Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 29

i 4-C Sunday, July 31,77 DETROIT FREE PRESS 1 I' Kris A tmhil 7 tp4 A i i Jib. i -mr A i 'It's Mostly Just Bluff Continued from Page 1C mischievous. They also constantly compete for the attention of the trainers. Kona lazed by the edge of the big arena tank between shows and allowed a visitor to rub her back and nose. But the moment Yeakle walked up, she ignored the stranger and swam to her trainer.

She lay with her head out of the water, apparently watching eagerly for a sign that he was going to pet her or play some games. THERE IS, OF COURSE, another side of the whale personality. Spafford says, "They let you know if they're displeased with you. They might decide not to perform, or they'll splash water at you or snap their jaws. But it's mostly just bluff.

"I was in the water with Kona the other day when she put her nose against my chest and began shoving me backwards around the tank. She was moving so fast that I couldn't get off. All I could do was wait for her to stop. It was like being shoved around on the bow of a speedboat. "We don't know why she did it.

She might have just been playing, or maybe she was telling man on the bottom momentarily delaying the leap to the surface so trainers wear air bottles strapped to the waist, just in case Half hidden in the spray is a man on the back of this leaping whale. The man rides the whale to the bottom of the tank and back up again. Sometimes the whale likes to "keep the SLOPPED UP Navy Racers Find Decals Stuck to Hull by Coast Guard A GROUP OF DIVERS from the U.S. Coast Guard sneaked In on the U.S. Navy's sloop Guerrlere while it was tied up at Port Huron last weekend waiting for the Mackinac race to start.

They put Coast Guard decals just below the waterline so they would show when the boat was under sail. The caper failed when the middies went swimming during a postponement of the start of the race and noticed that they were about to advertise another branch of the service. Keeping Up With the Times THE INGHAM COUNTY Democratic Party is busy collect ing campaign literature from Democratic candidates to pass out at the upcoming Ingham County Fair. The offering from state Sen. William B.

Fitzgerald, D-Detroit: emery boards that say "William B. Fitzgerald, state representative," and pamphlets of 1976 bicentennial events. Both are obviously outdated, but Fitzgerald's office has put a sticker on the bicentennial pamphlet instructing the reader to call Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald for an update. That's outdated, too. Fitzgerald lost the majority leader's job to William Faust of Westiand in December.

But It's Very Different WCAR IS GETTING into a little tongue-in-cheek humor with a public spot it's running promoting the Peace Corps. The music used for the spot is one of the themes of the U.S. Army's Green Berets. "It sounded right," said Derek Hayward, the producer who put the spot together. Hayward also describes it as "a private little joke," since the ad draws a parallel between going off to war and going off to help those in less fortunate circumstances.

me she didn't want to play," ne says. One of the most spectacular stunts in the show Is the ride jump, where a trainer lies on the whale's back while it swims to the bottom of the 20-foot deep tank and then erupts from the surface in a low leap. During this stunt, the rider wears a small air bottle strapped to his waist. "That's just in case the whale ever decides to hold you underwater," Yeakle says. "There have been a couple of cases where killer whales wanted to keep trainers with them so much that they have pulled the trainers to the bottom of the tank and then kind of gloated over them." "This (the air tank) Is Just a safety precau Killer whales got their bloodthirsty name from seamen who watched their voracious feeding habits In the wild taking everything from salmon to blue whales.

THE De LAURENTHS spokesman said the film company had received some telephone calls from people, who were afraid that the movie could result in harm to killer whales, something like the orgy of shark killing that took place on America's coasts following the movie "Jaws." "We were pushing a story. Maybe we got carried away with that," he said. But he said he did not think the whales would be endangered because "most people would never see a killer whale" except in a park. But the whales aren't completely safe even in captivity. Michelle Van Huffel, a Junior at Kent State University, has a summer Job at the park as a "whale watcher." She stands on the concrete apron of the big pool where Kona is on display and answers peoples' questions about killer whales and dolphins.

Another part of her Job Is to protect the $500,000 whale from people who like to poke, jab and throw things at her. "I just can't believe how people can be so cruel to another creature," she says. "I don't know why they'd want to hurt anything like her. She's amazing. She's so intelligent it scares me." whale show tank, the staff spends some time stuffing pills inside dead fish.

"This is Kona's daily vitamin supplements," Spafford said, pointing to a pizza tray filled with white, green and red pills. "We hide them in the fish, but she know's they're there. If she doesn't want them, she just tears the fish apart and lets the pills fall out." Kona eats about 1 20 pounds of fish a day, and the dolphins down about 25 pounds each. "The dolphin lagoon at San Diego connects with the sea, and fish from the bay swim In and out," Spafford says. "Sometimes, If we won't give a dolphin a fish because he won't perform, he'll swim down and catch his own fish and lay It at our feet, as if to say, 'See, I can get along without That's a far cry from killer whale behavior as represented in the new movie that has the Sea World trainers and a lot of other knowledgable people so bothered.

