Soviet Plane Just Used for Maps, Nicaragua Says

A Soviet-made AN-30 aircraft based here is not flying military reconnaissance missions as U.S. officials charge but is being used for civilian map-making flights, a government official said Thursday.

Alejandro Rodriguez, director of the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies, said the camera-equipped aircraft was rented from a Soviet export promotion agency and arrived last month with a nine-man crew. He said seven of the crew have left the country because the rainy season prevented continuing flights.

Rodriguez showed reporters an English-language color brochure promoting the aircraft, which included a mailing address for more information.

“If this were a sophisticated secret weapon I don’t think they (the Soviets) would advertise it,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said Nicaragua needs new maps for civilian public works projects, but he did not rule out eventual use of the maps for military purposes. The Marxist-led Sandinista government is fighting U.S.-backed guerrillas in the countryside.

“Our country at this time will use rocks, rifles and machetes to defend ourselves; why wouldn’t we use maps, too,” Rodriguez said.

Last Week, CIA director William J. Casey was quoted as saying that U.S. officials had seen Soviet intelligence-gathering flights over Nicaragua for the first time. Rep. E. Thomas Coleman (R-Mo.), who quoted Casey, said “obviously they are there to aid the Sandinista forces and flying support for them.”

President Reagan called the presence of the AN-30 here “a significant advance in (the Sandinista army’s) military and intelligence capability.”

U.S. officials suggested the plane was being used on low-flying missions to spy on the camps of the contras, as the rebels are called.

Rodriguez’s statements were Nicaragua’s first official explanation of the AN-30’s role here.

Century-Old Charts

A geophysicist, Rodriguez said that the country’s most recent land maps were made 20 years ago that its nautical maps are 100 years old.

“Map-making is fundamental. You can’t build a dam without adequate maps. You can’t build an irrigation system without adequate maps. You can’t build a highway, a port, any civilian infrastructure without first having the cartography of our country,” he said.

Rodriguez said the information gathered in the AN-30 flights belongs exclusively to the Nicaraguan government.

“We can only make (aerial) photos more or less from October until March, depending on the climate,” he said. Asked why the Soviet plane was rented in May, he replied that the Soviet export agency, Selkhozpromexport, had been expected to deliver the aircraft last October.