ABC News Official Freed, CBS Producer Missing

An ABC News producer taken hostage in Panama said he was held in a Panamanian army intelligence headquarters, where he was “threatened constantly” but released.

The producer, Robert Campos, said Wednesday night he was abducted at the Panama City Marriott Hotel with four other Americans, and that to his knowledge none of the others had been released. CBS producer Jon Meyersohn and an American businessman staying at the Marriott were separated from Campos and a Colombian national after their abduction, Campos said by telephone on ABC-TV’s “Nightline.”

CBS said it had received no word of Meyersohn’s whereabouts.

“A group of us were on the mezzanine level of the hotel when we saw the ‘Dignity Battalion’ soldiers entering the hotel from the lower level,” he said, referring to Gen. Manuel A. Noriega’s staunchly loyal paramilitary force.

“We tried to run away by taking an elevator up to a higher floor and when the elevator doors opened, two soldiers leveled their AK-47s at us. We again tried to run but they said that they would kill us if we did. They laid us on the floor and took us off in a pickup truck.”

Campos said they were taken to an army intelligence headquarters near downtown Panama City, about a mile from the military headquarters. About 75 people were at the building, all armed, mostly with AK-47s, he said.

“We were threatened constantly,” Campos said. “We were told that many Panamanians were dying because of this invasion and that we would pay. This Colombian gentleman spoke up and said he had a wife and a daughter to worry about and one of the soldiers told him, ‘If I feel like it, I’ll make sure you never see them for Christmas.’ ”

Campos was held nearly six hours before being released, said Laura Wessner, a spokeswoman for ABC News.