Senate panel turns back Reagan on Caribbean plan

In a surprise defeat for President Reagan, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee rejected his request for $350 million in direct aid for the Caribbean but instead recommended that the United States contribute an equal amount to an international trust fund.

The trust fund approved by the committee would collect assistance for underdeveloped Caribbean countries from Mexico, Venezuela, and other developed countries in the hemisphere. No more than a third could be contributed by the United States.

Stephen Bosworth, deputy assistant secretary of state, said the trust fund could not be set up before 1984 and said several Caribbean nations needed American aid quickly to reverse their deteriorating economies.