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senator from Florida. Mr. President, I rise for purposes of offering an amendment which I then intend to ask to be withdrawn after having an opportunity to briefly discuss it. And there might be others who would like to comment upon it. So, Mr Chairman, Mr President, since to the desk the memory, the clerk will report the amendments.

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The senator from Florida, Mr Graham, proposes an amendment number 9 43 on page 1 11 between lines 16 and 17. Insert the following criteria for measuring Nicaragua's compliance with the Guatemalan accord. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to weigh the further reading of the amendment without objection.

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Mr. President, we all share a common hope for our neighbors in this hemisphere, and that is a hope for peace. But peace as a word has many meanings One definition of pieces, the cessation of hostilities. We hope that that will be part of the definition of peace.

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Another definition of peace, which is deeper, is a true respect for dignity, for human rights, for those rights of each individual that we as a nation stand for which we fought for under the Declaration of Independence and which we venerate this year in the 2/100 anniversary of our constitution.

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It is to that deeper definition of peace that we are now especially committed in the five nations of Central America. The debate which I hope this amendment, which I offer for purposes of focusing the attention of this great deliberative body but recognize that today is not today, which to engage a full debate.

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But this is a debate, Mr President, which we will have. And the question is under what circumstances and when I believe, Mr President that it would be in the interests of our nation and in the interest of the region. If we were to clearly establish the standards by which we will eventually place grades in terms of compliance with the Guatemala accords, we cannot avoid eventually having to set those standards and applying those grades.

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The issue is, Will we do it in one acrimonious debate, probably framed on the issue of Has there been sufficient compliance that we can now with confidence, withdraw a military option from Nicaragua? Or will they be arrived at in a sequential form where we can clearly establish what we expect of the Sandinistas and send a message to the Sandinistas themselves as to how we will be viewing them in terms of the grades that they will ultimately receive the language of the amendment.

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Mr President operates within the boundaries and perimeters of the Guatemala City accord. There are important national security interest to the United States which lie outside that document. The most significant to me is the issue of the continued Soviet Central European Cuban presence in Nicaragua. In a recent meeting with the president of El Salvador, President Wart, that strong leader for democracy in the region stated that it was not possible for the countries of Central America to negotiate and would be inappropriate for the countries of Central America to purport to negotiate the relations between the United States and the superpower, that the United States must negotiate those issues of continued Soviet and surrogate presence in Nicaragua with the Soviet Union itself.

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I agree with President War Tank and I would encourage that as an important part of our evaluation of our own national security interest in this region, that we encourage the president and those who have responsibility for the foreign relations of this country to place as a high priority the negotiation with the Soviet Union of their elimination of military presence in our hemisphere.

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Mr. President, The reason why I feel it is important that we prior to November 7th determine the standards by which we will evaluate. Performance is particularly demonstrated in the area of the Guatemala City accords. Under the key requirement of democratization, I'm going to read Mr President the first sentence of the paragraph under democratization as illustrative of what the accord requires and then leave it to the members of this body to assess the difficulty of applying a standard of performance or non performance against this sentence.

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Democratization. The government's commit themselves to promote an authentic, pluralistic and participatory democratic process, which implies the promotion of social justice, the respect for human rights, sovereignty, territorial integrity of the nation and the right of all nations to freely determine without any sort of foreign interference, its own economic, political and social model, and they will undertake in a verifiable manner the measures conducive to the establishment and, when necessary, the perfection of representative and pluralistic democratic systems which guarantee the organization of political parties and the effective popular participation in decision making and the assurance of free access to differing currents of opinion to honest and periodic electoral processes based on clear observance of citizens rights.

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That is the first sentence there. The senator is entitled to be heard mhm. That Mr President, is the first sentence of the paragraph under democratization. I suggest, Mr President, that that is a sentence which defies our ability now a week from now, a month or a year from now to determine compliance.

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Thus, I suggest that for our own purposes and so that those in the region who are going to be affected by how we evaluate performance, that we take the step of giving some definition in response to that same issue of democratization. Mr. President, the amendment before the Senate suggest this level of specificity that in the restoration of the freedom of expression that we request the following as a standard of performance.

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One. Allow the establishment of all publications, including all of those previously closed down by the government. Two. Rescind all decrees and constitutional articles that restrict the freedom of expression. Three. Return confiscated media outlets to prior owners. Four. Provide unrestricted and equal access to newsprint. Key supplies and foreign exchange to import equipment and spare parts.

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Five in all forms of economic harassment against independent publishers. Six. Allow private television broadcasting. Seven. Allow the reopening of some 25 private news programs closed or taken over by the governor government beginning in 1982 and a in all arbitrary arrest and turbo attacks against journalists, writers and publishers.

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President I suggest that is the level of specificity that this Senate, this Congress and the people of the United States want to be able to apply in making a very important judgment for the future of this hemisphere and the national security interest of the United States of America.

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Since proposing this amendment, I have met with chairman and ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee. I have met with the members of the observer Commission appointed by the leadership of the Senate. I have discussed what I feel is the critical importance of establishing these specific standards, and I have been given assurance not from all but from a significant majority of those with whom I have discussed this matter, uh, that this would be given serious consideration by the Committee by the observer group so that this full Senate, after an opportunity for full consideration of what the specifics of these standards of measurement should be, will have an opportunity to adopt for our own purposes and for the benefit of the peace process in Central America.

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Our standard of measurement, Mr. President, with that statement and with the hope and expectation that well before November 7th, we are going to be asked not only to set the standard, but also to apply a grade of performance behind those standards. That this Senate will have clearly stated how we intend to evaluate performance by a government which has caused such rancor in the region and in this hemisphere, and a government in which we might be asked to invest our faith in the future of its performance.

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Mr. President, uh, with those remarks, uh, and reserving, uh, two other senators who might wish to speak on this matter. I would ask to withdraw the amendment that has been offered, uh, and look forward to a day when we can have a full debate to a final conclusion on this issue.

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Objection. The amendment is withdrawn. Approach Senator from