Central America Leaders to Meet Today in Shrine Town

ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala — For the first time since the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua seven years ago, the presidents of the five Central American countries will meet today in this mountain valley town, site of a shrine centered on a black figure of Christ that was carved in the 16th Century and is believed to be responsible for miracles.

“The first miracle is that the presidents are meeting at all,” said Roderico Ruiz, an adviser to President Vinicio Cerezo of Guatemala.

Cerezo and Presidents Jose Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador, Jose Azcona Hoyo of Honduras, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica will hold five hours of private talks in a Benedictine monastery today and Sunday to discuss possible solutions to regional conflicts.

Cerezo called for the meeting in his inaugural address in January. Like Cerezo, Azcona and Arias are also new in office this year.

Parliament Proposal

The Guatemalan leader proposes to discuss the formation of a Central American Parliament as a permanent forum for resolving problems among the five countries. His advisers say this is the first item on an agenda that also includes regional trade issues.

The meeting comes amid renewed activity in the four-nation Contadora Group’s efforts to conclude a peace treaty among the five Central American nations and get them to sign it by June 6, and the Contadora process could overshadow the other issues on the agenda here.

The five are still far apart on such key elements of the proposed Contadora treaty as a regional balance of military forces and the presence in the area of foreign military advisers. U.S. allies Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica tend to be together on one side of the issues with Nicaragua on the other, while Guatemala publicly maintains a more neutral stance.

Mexico, Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela initiated the Contadora process more than three years ago, taking the name from the the Panamanian resort island of Contadora where they first met in January, 1983. Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay joined together last year as a Contadora support group.

Focus of Controversy

The proposed Contadora peace treaty became the focus of controversy in the Reagan Administration earlier this week when a Pentagon policy report concluded that Nicaragua, fighting U.S.-backed Nicaraguan contras, would violate any treaty that it signed. The report, criticized by the State Department, argued that adoption of the treaty would limit the ability of other Central Americans to respond to Nicaraguan violations and ultimately lead to direct, costly U.S. intervention in the region.

The two-day meeting here is seen as a prime opportunity for the five Central American chiefs of state to try to resolve the Contadora issues that still divide them.

Security in Esquipulas, located near Guatemala’s frontier with Honduras and El Salvador, was extremely tight Friday. Guatemalan soldiers and police were reinforced by small forces from the other four countries. Cars entering the town and their occupants were searched.

Esquipulas, a historic religious center, draws thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims from throughout Central America each year to touch and kiss the dark, wooden figure of Christ known as “El Senor de Esquipulas.”

Carved in 1594

The figure, carved in 1594, is housed in a white colonial basilica. It stands on a silver altar surrounded by plaques, photographs, drawings and other gifts offered in return for miracles.

“Gratitude to the Senor of Esquipulas for the miracle of saving my daughter for me,” Rosa Elvira Guerra wrote on a primitive painting she made in 1983.

The summit meeting has attracted international attention and gained a face lift for Esquipulas, a prosperous town of about 9,000 that thrives on tourism.

In two months of planning for the presidential meeting, streets have been paved, sidewalks built and new telephone lines installed. The town is sparkling with a new paint job, and proud of its first-time reception of national television.

The local airstrip was paved for the event and its water system was expanded. An artisans’ market is being built to keep street vendors from crowding around the church to sell their candles and candy.

‘A Great Step’

“This has been a great step for the people of Esquipulas,” said Juan Alvarez, 42, a shoemaker. “You don’t get a million dollars poured into your town every day.”

Townspeople have hung white flags for peace over their balconies and doors. They say they do not want war in Central America.

“We in Central America are not the ones who want war,” Alvarez said. “We’re just the pawns they’re moving on the board of international politics.”

The presidents are expected to arrive late this morning and to leave Sunday afternoon after signing a statement in the church, which has been waxed and shined and freshly painted.

On Friday, the church was being equipped by noisy workers with microphones for an international press conference, with an antique table and chairs shipped from the presidential offices in Guatemala City, and with five new flagpoles.

Not everyone was pleased with the changes. “If God could come down from the sky. . . .,” an aproned housewife said, shaking her gray head. “Look what they are doing to this church!”