Hasenfus Says CIA Supervised Flights : 2 Salvador-Based Agents Named by Captive American

Captured American air crewman Eugene Hasenfus said Thursday that two Cuban-American CIA agents based in El Salvador directed supply flights to Nicaraguan rebels from military bases in El Salvador and Honduras.

Hasenfus, who is in the custody of Sandinista security forces, said at a press conference that he has flown on 10 missions to air-drop arms and ammunition to the contras, as the U.S.-backed rebels are called .

Sandinista military officials presented recovered flight documents that indicate more than two dozen other Americans may have flown on such rebel supply missions.

1984 Prohibition

The CIA has been prohibited from directing contras operations since 1984, and the governments of El Salvador and Honduras deny that their countries are used as supply or operations bases for the rebels, who are fighting to oust the Marxist-led Sandinista government.

U.S. officials repeatedly have denied any connection with the supply flight that Sandinista troops shot down last Sunday with three Americans on board.

Hasenfus, 45, a former U.S. marine with parachute and air cargo drop training, was captured in southern Nicaragua on Monday, a day after he parachuted out of the camouflaged C-123. Two other Americans and an unidentified Latin American were killed in the crash.

The bodies of pilot William J. Cooper and co-pilot Wallace Blaine Sawyer Jr. were delivered to the U.S. Embassy on Thursday afternoon.

Hasenfus, of Marinette, Wis., spoke at the press conference for about 15 minutes in a slow monotone and with downcast eyes. He was interrupted occasionally by questions from Nicaraguan army Capt. Ricardo Wheelock, chief of military intelligence, which he answered, but he was ushered away before reporters could question him further.

Wheelock said Hasenfus requested “on a number of occasions” that he not be interviewed by reporters.

Interrogated by Police

Hasenfus is in custody of Interior Ministry security forces and has been interrogated by police and army officials. He met with his wife, Sally, for about half an hour Thursday but still has not been allowed to speak with U.S. Embassy consular officers.

” . . . There were two Cuban nationalized Americans that work for the CIA that did most of the coordination of these flights and overseen all of our housing projects, transportation projects, and also refueling and some flight plans,” Hasenfus said.

He identified the American agents as Max Gomez and Ramon Medina.

Neither Hasenfus nor Sandinista officials provided any documents implicating Gomez or Medina, although Wheelock insisted that such documents were found among captured material. Wheelock said Hasenfus told Nicaraguan officials that neither of the Cuban-Americans flew in any of the supply flights, but were the “bosses.”

In San Salvador, the Salvadoran armed forces, which receives millions of dollars in U.S. aid money, went to great lengths Thursday to distance itself from the flight or any contras supply scheme.

Salvadoran Communique

“It is not correct that planes used to support the contras are at the Salvadoran air force (base) and that any of its installations are used to send logistic support to the contras,” a communique from the armed forces high command said.

The statement also denied that Hasenfus and members of the crew were U.S. military advisers stationed in El Salvador. The communique described as “malicious” attempts to link El Salvador to the incident.

Wheelock provided a telephone number in El Salvador where he said the Cuban-Americans could be reached, but there was no answer.

Wheelock said that Hasenfus had lived at the El Salvador Ramada Inn, Room 211, but hotel owner Federico Cruz said he had no record of anyone by that name staying there during the past 10 days. But Cruz declined to pursue the question beyond that time frame.

Hasenfus told reporters that he had worked as an air freight specialist from 1965 to 1973 with Air America, a CIA-front company that carried out covert operations throughout Southeast Asia.

He said that Cooper, also a former Air America pilot, contacted him in June, 1986, to fly contras supply missions in Central America. Hasenfus said he understood he would be working for Corporate Air Service for $3,000 a month plus housing and expenses.

“Ex-Air America pilot Bill Cooper called me and asked if I would be interested in flying in Central America. I was told we would be flying from El Salvador, into Honduras to Aguacate,” Hasenfus said.

Southern Air Transport, a private Miami-based firm that was once owned by the CIA, has admitted that it issued a company identification card to Cooper “to enable him (to have access) to Southern Air’s premises to supervise the maintenance of his aircraft” by the company.

