Jet Carries Hurricane Relief Aid From L.A. to Devastated Nicaragua

A private jet carrying about 30 tons of emergency relief supplies left Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday for Nicaragua to help survivors of Hurricane Joan, which devastated the Central American country two weeks ago.

The Los Angeles-based emergency charity organization Operation California chartered the DC-8 jet to transport about $750,000 worth of medicines, medical equipment and shelter materials to Managua, Nicaragua’s capital.

Joan, the worst hurricane in recorded history to hit the country, struck Oct. 22, killing 116 people and leaving 187,000 homeless.

Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler and three others accompanied the cargo “just to let the people down there know that the people of America have a good heart and want to help in the crisis.”

Talks Scheduled

When the jet touched down in Nicaragua on Saturday night, Operation California Director Richard Walden was scheduled to meet with representatives of the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry to discuss how to open other channels of aid from the United States.

Before taking off, Walden said his organization spent $40,000 to charter the DC-8, which he called “a ridiculous waste of money.

“We would be spending it in other areas, but we’re forced to pay for the flight down there,” he said.

Walden said American relief efforts have been impeded in two ways. First, U.S. government officials claim that Nicaraguans will not allow American military aircraft to fly into its airspace, which forced the relief organization to charter a civilian aircraft.

Walden said he believes the Sandinista government would permit U.S. military aircraft to fly over Nicaraguan air space to deliver Operation California relief supplies.

State Department Policy

Second, the State Department has not declared the region a disaster area, which would clear the way for federal aid. State Department officials have said the Nicaraguan government refused to request such aid, a claim that could not be immediately verified.

Walden charged that the National Security Council has prevented the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, which operates under the State Department, from aiding Nicaragua.

Charity organizers and celebrities attending the airport send-off said they were perplexed by U.S. policy regarding relief aid to Nicaragua, whose leftist government has been the target of a destabilization effort by the Reagan Administration.

Actor Kris Kristofferson called the Reagan Administration’s reaction to the hurricane “the latest sorry episode in our policy toward Nicaragua. . . . The government’s agenda is to do anything they can to injure the Sandinista government.”

Saturday’s shipment was the first response from the West Coast to help the hurricane’s survivors. Two smaller shipments have been delivered from Miami and New York, Walden said.

The supplies were to be delivered to the Evangelical Committee for Aid and Development--a Nicaraguan health organization--to be distributed to villages along the Caribbean coast, which took the brunt of the hurricane.

Operation California officials had feared that the U.S. government might prohibit them from sending construction materials and electric generators under a trade embargo imposed against the Sandinistas. The cargo included 115 rolls of plastic sheeting for shelter and an electrical generator for a hospital.

Operation California has shipped medical supplies to the war-torn nation four times a year for the last two years.