Terrorist Involved in Contras Aid, Nicaragua Says

Government officials charged Wednesday that a Cuban-American said to have helped organize supply flights for Nicaraguan rebels out of El Salvador is also a terrorist fugitive responsible for the bombing of a Cuban airliner 10 years ago.

Sandinista officials identified the supposed terrorist as Luis Posada Carriles. A man by that name was charged in Venezuela with participating in the Oct. 6, 1976, midair bombing of a Cubana Airlines plane. He escaped from a Venezuelan jail last year.

Seventy-three people died in the explosion and crash shortly after takeoff from Barbados for Havana on a flight from Venezuela. Many of the passengers were Cuban athletes returning home from Caracas.

The Nicaraguan officials asserted that Posada Carriles is the real name of Ramon Medina, a Cuban-American identified by U.S. citizen Eugene Hasenfus as a participant in an American-directed supply operation for Nicaraguan rebels.

No Independent Confirmation

Hasenfus was captured and jailed here after Nicaraguan soldiers shot down a C-123 transport plane on Oct. 5 in southern Nicaragua. Hasenfus was a crew member on the flight that apparently was delivering arms and ammunition to U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras .

The Posada-Medina connection could not be independently verified.

The reports that Medina is actually Posada Carriles did not originate with Hasenfus, the Sandinista officials said.

Instead, the information came from “different elements,” including intelligence from “friendly countries,” according to Luis Carrion, a member of Nicaragua’s ruling nine-member directorate. There was speculation here that Cuba was the “friendly country.”

“We have reached the conclusion that Medina is Luis Posada Carriles, a known international terrorist,” said Carrion, who is also the chief of counterintelligence and vice minister of the interior. The Interior Ministry directs Nicaragua’s police and security apparatus.

No Appearance by Hasenfus

Lenin Cerna, the head of Nicaragua’s State Security Department, said that Hasenfus was shown photographs and chose one he thought matched his recollection of Medina. The face Hasenfus picked is that of Posada Carriles, Cerna said.

Hasenfus did not appear at Wednesday’s press conference. The Sandinista government will announce today when or if he will go on trial, Carrion said.

Hasenfus had previously identified Medina as one of two Cuban-Americans in charge of the supply program at El Salvador’s Ilopango air force base.

The Sandinistas assert that the U.S. government was running the supply flights from El Salvador. The information given the press Wednesday appeared designed to make two points: that the United States employed a known terrorist in its campaign to overthrow the Sandinistas and that the CIA is involved.

The Reagan Administration has denied that it was involved in any covert contra supply program in El Salvador.

Since his first days in office, President Reagan has made the crusade against terrorism a centerpiece of his foreign policy.

Carrion said that much of the biographical information on Posada Carriles was obtained from a Venezuelan press interview with a man named Hernan Ricardo. Ricardo, Carrion said, was part of the team that placed the bomb aboard the Cuban airliner. Ricardo is presently imprisoned in Venezuela and facing charges in the bombing.

Carrion said Posada Carriles fled from a Venezuelan prison last year after serving eight years on charges that he bombed the Cubana flight.

Carrion reported that Hasenfus is in “good condition” and gave information to the Sandinistas of his own free will.

“He is not being tortured,” Carrion said.

Hasenfus’ wife, Sally, left Nicaragua on Wednesday for the United States after visiting her husband. She said only that she was returning to Marinette, Wis., to see her children, look for a lawyer and talk to the press.