Southern Air said it does not operate any C-123s and did not operate the aircraft downed in Nicaragua. However, a plane of that type, painted in military camouflage, was seen outside the Southern Air building earlier this week.

In Washington, Federal Aviation Administration records show that the plane’s registration number, N674JK, is associated with Corporate Air Service. That firm operates from the Southern Air building.

The downed C-123 bore the identifying tail number of N4410F. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Fairchild C-123F with that number was last registered to Doan Helicopter Inc., a firm listing its address as a post office box in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Attempts to reach officials of the Doan company were unsuccessful.

At his press conference, Hasenfus frequently referred to the Ilopango and Aguacate bases.

U.S.-Built Base

Ilopango is the Salvadoran air force’s principal base on the outskirts of San Salvador and Aguacate is a U.S.-built Honduran military base. Both have long been used as contras supply bases, according to sources familiar with rebel activities.

“I have flown 10 flights myself. Four of those originated out of Aguacate, Honduras, into Nicaragua. Six originated out of El Salvador, Ilopango,” Hasenfus said.

Hasenfus said he had met about 24 to 26 transport company personnel in El Salvador, including flight crews, maintenance crews, drivers and the two Cuban Americans he said work for the CIA.

Sandinista military officials displayed the airplane’s flight log, and pilot Sawyer’s personal flight log books from June, 1985, to September, 1986, in which at least 34 crew members with American-sounding names are listed.

Wheelock opened to a random page of the airplane’s flight log and read: “September 14, 1986, airplane C-123K, registration HP824. Ilopango to Aguacate, Aguacate to Ilopango. Freight, 10,000 pounds. Crew, Cooper, Gamelin, Dutton and Hines.”

In Sawyer’s log and expense account book, the last flight in Central America listed is for Aug. 21, 1986. It lists Gamelin and Stemwedel as the crew on a DHC4 aircraft and says it went from “AGU to YSV,” which Wheelock said are the abbreviations for Aguacate and Ilopango airports.

Hasenfus is listed as a crew member in Sawyer’s book for a 55-minute flight on Aug. 20, 1986 from “YSV” to “YSV.”

Wheelock said the flight log from the downed C-123’s showed that the aircraft also had made 18 internal flights in Honduras to Aguacate and to areas of eastern Honduras where the contras and allied Indian rebel groups are known to have bases.

Little Red Book

In the front of one of the little red books, Sawyer is identified as a captain with Southern Air Transport. In the back of the book are written the New Orleans telephone numbers of Mario Calero, brother of anti-Sandinista rebel leader Adolfo Calero.

Wheelock said the aircraft shot down in Nicaragua was carrying supplies to rebels of Calero’s group, the Nicaraguan Democratic Front.

Wheelock also exhibited a blank flight-plan form from the El Salvador Aeronautics Board, a Salvadoran government agency.

Government officials have said that Hasenfus “most likely” will be tried. The charges against him are not known, but the maximum penalty in Nicaragua is 30 years.

When asked about Hasenfus’ state of mind, Wheelock answered, “He is in a difficult situation. He’s a mercenary who has been shot out of the sky. He has cooperated with us and is in very good condition.”

The U.S. Embassy on Thursday night issued a statement protesting the lack of consular access to Hasenfus and the “ghoulish behavior” that they said characterized the return of the remains of the two Americans.

The statement said the lack of access violated the Vienna Consular Convention of 1963.

Despite repeated written and verbal requests from the embassy, the Nicaraguan government has “failed to meet its basic obligations” and let U.S. officials meet with Hasenfus. An embassy official said, “We don’t know what his condition is.”

Referring to the treatment of the remains of the two Americans, the statement said the Sandinistas had agreed to drive the coffins to the embassy.

“Instead they stopped a block away and made a spectacle of walking the coffins to the gate and leaving them there.”

An embassy source said the Sandinistas told officials that the remains had been cremated and that the coffins contained just ashes. He said the coffins had not yet been opened by embassy officials.

Times staff writer Dan Williams contributed to this story from San Salvador.