5 Leaders Gather for Latin Summit

TELA, Honduras —  The leaders of five Central American nations gathered Saturday for the opening of a peace summit that could decide the fate of the U.S.-backed Contras and their eight-year-old war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.

The summit at the beach resort of Tela, on Honduras’ Caribbean coast, marked the fourth time the presidents of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have met since they signed a peace accord Aug. 7, 1987, that was to resolve the region’s longstanding civil wars.

Honduran Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez Contreras and other diplomats said the presidents would discuss a plan to disband an army of about 11,000 U.S.-funded Contras based in southern Honduras in exchange for democratic reforms and elections by Nicaragua.

The plan was approved at the last regional summit, held in February in El Salvador, when Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced that his government would hold national elections in February, 1990.