"Orca," the film In question, is a thriller about a killer whale who goes seeking vengeance because a man has killed its mate. ADVERTISEMENTS FOR the film say the killer whale "kills for revenge," mates for life and will track down its tormentors across the seven seas. A spokesman for the movie admitted that these advertisements were false but stressed that the picture "is just trying to tell a good story." "This Is not a factual film. This Is a story," said a spokesman for "Orca" producer Dino De Laurentlis. He admitted the film company did not attempt to document Its presentation of killer whales and that research on killer whale habits and biology was confined to The Reader's Digest and a book called "Secrets of the Sea." The movie has infuriated Dr.

Jesse White, a Miami veterinarian who was one of the first to specialize in whale medicine and now serves as an internationally-known consultant to ocean-aria around the world. "We had a special showing at the (Miami) Seaquarium the other day and I got up and walked out," White fumes. "My beautiful killer whales are being depicted as revengeful, paradoxical creatures, which is just not "There is no documented case of a killer whale ever attacking a human being, while we have a number of documented cases where divers have risen right in the middle of a pod of killer whales without any harm. "I have gone into a net with 11 or 12 fresh caught killer whales to pick out the one we want and never had them make an aggressive move toward me. "The film's description of the life of the killer whale is That's one of the problems.

We don't know if killer whales are monogamous. We don't know very much at all about them. What we do know we have learned from captive animals. We need a lot more research to try to learn something about the habits of these animals in the wild," White says. tion.

The tank has a few minutes of air In it, long enough for us to get a bigger tank down to anyone if he Is ever held down by a whale. If It ever happened, I guess we'd just keep supplying the trainer with tanks until the whale decided to let him come up." Spafford adds, "They know that we (people) are air breathing animals like them. They also know that compared to dolphins, we are very So Long, Pals poor swimmers. Yet they treat people very gently when the trainers are in the water." THE DOLPHINS, whale and other marine mammals arrive at Sea World of Ohio in May DENNIS WHOLEY, WHO WAS HOST of his last "A.M. Detroit" show on Channel 7 Friday, went out with a bang instead of a whimper.

He threw a party for everybody at Channel 7, WXYZ-AM and WRIF-FM Friday night at a friend's house. The invitation Who-ley sent around said it was his way of saying "thanks" to everybody at Broadcast House. from Sea World's park in San Diego, and are sent home in September. During the season, they perform seven shows a day. The water In their tank is simply fresh water with plain salt mixed in.

Everyday in the backstage area behind the Will Costa Rica Evict Its Richest Tenant? jr. i ar 4' 4V'. run rm nmiiTm- mmiimwii inn nniim mm i mmmm hi "if 1 In addition to a fleet of speedy PT boats, a silver equipped with a beaded-curtain disco, beanbag Mercedes and a yacht, Vesco owns a Boeing 707 chairs and strobe lights. Continued from Page 1C I merely a retired pensionado wishing to live in peace and I away from U.S. "political persecution" because of his friend-I ship with the Nixon family.

But in recent times, Don Pepe, whose role as godfather to the Costa Rican people has been tarnished, changed his tune. "My association with Robert Vesco has damaged me in the public eye, in Costa Rica and the world," a remorseful Figueres told Ken Bode, political editor of the New Republic, In an April Interview. "Many of the members of Congress in my country as well as the current president were elected with Vesco's money. (President Daniel) Oduber had a large part of his 1974 campaign paid for by Vesco. Ail of them have let me carry the burden President Oduber, chief of the Partido Nacional, a party founded by Figueres in 1948 (and which he still serves as chairman emeritus), denied the charges at first, and then claimed the money was "returned immediately" after its origins were discovered.

IN THE PAST five years, Vesco and his original group (now somewhat fragmented) provided employment for all manner of Costa Rlcans, popularly called "Ticos." Journalists, security men, attorneys, large-scale landowners, business operators and various kinds of government officials followed their leader, Don Pepe, and responded hungrily to the millions of IOS dollars which the exiled Vesco was said to have brought with him through conduits in the Bahamas, Europe and Panama. It is alleged that Vesco has between $30-60 million tied up In Costa Rica government bonds in addition to the other millions in nongovernmental investments. Even with a conservative estimate, the $300 million that Robert Vesco may have at his disposal is a hefty sum in a country whose annual fiscal budget is around $500 million. To complement his work, the gringo pirate purchased huge tracts of arable lands, put his money into a television and radio network, founded a dally newspaper with Don Pepe as the front man, and formed a host of other business alliances in Costa Rica, ail of which served to enhance hi4 worldwide image as "the man who would be king." Rodrigo Carazo, an opposition party candidate for president, filed suit against President Oduber in early May, asking the Supreme Court to indict the president for violating the constitution by receiving funds from a foreign citizen for a political campaign. Costa Rica does not have provisions for impeachment of a president.

