American Shot Down in Nicaragua, Faces Charges

An American farmer with apparent sympathies for the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels was captured after a Sandinista navy patrol shot down his private plane, the government said Tuesday.

Defense Minister Humberto Ortega identified the prisoner as James Jordan Denby, 57, and said he will be charged with violating Nicaraguan airspace and possibly with espionage. Denby owns farms in Carlinville, Ill., and in Costa Rica.

“He is linked directly to the activities of the North American government,” Ortega told a press conference. “He is involved in activities against our country.”

Denby’s 32-year-old single-engine plane, a Cessna 172, was pierced in the fuel tank by rifle fire Sunday and forced to land on a beach near San Juan del Norte, in the southeastern corner of Nicaragua, the government said. He had filed a flight plan from La Ceiba, Honduras, to San Jose, Costa Rica, and was the only person reported on board.

Ortega showed a five-minute film of Denby, wearing a flowered shirt and tan slacks, as he was marched through the woods by his captors with his hands tied behind his back. He said the prisoner, who was captured unarmed, is in good health and is being held for questioning by state security agents in Managua.

A U.S. Embassy request to visit the prisoner will be granted “in due time,” Ortega said.

The American’s arrest came at a critical period in cease-fire talks in the Nicaraguan war and appeared to harden the government stance against a Christmas truce with the Contras.

“There can be no peace in Nicaragua while (President) Reagan maintains the process of war against our country,” Ortega said. “This (incident) simply brings more evidence that the United States has not varied its policy.”

The State Department declined to comment on Denby until a U.S. consular official could question him. Contra officials denied having any business with him.

Ortega displayed flight logs and other documents seized from the aircraft, but none proved Denby’s connection to the U.S. government.

He said the prisoner had described himself as “Republican, anti-Sandinista, anti-Communist” and claimed he was innocent of any wrongdoing.

The only evidence Ortega offered to tie Denby to the Contras was a recounting of his previously published statements.

Cites American Magazine

At his press conference, Ortega held up a copy of a 1984 edition of an American magazine, the Farm Journal, that featured an article on Denby. Ortega said Denby was quoted in the article as saying he had let rebel forces use a 700-acre farm he owns in Costa Rica to stage attacks into southern Nicaragua.

Denby, who also maintains a soybean farm in Carlinville, has made contradictory statements about his ties to the Contras in other interviews.

In June, he told the Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register that he had been part of a clandestine network headed by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, the National Security Council staff member, to supply the Contras while their U.S. military aid was officially cut off between 1984 and 1986.

Harbored Hundreds of Contras

Denby said in the interview that his Costa Rican farm had been home to hundreds of Contras. He said he had flown military supplies to rebels inside Nicaragua and flown wounded rebels out, to Costa Rican hospitals.

But in another interview that month, with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Denby denied being part of the arms network--although he admitted knowing some of its participants--or allowing his ranch to be used in it.

James Denby Jr., the prisoner’s son, told a St. Louis radio station Tuesday that his father flew south from Carlinville after spending Thanksgiving Day with his family.

The Sandinista government said Denby’s passport indicated he had flown to Mexico, Belize and La Ceiba, Honduras. There, according to Honduran aviation officials, he filed a flight plan to skirt Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast en route to the Costa Rican capital.

Ortega said Denby asked for permission last Friday to fly through Nicaraguan airspace. He said aviation officials sent a telex asking for the reason for his flight and his estimated arrival time but never got a reply.

The plane was flying over land when it was shot down, he said.

Could Evade Radar

The defense minister said “the great quantity of flights” logged by Denby indicated he was spying and that his kind of plane could easily evade radar for “close-up exploration.”

He said the motive behind Denby’s flight was being investigated. “It is evident he did not come as Santa Claus to bring gifts to Nicaraguan children,” the minister commented.

An examination of Denby’s log books showed he has made three round trips between Costa Rica and the United States since 1985, in keeping with his habit of wintering on the Costa Rican farm. The last entry in the book was a June 4 flight within the state of Illinois.

Reporters were also shown a calling card that Denby reportedly carried, from Global Marche Ltd. of Chesapeake, Va., identified as a military hardware supplier.

Congressman’s Letter

He also carried a letter, addressed “to whom it may concern,” from Rep. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), certifying that he was Denby’s congressman. A handwritten note at the bottom of a separate, personal letter from the congressman said: “I visited Costa Rica and thought it was a magnificent country. . . . I don’t know if my letter would persuade the Sandinistas to leave you alone, but I hope it helps.”

Adolfo Calero, a senior Contra official, said in a telephone interview from Miami that he does not know Denby.

“We have no relationship with him,” Calero said. “Besides, we have no reason to send an unarmed, defenseless plane into Nicaraguan territory, over a place that has no strategic value for us whatsoever.”

“I wouldn’t deny that he is a sympathizer, but we have no business with him,” the rebel leader said.

Denby was the second American in 14 months to be shot out of the sky over Nicaragua and accused of helping the contras. But unlike Eugene Hasenfus, the previous prisoner, Denby was not carrying weapons to the rebels.

Could Face 30 Years

Nevertheless, Ortega said, “the law will be applied severely” against the farmer, indicating he could face a 30-year prison sentence if convicted of violating Nicaragua’s security.

Hasenfus was the lone survivor of an arms-laden U.S. cargo plane shot down by Sandinista troops on Oct. 5, 1986, over southern Nicaragua. Two Americans and a Nicaraguan rebel aboard were killed in the crash.

At his trial by a People’s Tribunal, Hasenfus confessed that he had been smuggling weapons to the Contras. He was convicted of involvement in efforts to topple the government, given the maximum 30-year sentence, then pardoned and freed last Dec. 17, after 32 days in prison.

Sam Nesley Hall, another American, was arrested last Dec. 12 outside a Sandinista military base near Managua and charged with spying. He was released Jan. 28 after the government declared him psychologically unstable.