On the Scene: The Dodd Doctrine

WASHINGTON, D.C.—On August 7, in the coastal Honduran resort of Tela, five scared Central American presidents looked over their shoulders at a fickle Uncle Sam and signed what Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega called “the Contras’ death warrant.” Under the terms of the Tela agreement the Contras would have to disband by December 8, well before the scheduled February 25 elections in Nicaragua.

Back home in Washington the Bush Administration is trying to put a good face on the agreement by pointing out how many times the word “voluntary” appears in the document; Mr. Ortega, in a somewhat different interpretation, says that Contra troops who don’t voluntarily disarm and disband will have to be “exterminated.” Either way, the Sandinistas lose any incentive not to rig the election, unless aid to the Contras and their families based along the Honduran side of the border (some fifty thousand people) continues to flow through February to keep them together as a force. And this decision has now been placed in the hands of six key Democrats: Senators Robert Byrd (W.V.), Claiborne Pell (R.I.), and George Mitchell (Me.), and Representatives Thomas Foley (Wash.), Dante Fascell (Fla.), and Jamie L. Whitten (Miss.).

WM

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William McGurn

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—On August 7, in the coastal Honduran resort of Tela, five scared Central American presidents looked over their shoulders at a fickle Uncle Sam and signed what Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega called “the Contras’ death warrant.” Under the terms of the Tela agreement the Contras would have to disband by December 8, well before the scheduled February 25 elections in Nicaragua.

Back home in Washington the Bush Administration is trying to put a good face on the agreement by pointing out how many times the word “voluntary” appears in the document; Mr. Ortega, in a somewhat different interpretation, says that Contra troops who don’t voluntarily disarm and disband will have to be “exterminated.” Either way, the Sandinistas lose any incentive not to rig the election, unless aid to the Contras and their families based along the Honduran side of the border (some fifty thousand people) continues to flow through February to keep them together as a force. And this decision has now been placed in the hands of six key Democrats: Senators Robert Byrd (W.V.), Claiborne Pell (R.I.), and George Mitchell (Me.), and Representatives Thomas Foley (Wash.), Dante Fascell (Fla.), and Jamie L. Whitten (Miss.).