Carazo's suit was thrown out for being improperly written, but the fat was certainly in the fire. Oduber's own second vice president, Fernando Guzman Mata, sensing the seriousness of the latest scandal, appealed to the country's notorious gringo: "Mr. Vesco, for the well-being, tranquility and International prestige of our country, I Invite you to leave Costa Rica as soon as possible." Radical university students protested. Then 27 senators ot the Oduber-Figueres PLN Party, some of whom may even have been in on the take, called for Vesco's expulsion. Bob Vesco cannot leave the country as of this writing.

He is under a bond held by an aging architect who claims to have been dunned out of a $200,000 nest egg in the 1971 IOS debacle. Oduber Reversed Himself Again On June 11, bowing perhaps to the growing pressures, President Oduber announced publicly that "I have asked Vesco to arrange his affairs here and abandon Costa Rica." Oduber's message, broadcast on national television and radio, added that Vesco was not culpable of any wrongdoing In Costa Rica, but that he was being asked to leave "because I do not want this matter to permanently sully the name of Costa Rica abroad." But three days later, Oduber reversed himself, again on television and radio. "I have never talked at any moment of throwing out anyone from this country," the president told his people, leaving many Costa Ricans to wonder just what had transpired over the weekend between his two pronouncements. As if to clarify it, Oduber added, "My government believes that he should do so (leave) in order to settle his affairs but he should leave with the safety of his investments in Costa Rica adequately guaranteed." THERE IS AN INTRIGUING question of whether Robert Vesco is even in Costa Rica today. More than two months have passed without his having been seen.

Foreign corre-. spondents travelling to Costa Rica, such as this reporter, have Panamanian side of the border, a mere 12-hour drive from San Jose. From such a close vantage point, Vesco could slip in and out of Costa Rica at will. 'A Huge Whale In a Tiny Fishpond9 Julio Sunol, editorial page director for La Naclon, offers me a cup of the black liquid that has helped restore Costa Rica's financial deficit. "Robert Vesco's secretary called me, asking If I wanted to interview him," recalls Sunol.

At that interview, Vesco took the offensive, wanting to know why "you oppose me so strongly In your editorial line." Sunol replied, "For us, you signify a huge whale in a tiny fishpond. Your fortune is so great that, even compared with the largest in our country, we are tiny." "One night," Sunol said, "President Fingueres invited me to dinner. The president said he was planning to start a newspaper. He wanted to form an alliance with me, himself and Robert Vesco's money. In addition to placing me as one of the director of this newspaper, Don Pepe Figueres, offered me 5 milion colones, about $575,000, to come over to their side, to stop criticizing his relationship to Vecso." Sunol's refusal of Figueres' offer preceded the demise of his newspaper by about four months.

In that time, Figueres (and Vesco's money) went ahead and founded Excelsior, a New York Times-sized daily which has been Vesco's mouth- piece since its founding. Excelsior, of course, is only one of Vesco's many mouthpieces. The money Vesco has spent in public relations, purchasing musical instruments for poor village schools, money spent in building roads, bringing electricity and water, money spent in building senior citizen homes the whole kit and caboodle doesn't begin to compare with the money Vesco has spent buying politicians and keeping himself in place as the power behind the throne or, in this case, the presidency. ON THE 70TH DAY of the latest scandal shaking this formerly peaceful republic, quiet, of a sort, prevailed. The tremors which brought President Oduber to announce that Vesco would be "abandoning" Costa Rica has subsided in the wake of fresh Vesco material.

The latest revelation claimed that the astute financier had made yet another bundle, $10 million, but this time at the expense of the Costa Ricans. According to Stephen Schmidt, Tico Times reporter and Washington Post correspondent in San Jose, "Vesco knew -that the government was going to nationalize the privately owned oil refineries back in 1974. "So, before they did that, Vesco bought up unnamed bearer shares in the refineries. When the government made its agreement with the industry to buy them out, Vesco made close to $10 million profit." When I asked Schmidt over the telephone whether Vesco would be leaving Costa Rica after all, he replied, "President Oduber says he never 'asked' Vesco to leave, he Just announced that at some point he 'would' leave. It could be two weeks, two months, two years or 20.

