Right Wing in Mexico Asked to Aid Contras

WASHINGTON —  A conservative American fund-raiser linked to fired White House aide Lt. Col. Oliver L. North asked a prominent Mexican politician to donate $210,000 to fund television ads in favor of U.S.-supported rebels in Nicaragua, U.S. sources said Wednesday.

In return, the Mexican’s right-wing political party would get at least a nod of recognition from President Reagan for its efforts to wrest power from Mexico’s ruling party, the sources said.

According to the sources, the request for the money was made last Aug. 14 by Carl R. (Spitz) Channell, a political fund-raiser, during a meeting with Ricardo Villa Escalera, a member of Mexico’s National Action Party who was visiting Washington. Channell recently pleaded guilty to charges of helping to arm the contras by illegally using money given to a tax-exempt foundation.

The request never went anywhere; Villa said no. He and other National Action leaders contend that he never even brought the idea up--and, if he had, the party would have turned it down.

Firestorm in Mexico

The incident has created a political firestorm in Mexico, where National Action, the country’s largest opposition party, is on the defensive about its ties to the United States. National Action, commonly called PAN, has posed stiff electoral opposition to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in recent years, especially in states along the U.S. border.

According to notes reportedly written during the Villa-Channel meeting by Jane McLaughlin, an associate of Channel, the lure offered to Villa was a suggestion that Reagan himself would take up the cause of PAN’s political struggle in Mexico.

Channell had met with Reagan two days before, according to McLaughlin’s notes. During his contra fund-raising career, Channell frequently promised other donors visits with Reagan.

The White House refused to comment on the reported Reagan meeting with Channell or the Channell meeting with the Mexican politician.

Villa, who ran unsuccessfully for governor of the state of Puebla in Mexico last year, denied that Channell had asked him for money but said that McLaughlin did.