decade-old civil war. Arias made the appeal in a proposal submitted at a meeting here of the five Central American presidents. He called on the two sides in El Salvador to stop fighting from Tuesday through Jan.

El Salvador's decision to suspend relations with Nicaragua has dealt a crippling and perhaps fatal blow to a Central American peace process that, just a month ago, seemed moving toward a settlement of guerrilla wars in both countries. Since August, 1987, four landmark agreements among the region's presidents have diverted much of the U.S.-backed Contra war against Nicaragua's Sandinista rulers into a broadly contested political campaign that is to culminate in national elections next Feb. 25.

The CIA recalled its chief officer in Costa Rica last week for aiding the private airlift of weapons to Nicaraguan rebels during a ban on U.S. military aid to the contras, Administration and congressional sources said Thursday. The intelligence agency told the Senate Intelligence Committee this week that it recalled its station chief from the U.S.

El Salvador's decision to suspend relations with Nicaragua has dealt a crippling and perhaps fatal blow to a Central American peace process that, just a month ago, seemed moving toward a settlement of guerrilla wars in both countries. Since August, 1987, four landmark agreements among the region's presidents have diverted much of the U.S.-backed Contra war against Nicaragua's Sandinista rulers into a broadly contested political campaign that is to culminate in national elections next Feb. 25.

President Bush on Saturday denounced Nicaragua's decision to resume warfare against the Contras, calling the move by President Daniel Ortega "shameful" and "outrageous." Ortega announced Friday that his Sandinista government will unilaterally end a 19-month cease-fire in the war with the U.S.-backed rebels.

Costa Rican National Guardsmen have killed one Nicaraguan rebel and arrested two others in a clash on Costa Rican territory, a Security Ministry spokesman said. Carlos Jimenez said that a group of 40 guardsmen clashed with about 30 Contras on Saturday about a mile south of the San Juan River on Costa Rica's border with Nicaragua. There were no casualties on the Costa Rican side, he added.

President Oscar Arias Sanchez said Thursday that the Sandinista rulers in Nicaragua are "bad guys" who have "unmasked themselves" as anti-democratic and deserve to be punished for breaking the Central American peace agreement. In his harshest criticism of the Sandinistas, the author of the peace accord said he was prepared to urge non-military pressures on them to resume peace talks with U.S.-backed Contras and end political repression. He did not spell out any proposed sanctions.

Two officers of Nicaragua's army stole a Soviet-made airplane Saturday and flew to Costa Rica, where they sought political asylum, Costa Rican officials said. Carlos Gadea Arostenos and Jacinto Ramirez Mendez landed the 16-seat army aircraft with Russian markings in Las Piedras, in the province of Guanacaste, the Department of Public Security officials reported.

The government has suspended a program allowing its citizens to visit relatives in Costa Rica each weekend, citing decisions by hundreds of Nicaraguans to remain in that neighboring country. Federico Lopez Arguello, the president's representative in southeastern Nicaragua, announced the move late Thursday, accusing Costa Rican officials of trying to persuade Nicaraguans to seek refugee status there.

Two officers of Nicaragua's army stole a Soviet-made airplane Saturday and flew to Costa Rica, where they sought political asylum, Costa Rican officials said. Carlos Gadea Arostenos and Jacinto Ramirez Mendez landed the 16-seat army aircraft with Russian markings in Las Piedras, in the province of Guanacaste, the Department of Public Security officials reported.

Nicaraguan contras freed 80 prisoners of war Friday and urged similar steps by the Sandinista government to end the war. Only 20 of the prisoners, however, said they were willing to return to Nicaragua. The prisoners, half of them Sandinista army conscripts, were helicoptered from a jungle camp in Honduras near the Nicaraguan border to Honduras' Aguacate Air Base. From there, a pilot flew them in an old DC-6 to the commercial airport in this Costa Rican farming town.

The author of a Central American peace agreement on Thursday urged Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to negotiate a cease-fire with U.S.-backed contras through mediation by the country's Roman Catholic cardinal. President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica sent his proposal in a letter to the Sandinista leader as the five Central American foreign ministers opened two days of talks on how to carry out the accord.