Leftists ‘stay in jail’

Press, 31 March 1981, Page 8

Leftists ‘stay in jail’

NZPA Panama City Panama has formally asked Cuba to grant political asylum to four hijackers of a Honduran jetliner and 15 Left-wing prisoners purportedly freed by Honduras, the Panamanian Foreign Ministry has announced. . But in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, an armed forces spokesman, Major Julio Armando Pavon, said: “The Army isn’t planning on leave for Panama.” He also said that Honduras’s military Government had no plans for deporations of any kind. The nationalities of the three men and a woman who hijacked the New Orleans-

bound jetliner at the weekend remained a mystery. They ordered the pilot to land in Nicaragua and the plane remained there until it flew to Panama on Sunday.

Panamanian officials said the air pirates were “detained” after the Boeing 737 landed in Panama City and the 50 hostages, including eight Americans, were freed in good condition and flown back to Honduras.

After, the hijacking was over, the Honduran Government broadcast a statement on the national radio saying it had decided to free an unspecified number of “undesirable foreign elements” being held on arms smug-

gling charges. The radio said the prisoners, all “common foreign delinquents,” would be freed at the Government’s convenience and deported to Panama but did not specify when. The Honduran Army spokesman’s comment conflicted with the broadcast and also with the commu-. nique issued by Panama’s Foreign Ministry. Panama said Honduran authorities had relesed the 15 prisoners yesterday, and they included a Salvadorean Leftist guerrilla leader, Facundo Guardado, whose release was specifically demanded by the hijackers. - .