"In fact, I ran into Alberto Abreu recently and asked him where they would go if they had to leave. Abreu said, 'Maybe So I guess it seems as if they're not planning to 'abandon' Costa Rica in the near future." SUMMER IS THE RAINY season in Costa Rica, when the misty downpour blankets the country for three to four hours daily. Like a warm bath, followed by bright, drying sunlight, the rains wash the streets and gutters of San Jose, bringing the countryside's lush vegetation to its full potential. Perhaps the rains also clean the memory of recent scandals, leaving fertile ground for new revelations yet to come particularly as politically-minded Costa Rica winds into high gear for the final months of the election campaigns. "Vesco will be the most important national issue in this election," Rodrigo Carazo told me in April, "and it seems It will be the only way the Costa Rican people can deal with this enormous issue through the popular vote.

"Those who do not believe Vesco and his power are at issue will vote for the party which will maintain the man here, continuing the problem. Those concerned with his effects on our national dignity will vote for the party which will resolve the problem. "But even if the man were to pack up tomorrow," adds Carazo, knowing full well how slim the chances are, "it's going to take many decades before we can wash his stain out of the Costa Rican flag." Copyright (c) 1977 New Tlmti Mieatfnt. Distributed by Ntw York Tlmtt Special Futures.) been denied interviews with Vesco himself, being referred instead to Alberto Abreu, Vesco's chief spokesman and a smooth operator in his own right. All of Vesco's comments on the recent uproar have come in the form of written communiques, or through Abreu, leading some people to wonder whether the man is in the country or not.

In the plush suburb of Currldabat, where Vesco's modernistic mansion sits a stone's throw from the Russian Embassy residence, neighbors said they hadn't seen Vesco's late-model, silver-gray Mercedes for several weeks prior to the shooting incident. Out at his Guanacaste Province ranch, 4,000 acres complete with private airfield and a brace of speedy PT boats ready for a quick exit from the 30-mile strip of Vesco's Pacific Ocean beach frontage, the peons were as protectively close-mouthed as ever about their bossman's comings and goings. On May 21, the Miami Harald reported that Vesco's heavily outfitted seagoing yacht, M.Y. Zodiac, was quietly berthed at Nassau, Vesco's old Tripoli. According to the Bahamian grapevine, Vesco himself was aboard, ducking the Costa Rican heat.

The Herald article surmised that the fugitive millionaire was on his way to Italy. Vesco, who claims to have rejected U.S. citizenship in 1 975, insists that he's an Italian, by way of his father who was born in that country. But Italian officials have never confirmed it. "It's a contamination," Rodrigo Carazo told me when I interviewed him in San Jose early in April.

Carazo, who now stands a good chance of being elected president in the February 1978, elections, holds Vesco responsible for the wave of political corruption that began with the gringo's arrival in 1972. "It is not just Vesco's presence, but the combination of great sums of money, rapidly applied with great pressure, which brought him to the Important people of our country. Costa Rica was formerly known in the world as a special place, wherein existed a certain system of values, aspirations, traditions of freedom not found anywhere else. "But Vesco has turned us into a modern Tortuga Island. Anywhere you go in the world now, that negative image of our country prevails.

And only one man is responsible for this negativity not a Costa Rican, but an American at that." 6 A Poor Detroit Row-House Kid9 Robert Vesco, 20th Century buccaneer raised as a poor Detroit row-house kid, a millionaire by 35, now 42 and fighting to maintain his lush Central American hideaway, may be dropping behind a Howard Hughes-type scrim of invisibility but whether he's at his base in Costa Rica, sitting on the pirate ship Zodiac in Nassau Bay, or secretly slipping into Las Vegas for a night at the tables, Robert Vesco maintains a certain power grip, an importance on the world map equal only to nation-states, multinational corporations. "I have access, at the American government, to all of the most secret matters, civil as well as military," Vesco told Claude Richoz, a Swiss interviewer in 1970, right at the beginning of the mammoth IOS heist. And it probably was jtrue. Vesco's connections to the Nixon family were more than well-known: Donald Nixon, 32-year-old nephew of the president, has worked for Robert Vesco since 1972, and still lives in San Jose with his wife and one-year-old son. "Sure, I was under Bob's thumb, you could say that, though I have always admired the guy," Don Nixon told me in San Jose.

"But I don't work for him any more; we just see each other socially." According to Nixon, Vesco still "has stuff bn Uncle Dick, and vice versa." Moreover, Vesco himself told independent film makers Karin Davidson and George Natanson, on camera, that former President Ford had promised him a pardon, but that the stink from the first pardon effectively nixed this. HOWEVER STRONG Vesco's U.S. ties remain, there is no question that his forays into the world political and economic system have brought him into contact with other independent power groups, potentates and manipulators of international events. Like the arroya, the feared coffee blight that has destroyed much of the Guatemalan and Nicaraguan coffee crop, Robert Vesco's influence may not diminish even If he stays out of Costa Rica. His investments, business contacts, will be maintained, even if he has to "relocate" for a period of time.

Moreover, one source has told me that Vesco owns land on the.