Contra Leader Pastora Reported in Copter Crash

Nicaraguan guerrilla leader Eden Pastora survived a helicopter crash in embattled southern Nicaragua and is recovering from slight injuries, a Costa Rican radio station reported Wednesday.

Pastora’s chief political aide denied the specifics of the broadcast but acknowledged that Pastora had been missing since radio contact with his aircraft was lost late Tuesday in a border area that was under artillery fire from Nicaraguan army units.

“We cannot rule out that the helicopter was hit by fire from government troops,” Jose Davila, an aide to the contra leader, said. “The search continues.”

In Managua, the Nicaraguan capital, Defense Ministry officials suggested that the contradictory reports were a publicity ploy to raise more money for Pastora’s Revolutionary Democratic Alliance, one of several right-wing contra groups fighting to overthrow the ruling Sandinistas.

Panama or Costa Rica?

Doubts over Pastora’s fate deepened with conflicting accounts on his whereabouts. While Radio Monumental, which has good links with Pastora’s guerrillas, said he was recovering in Panama, a senior Costa Rican official said he was in Costa Rica.

The official, who declined to be named, said reports placing Pastora in Panama were meant to cover up his presence in Costa Rica--where he is officially banned.

Davila said Pastora had been visiting several camps of his rebel forces and flew to Nueva Idea in southern Nicaragua late Tuesday afternoon.

According to the aide, Nicaraguan troops had been shelling the area where Pastora disappeared Tuesday, and it was possible that the helicopter was shot down.

Davila, a member of the rebel group’s directorate in San Jose, said Pastora maintained normal radio contact with the main camp at Sarapiqui on the return flight “when all of a sudden communications were cut off.”

‘They’d Be Delighted’

Diplomats in Managua said they saw no reason for the Sandinistas not to admit having shot down Pastora’s helicopter. “On the contrary, they would be delighted to announce it, had it happened,” one envoy said.

Pastora was a hero of the Nicaraguan revolution and served as deputy defense minister after the 1979 overthrow of right-wing dictator Anastasio Somoza. But he broke with his former comrades-in-arms in 1981, accusing them of betraying the ideals of the revolution.

Pastora was seriously wounded last year when a bomb exploded at a news conference that he had called to reiterate his refusal to form an alliance with the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest contra group fighting the Sandinistas.