MANAGUA LINKS PLANE FIGURE TO '76 BOMBING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910014-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: October 16, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP91-0
OiJ PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
16 October 1986
0587R000200910014-7
Managua Links Plane Figure to 76 Bombing
By .Julia Preston charge Of finances and transporta. sada s
'''"""`""''"?' F rv ii N?r5 tion for the contra air resupply o pent more than eight years in jail in eration at the Salvadoran Air - charges Venezuela
of conspiring tin trial
15-Top MANAGUA, Sandinista Nicaragua, offOcticials. Force's Ilopango base on the out- airliner bombin
1976
claimed today that one of two al- skirts of San Salvador g before escaping in
~n_ts last w !c Hasenfus said that deAugu
st 1985. d Posada Sandinista intelligence
tecte
said leged to CIA have employes of supervised Cuban
secret air origin M
edina and Max Gomez the other her this
El Salvador ear-
Luba"
resupply operation in El Salvador is anon in 1 Sal- year under the Medina
a fugitive Cuban terrorist. 2' ked for the CI Pseudonym, Carrion said.
Hasenfus reportedly said that The Sandinista officers also said
The officials quoted American Max Gomez resembles a Cuban
prisoner Eugene Hasenfus, 45, as Medina also handled any paperwork named Gustavo Villoldo who they
saying the Cuban, reportedly known at the U.S. Embassy for the Amer- said worked with the contras in Hon.
in El Salvador as "Ramon Medina," icans on the 24-to-26-person team duras in 1984. Carrion read from a
told associates there that he was a in the secret operation, since they January 1984 letter signed b
"friend" of Vice President Bush. were prohibited from approaching y more
than a dozen contra field command.
Deputy Interior Minister Luis the embassy themselves. ers and addressed to an American
Carrion and Commander Lenin Hasenfus "declared that both Me- "Col. Raymond" in Honduras, asking
Cerna, head of the state security dina and Gomez boasted of being for Villoldo to be allowed to join di.
Police, reported at a midday press friends of Vice President Bush; rectly in the contra operation.
conference that they had concluded Carrion said. The Prisoner report. Hasenfus' wife, Sally Jean, left
"Medina" actually is Luis Posada edly said the American Pilot of the Nicaragua today after six days to
Carriles, who is wanted in Venezue. crashed plane, William J. Cooper, rejoin their three children at-their
la, they said, for the 1976 bombing also confirmed to him that the two Wisconsin home and seek legal
of a Cubans Airlines plane in which Cubans were Bush associates. counsel for her husband.
73 persons were killed. f In Washington, Bush's press
Reporters have not been able to secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, said
question Hasenfus, captured Oct. 6 that Bush had "never met" Medina
in southern Nicaragua the day after and doesn't know him.]
his C123K cargo plane was downed. Carrion. o skins in
The press has no direct knowledge s_g_ wasn't an
of the conditions under which he is re n ~~jp~~lfaS yCItQ
being held or interrogated by the ntly senfus. But Hasenfus appar.
Interior Ministry, end said oon
Sandinista intelligence officers was in~~ d
by Max Gom
ties to the CIA_
obtained what they called a positive Hasenfus is said to have believe
identification of Posada when Ha- the contra air ro missions were
senfus picked the Cuban's photo run byte cause h 1oing~
from an array of mug shots as the them through Southern Air Tranc
man he knew as Medina, Cerna Wort. a A![iami air cargo firm where
said.
he worked in the 1960s when it was
The officers deduced Posada's under CIA contract
identity from Hasenfus' statements None of the documents recov-
and other sources they did not di- ered from the charred wreckage of
vulge. In response to a reporter's the plane links it directly to Bush or
question as to whether the Interior the U.S. government, Carrion said.
Ministry was aided by Cuban intel-
ligence. Carrion said "friendly gov- Hasenfus cooperated voluntarily
ernments" cooperated over several rion with saidSandinista intelligence, Car-
years with a Nicaraguan investiga. said.
tion into the participation of Cubans He said this wasn't his war," said
with the counterrevolutionary reb- Carrion, who is one of the nine top
els. known as contras. Sandinista commanders. Hasenfus
The Sandi i to w k- asse reportedly said he took the job as a
that osa a was a CIA a ent fry cargo handler on the mission at-
at least th rough 1967 did mooed by the salary of $3,000 a
nrovi e a uhotoaraoh of the !`..i.a., month plus $750 a flight.
The officers said Hasenfus told According to Sandinista files, Po.
his questioners that Medina was in
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910014-7