Nicaragua Accuses 4 U.S. Envoys of Recruiting Spies

Nicaragua today accused four U.S. diplomats of recruiting two government officials to spy for the CIA. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy.

State Security Chief Lenin Cerna told reporters that the CIA paid “large amounts” of money to two Interior Ministry officials and the wife of one of them to pass secret information about the activities of the Sandinista government.

Reynaldo Aguado Montealagre, Jose Eduardo Trejo Silva and Trejo’s wife, Rosalinda Soza, were arrested in late February, Cerna said. He did not discuss the type of secret information the trio is accused of passing to U.S. agents.

The two Nicaraguans were recruited in the United States and maintained regular contact with U.S. Embassy officials in Managua, Cerna charged.

‘Received Equipment’

“They received (equipment) for espionage and orientation through their personal contacts with accredited U.S. Embassy officials,” he charged.

The minister also accused four U.S. diplomats of actually being CIA agents. Two of the diplomats--political officer Steven Murchinson and Vice Consul Bonnie Sue Bennett--are still working at the embassy. Neither was available for comment.

Cerna identified the other two as Benjamin Wickham, who worked at the embassy from October, 1983, to August, 1985, and Bradley Johnson, an economics officer who served in Managua from February, 1984, to December, 1985.

At the news conference, Cerna presented Aguado Montealagre to say he was lured to Miami by a false report that his mother, who lives in Florida, was seriously ill.

Aguado said Wickham recruited him in Miami and told him how to maintain contact through coded messages with other embassy officials in Managua.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman, asked for a response to the charges, said, “As a matter of practice, we do not comment on allegations of intelligence activities.”

Undecided on Action

Cerna said the government had not decided what action to take against Murchison, who arrived in August, and Bennett, who arrived in November.

In Washington today, President Reagan continued his campaign for $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan resistance by visiting a display of weapons that he said are being funneled to guerrillas in El Salvador by the Marxist-led Managua government. The President today urged members of Congress to view the weapons before they vote on his proposal.

“These weapons, and the testimony that we have heard, demonstrate the magnitude of a sophisticated communist effort to undermine democracy in this hemisphere and to deceive us in the process,” Reagan said.