Unwelcome Guests

With its $100 million aid package for Nicaraguan rebels all but in hand, the Administration had some cause to suppose it could get on with it and prepare the rebels to do serious battle with the Sandinista regime. Yet the Senate's debate on the aid measure had hardly subsided when Administration officials began wondering when, and just where, they could begin getting the contras into fighting trim.

Administration leaks mentioned three of Nicaragua's neighbors -- Honduras, Panama and El Salvador -- as possible training sites and sanctuaries. But as soon as the speculations surfaced, it became clear that opposition to some of the Administration's anti-Sandinista schemes came not just from Congress but also from Honduras, Panama and El Salvador.

All three sternly declined suggestions from the U.S. that they provide training grounds for the contras. The rebuffs were not altogether surprising. None of the three want to get dragged incidentally into a possible U.S.-Nicaragua war. Nor do they want to be caught on the losing side if, as they strongly expect, the contras are defeated by the Sandinistas.

Still, in the through-the-looking-glass world of U.S.-Central American dealings, it is wiser to watch what countries do than what they say. U.S. officials construed the refusals as signals to Washington that the Administration should treat its Central American friends with more respect, and more generously. There was strong suspicion among some State Department officials that while Panama and El Salvador were earnest about wanting no part of the contras, Honduras -- for the past four years a major unofficial contra refuge -- hopes to induce the U.S. to sweeten its aid allotment. Observers noted that a Honduran delegation was in Washington last week negotiating for a larger helping from the $300 million pot earmarked for Honduras and three other Central American nations as part of the same measure that will give assistance to the contras.

Meanwhile, U.S. military planners began going through the motions of considering other possible training sites. Fort Benning, Ga., was mentioned. So was, to the horror of some officials at State, politically volatile Puerto Rico. But most experts suspected that in the end, as part of a "covert" anti-Sandinista campaign that has been wide open all along, Honduras would agree to maintain the "covert" contra training camps while officially denying their existence. One Honduran official seemed resigned to as much when he likened dealing with the U.S. to "being in bed with an elephant: whatever movement there is, no matter how gentle or amorous, we're going to be smashed."