Central Am. College Heads Criticize Reagan's Policies

The presidents of two Central American universities and representatives of the student unions of Central America called upon the Reagan Administration to sign an agreement to abandon American interventism in the region, before a crowd of about 140 yesterday at the Kennedy School of Government.

In a statement prepared before the event, the speakers called on the American government to sign the agreement which sprang from the Contadora peace initiative--a 1982 Latin American proposal which calls or self-determination for the countries of Central America and the elimination of outside intervention.

Dr. Miguel Parada, Rector of the University of El Salvador, spoke of he assault by the El Salvadoran army on the university in 1980 which resulted in the four year confiscation of the entire campus and the deaths of between 27 and 40 staff members and students.

Referring to the Salvadoran government as "run by the United States government," he said that he and his colleagues "are nearly in a panic trying to figure out what will happen after November" if President Reagan is reelected.

Arnoldo Soto, Secretary General of the Central American University Students Union, answering a question from the audience, labelled the United States as the most dangerous military power in Central America and said that the United States government "runs the risk of turning Central America into another Vietnam."

The group of speakers was first organized in response to the violence which had taken the lives of hundreds of students and faculty throughout Central America and which the members felt threatened to involve countries outside the region.

The group came to Harvard as part of a speaking tour of universities all across the United States to enlist the support of American students and academics in the effort for peace in Central America.