U.S. Salvadoran Envoy Met With Contras’ Supply Figure, Official Says

U.S. Ambassador Edwin G. Corr had lunch “at least once” with a former CIA agent based here who was supplying Nicaraguan rebels from a Salvadoran air force base, a knowledgeable official said Wednesday.

The official, who asked that he not be further identified, said that Corr knew the former agent, Felix Rodriguez, a Cuban-American who also uses the names Felix Gomez and Max Gomez.

U.S. officials here say that Rodriguez has no official connection with the U.S. Embassy.

Rodriguez was first publicly identified by Eugene Hasenfus, an American whose C-123 transport plane was shot down in Nicaragua on Oct. 5 while carrying arms, ammunition and other supplies to the rebels, known as contras. Hasenfus told reporters in Managua that Rodriguez worked for the CIA and ran the covert supply operation out of Ilopango air base in El Salvador.

Bush, Rodriguez Met

Vice President George Bush said last week that he, too, had met with Rodriguez. He said Rodriguez was helping the government of El Salvador in its war against leftist guerrillas.

But Gen. Adolfo Blandon, head of the Salvadoran joint chiefs of staff, denied that Rodriguez held an advisory position with the Salvadoran military or that any U.S. citizen other than authorized U.S. military personnel have worked with the Salvadoran military.

On Wednesday, Salvadoran and other sources acknowledged privately that Americans were here helping the contras.

The official who linked Corr to Rodriguez said: “Corr has had lunch with Felix Rodriguez. He has met and talked to him as a private American citizen here.”

This official, who has direct knowledge of the subject, said that Corr and Rodriguez had lunch “at least once,” but he did not say when or where the lunch took place.

Earlier Denial

He said that Rodriguez “was here as a private American working with the (Nicaraguan) resistance” and not as an adviser to the Salvadorans, as Bush said.

Earlier this week, Corr publicly denied knowing anything about Rodriguez or his activities, but an embassy spokesman said Wednesday that the ambassador had meant to say he would not comment.

The issue of contra operations in El Salvador is potentially embarrassing for President Jose Napoleon Duarte, who has denied knowledge of any supply missions to the contras out of Ilopango. Duarte publicly opposes outside interference in the affairs of neighboring countries.

The Reagan Administration began its contras aid program ostensibly to stop arms supplies from Nicaragua to Salvadoran guerrillas. The contras are trying to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

A high-level government official, who insists that Duarte knew nothing about the contras operation, suggested it might have been an independent project of Gen. Juan Rafael Bustillo, head of the Salvadoran air force. He said Bustillo is a known conservative and “ideologically is not with us.”

But even if the Salvadoran government were unaware of the contras aid project, it seems unlikely that such a supply operation could be kept secret for long from U.S. officials here. The United States has 55 military advisers stationed in El Salvador, with many others rotating through.

U.S. advisers are based at almost every military installation in the country, and the U.S. ambassador meets frequently with high-level government and military leaders.

The contras supply issue is expected to be raised today when Secretary of State George P. Shultz arrives for a brief tour of areas damaged in last Friday’s earthquake.

In the United States, spokesmen for the contras gave contradictory accounts Wednesday of whether Rodriguez was working on their behalf.

The head of the rebels’ Miami office, Leonardo Somarriba, confirmed that Rodriguez had played an important role in setting up their air supply operation. “He is instrumental in making things happen,” Somarriba said.

Abrams Testifies

But in Washington, a spokesman for the largest contras army, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, denied that Rodriguez played any role. “He has not provided any assistance to us or participated in any activity for us,” the spokesman, Bosco Matamoros, said.

On Capitol Hill, Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for Latin America, told a House subcommittee that the flight in which Hasenfus took part “was not organized, directed or financed by the U.S. government.”

“There is no CIA role in this operation or this flight,” Abrams told the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs. “If there are CIA ex-employees involved, then they are involved in their capacity as citizens.”

Asked whether he knew that Rodriguez was recommended for his job in El Salvador by a Bush aide, as The Times reported last week and Bush later confirmed, Abrams said, “I only know about that what I’ve read in the newspapers.”

Signs of Discomfort

Abrams repeatedly asserted that he had no knowledge about questions asked by the subcommittee or that he could not answer them in an open hearing.

Salvadoran military officials have begun to show signs of discomfort with the discrepancies in the U.S., Salvadoran and contra public statements. Regarding Bush’s assertion that Rodriguez worked for the Salvadorans, an armed forces spokesman, Col. Mauricio Hernandez, said, “I think they tried to wash their hands of it and throw the problem on us.”

The link between the contras and the Salvadoran military came to light with the downing of the C-123 aircraft because Hasenfus and another crew member were carrying photo identification cards issued by the Salvadoran armed forces that gave them access to restricted areas of Ilopango. Hasenfus said he had flown 10 contra supply flights to Nicaragua, about half of them from Ilopango.

Among the documents captured with Hasenfus was a handwritten note mentioning the former No. 2 official at the U.S. Embassy on stationery headed, “From the Desk of William G. Langton,” president of Miami-based Southern Air Transport. The C-123’s cockpit crew previously had worked for that company and the pilot, William J. Cooper, carried a Southern Air pilot’s identification that appeared to be current. But Southern Air spokesmen denied that he still worked there.

The note said: “David Passage deputy chief of mission; Bill Langton and Bill Hall personal friends; Bill Hall and David Passage classmates at Karachi.

Bill Hall’s identity is unknown.

Denies Meeting Crew

One of the crew members also carried the card of Capt. Humberto Villalta, commander of the Salvadoran navy.

Villalta said in an interview that he had never met any of the crew members, and that he did not know how his card might have gotten aboard the U.S.-crewed airplane. He also denied ever having met Rodriguez.

“I give out a lot of cards,” he said. “I give them out at happy hour at the Sheraton. They go out on flowers for funerals.”

Another high-ranking military source confirmed that “there is a group of Americans working with the contras here.”

This source, who asked not to be identified, said the Americans working with the contras were not the 55 U.S. military advisers stationed here, and added: “But I cannot say for sure they aren’t with the embassy, because I don’t know.”

He said he did not know exactly how long the Americans have been supplying the contras from El Salvador. “About one or two years,” he said.