Downed Airman Tells Predicament : Caught in U.S.-Sandinista Struggle, Hasenfus Says

An unemployed American steelworker, shot down in Nicaragua 2 1/2 weeks ago and accused of running guns to the contras, said Friday that he is now caught in the middle of a U.S.-Nicaraguan political battle over his case.

In an interview at a maximum-security prison, Eugene Hasenfus, 45, of Marinette, Wis., said he knows that his Nicaraguan lawyer has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf, but he declined to say whether he objects to the plea.

“I don’t have much to say about it now until somebody clues me in a little closer to exactly what’s happening. I’m in the middle of a game here. I have to be cautious,” he said, pointing to a Sandinista security officer’s tape recorder running by his side.

Two Sandinista officers, one of them English-speaking, sat in on the interview at Tipitapa Prison on the outskirts of Managua.

“It’s a contest right now between my lawyer and his way of thinking along with our (U.S.) politics, and the politics of the Department of Interior here,” Hasenfus said. The Nicaraguan Interior Ministry oversees state security and has custody of Hasenfus.

“They (the United States) are definitely going to want to plead innocent all the way. There isn’t a doubt in my mind on that. The Department of the Interior, on the other hand, wants their piece of cake,” he said.

Hasenfus repeated an earlier assertion that he was working for a CIA operation Oct. 5 when Sandinista troops, firing a Soviet-made ground-to-air missile, shot down a C-123 cargo plane loaded with arms and ammunition destined for U.S.-backed guerrillas fighting the Sandinistas in the countryside.

Hasenfus, a cargo-drop specialist on the plane’s crew, parachuted to safety and was captured Oct. 6. The American pilot and co-pilot and an unnamed Nicaraguan who has been identified by contras sources in Honduras as the crew’s radio operator died when the plane crashed.

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied any CIA connection or official knowledge of an operation, in which the ill-fated C-123 was one of the planes used, to fly supplies to the contras, although Vice President George Bush and the American ambassador to El Salvador, Edwin G. Corr., said they have met with the man Hasenfus describes as the director of the rebel supply operation.

Met at ‘Safe House’

Hasenfus said that the head of the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, Col. James Steel, knew about the supply operation, based at Ilopango, El Salvador’s main military air base. He said that he met Steel at one of three “safe houses” in San Salvador when the colonel came to complain that some men in the supply operation were making too many costly long-distance telephone calls.

“He said, ‘You guys are taking food out of the contras’ mouth,’ ” Hasenfus said Friday.

Hasenfus has said that he flew on 10 supply missions out of Ilopango and out of Aguacate Air Base in Honduras. Top officials of both El Salvador and Honduras have denied any role in contras operations.

Hasenfus also said that contras suppliers had used an airstrip built under supervision of Americans in northern Costa Rica, not far from the Nicaraguan border. The Costa Rican government says it is neutral in the Nicaraguan conflict.

Hasenfus said that Southern Air Transport of Miami, a company with past ties to the CIA, paid his expenses in Miami when he joined the contras supply operation last summer and that it furnished automatic navigational equipment for the C-123 aircraft. Southern Air Transport has denied any connection to the supply operation.

Irritated at U.S. Role

Hasenfus said he is irritated because the U.S. government is not helping him and his family and vowed to find out who was behind the operation when he is freed.

“I will find out in time. There are a lot of skeletons being buried right now. . . . It’s in our government someplace. It’s there,” Hasenfus said Friday.

On Thursday, Hasenfus’ lawyer, Enrique Sotelo Borgen, entered a not guilty plea on behalf of his client to charges of terrorism, subversion and criminal association being heard by one of Nicaragua’s Popular Anti-Somocista Tribunals, special courts set up to try political crimes.

Hasenfus has been granted only one meeting of about two hours with Sotelo, but authorities have allowed him to be interviewed by U.S. newspapers and broadcast media.

Former U.S. Atty. Gen. Griffin B. Bell, who arrived Thursday to aid in Hasenfus’ defense, said that he would try to meet with Hasenfus as soon as possible.

Bell told reporters that Hasenfus was just “a worker” in the contras supply operation and is “too low” to warrant a harsh sentence from the tribunal.

‘Just Kicking Guns Out’

“He’s never done anything. He was just kicking guns and shoes out of the airplane,” Bell said. He added that Hasenfus “has no proof” that he was working for the CIA.

The conviction rate of the popular tribunals is more than 90%, local lawyers say.

The formal, written indictment of Hasenfus, which recounts a history of alleged U.S. abuses in Nicaragua, makes clear that the prosecutor, Justice Minister Rodrigo Reyes, plans also to “try” the Reagan Administration for backing the contras insurgency.

“It’s a little nerve-racking to know you’ve been challenged with about 20 years of slaughtering and everything else,” Hasenfus said.

Hasenfus has signed a confession, which he said was edited and amplified by Sandinistas but which he described as “a very honest statement.”

If convicted of the charges against him, he could face up to 30 years in prison. He declined to comment on whether he had been offered any kind of deal or lenient treatment if he cooperates with Nicaraguan authorities.

English-Speaking Roommate

Hasenfus said he is being held in a room with another prisoner, William Joseph Luther, who he said is the son of an American father and who speaks some English.

“It’s somebody for company and to interpret,” he said.

He said that they can watch the news on a television set in their room but that he can only “catch the drift” because he speaks no Spanish.

Hasenfus, the father of three, described himself as an adventurer who took the contras supply job because he was out of a job and needed the money. He said he is “beginning to understand politics” as a result of his current experience and is embarrassed at the international attention he is getting.

“I never thought I’d have my face plastered all over the world,” he said.