World Notes NICARAGUA

Eden Pastora, the perennial Nicaraguan maverick, returned to Managua last week in a homecoming more quixotic than heroic. The charismatic former guerrilla will campaign for dark-horse Social Christian presidential candidate Erick Ramirez, touting him as an alternative to both the Marxist Sandinistas and the National Opposition Union, a coalition dominated by the right wing.

Under the nom de guerre Commander Zero, Pastora became a revolutionary superstar in 1978 after leading a raid on the National Palace that helped topple the Somoza regime a year later. Partly because he was unhappy with the Sandinistas' growing dependence on Moscow, he quit as Vice Minister of Defense and in 1983 launched a guerrilla war against his former comrades. But he rejected CIA pressure to join the main contra faction and was finally forced to quit fighting.

Pastora can dazzle audiences, but he is not a candidate. His stumping for Ramirez will probably split opposition votes, which is one reason the Sandinistas let Pastora return in the first place.

In the microns by which progress toward peace in the Middle East is measured, last week's announcement by Egypt was a significant advance. With the Palestine Liberation Organization's approval, Cairo formally accepted in principle U.S. Secretary of State James Baker's five-point plan for talks between Palestinians and Israel.

Egypt attached conditions to its acceptance, as did Israel when it endorsed the plan last month. And since Baker's five points were deftly ambiguous to begin with, the endorsements of Cairo and Jerusalem imply no resolution of their fundamental differences. The major open issues: Israel refuses to meet with representatives of the P.L.O. and insists that talks stick to its scheme for elections in the occupied territories leading to limited self-rule. The P.L.O. is determined to choose the Palestinian delegation and pursue the creation of an independent homeland. The next step is for the foreign ministers of Israel and Egypt to meet with Baker to shape the direct IsraeliPalestinian meetings.