Mystery Strip

Near Guatemala's Pacific coast, 35 miles from the Mexican border, lies a new solidly paved, closely guarded airstrip. So out of place did the strip seem amid the sparsely settled cattle ranches and banana plantations that Guatemalans have been whispering about it for months. Could it be the base for a cooperative U.S.-Guatemalan-Cuban-exile airborne military operation against Fidel Castro? Fortnight ago, poking around the country. Los Angeles Mirror Aviation Editor Don Dwiggins heard about the strip and broke a story reporting that it had been built with U.S. funds in a mysterious "crash" program and was capable of handling jet fighters.

Speed & Cash. There was no doubt about the speed of the project. Work began in mid-August, when the U.S. construction firm of Thompson-Cornwall Inc. put 450 men to work round the clock on a $1,000,000 contract to build the air strip and an airport building. Though the Guatemalan government usually looks for easy terms and already owed Thompson-Cornwall more than $1,000,000 for earlier road construction, it paid cash this time.

Before the workers moved in, the Stand ard Fruit Co. (which used the previous grass airstrip as a duster-plane base) and a helicopter company were each abruptly given eight hours to clear out. Stand ard Fruit's small hangar was taken over by the government -- also for cash.

Within 25 days the runway and buildings were completed. When the job was finished, the U.S. delivered eight surplus B-26 light bombers to the Guatemalan government. Last week five B-26s were at the new strip, along with one C-54 four-engined transport and four C46 twin-engined Curtiss Commandos. The strip will accommodate these ships, but to say that it will handle jets was an overstatement: it is only 6,000 ft. long, marginal for jets in Guatemala's hot weather.

Off Limits. At brief dedication ceremonies in late September, Guatemalan President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes an nounced that the strip had been built to promote the export of bananas, meat and shrimp. But the field was immediately put off limits to all civil aircraft. Last Oct. 14 a band of Ydigoras' opponents complained in Congress that hundreds of Cubans were being given commando training by U.S. instructors at the air-base and at several coffee plantations in the area -- including one owned by a close friend of the President. As evidence, they cited reports from a carpenter who had worked on the airfield and a butcher who was supposedly supplying one coffee plan tation with 10,000 lbs. of meat a week.

Ydigoras quickly admitted that Guatemalan troops were receiving special commando training on the plantations, but denied that any Cubans were involved. Combing the area at the time, investigating reporters found that the facts supported Ydigoras: there was no trace of any major Cuban force.

As for the source of construction funds, Ydigoras said that they had been raised by subscription among local businessmen. But ranchers, packers and shippers said that any such ambitious fund drive was news to them. On the subject of U.S. participation, no official in Washington had a word to say.

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