AMERICAN HELD BY NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880026-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 14, 2010
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: October 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ARTICLC Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880026-8
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8 October 1986
STAT
American held
by Nicaragua
CIA denies link
to survivor of
downed plane
Paul Goepfert
Special to The Tribune
MANAGUA, Nicaragua-The San-
dinista military Tuesday was interroga-
ting an American, the only survivor of
the four-man crew of a transport plane
shot down in Nicaragua Sunday.
The Nicaraguan government charged
that the flight was a CIA mission to ferry
supplies to U.S.-backed rebels, but the
CIA said the agency was not involved.
CIA spokeswoman Kathy Pherson said:
"The guy doesn't work for us and CIA is
not involved. . . . There are congressional
restrictions on assistance to the contras
and we do not break those restrictions."
U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz
told a Washington press conference that
it "wasn't an American [government)
cargo plane," but was hired by "private
people," including Americans.
The Nicaraguan Defense Ministry had
announced Monday that Sandinista army
troops had shot down midday Sunday the
transport plane bringing supplies and
munitions to Nicaraguan insurgents on
the Tule River, some 20 miles north of
the town of San Carlos near the Costan
Rican border.
The Ministry of Defense communique
also stated that the only survivor of the
four-man crew was a U.S. citizen. who
had identified himself as Eugen Hafenfuf,
35, a military adviser based in El Salva-
dor.
The communique further stated that
the surviving crew member identified the
other members who died in the crash as
U.S. citizens.
Relatives in Wisconsin said the man's
name was Eugene Hasenfus, 45, of
Marinette, and that he had been working
for a Florida freight service. A brother,
William Hasenfus, of Oshkosh, said Eu-
gene is a former marine aircraft load-
master who once ran a parachuting
school with him.
William Hasenfus said he did not know
the name or location of the Florida air
freight service.
A spokesman for the U.S. Em-
bassy in Managua, Alberto Fer-
nandez, asked about the incident,
said the Nicaraguan authorities
had not yet formally told the em-
bassy of the incident by this morn-
ing. "We are sending a note to the
Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry ask-
ing for more information, which
we do in all cases in which Ameri-
cans are mentioned," he said.
"We now have Americans dying
in Mr. Reagan's dirty war being
waged against Nicaragua," Alejan-
dro Bendana, Foreign Ministry
secretary-general, said on ABC's
"Nightline" program. "This brings
us closer to a direct Nicaragua-
United States confrontation."
He later claimed on ABC's
"Good Morning America" that
the plane was on "a CIA opera-
tion with CIA operatives."
As of midday Tuesday, the Nic-
araguan government had not yet
presented the surviving crew mem-
ber to the local and international
press. A small group of photo-
journalists was to have been flown
in to the jungle crash site Monday
but, because of heavy rainstorms,
the helicopters were unable to
enter the area.
Nicaraguan Defense Ministry
spokesperson Lt. June Mulligan
said the group of journalists was
en route to the site Tuesday
morning at 10:30 local time. Lt.
Mulligan said, however, that the
surviving crew member would not
immediately be made available to
journalists.
She said that he would be de-
briefed first by Sub-Commandante
Roberto Calderon, Sandinista mili-
tary commander in the region, and
then brought to Managua for fur-
ther interrogation before being
presented.
She said that the Defense Minis-
try did hope, however, to present
the crew member to the press
sometime Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the U.S.
Military Group stationed in El
Salvador denied that anyone with
that name was presently on active
duty in El Salvador. The spokes-
person said he did not know if
Eugen Hafenfuf had ever in the
past been stationed in El Salvador
but added: "I don't recognize that
name. But in any case no one
from MILGROUP would be in-
volved in such activities."
The spokesperson also was un-
able to identi yf +Hafenfuf as a free-
lance mercenary who may have
been working in El Salvador. He
said: "That sort of thing is not
MILGROUP's business. You'd
have to ask some other agency."
The Nicaraguan Defense Minis-
try said that the crew member
identified as Eugen Hafenfuf had
parachuted to safety after the
plane, tentatively identified by the
Defense Ministry as a C-123 trans-
port plane, was hit by a ground-
to-air, shoulder-held missile by
Sandinista trooops.
The crew member was then cap-
tured by Sandinista troops. It is
not known at this time if the crew
member surrendered peacefully or
if he was in any way wounded.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/14: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880026-8