Anastasio Somoza person
also: Somoza, Somoza dictators, Stacio Somoza de Bile, Samosa, Father Somoza, Anastasio Somoza Garcia, elder Somoza, Luis Somoza, Samosan, dictator, Andasio Samosa, Anastasio Samosa, President Somoza, Anastasio Somoza, Mosa, Samosas, Samosa's, Anastasio Simoes, Taco Samosa, Taco Somoza, Nicaraguan dictator, Somoza, Nicaraguan leader Somoza
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Nicaraguacountry · 93Sandinistasorganization · 60CIAintelligence service · 34Nicaraguan National Policeorganization · 26United Statescountry · 25National Guard (Nicaragua)organization · 24Edwin Wilsonperson · 16Norwin Menendezperson · 15Contrasorganization · 15Managuaplace · 13Cubacountry · 12Miamiplace · 11Edmundo Menendezperson · 10Guatemalacountry · 10Jimmy Carterperson · 9Tom Clinesperson · 9Hondurascountry · 8Enrique Bermudezperson · 8Daniel Blantonperson · 7Charles E. Wilsonperson · 7Lawrence Pazuloperson · 7Los Angelesplace · 6Somoza familyfamily · 6Carlos Castillo Armasperson · 6
Claims (46)
Anastasio Somoza removed_from_power
Nicaragua book_quoted
“In the pre-dawn hours of July 17, 1979, Somoza and his closest associates, his top generals, his business partners, and their family boarded two jets and flew to Homestead Air Force Base in Miami, Florida, to begin their exile. The vaulted …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance by Gary Webb Part 2 @ 7:12
Sandinistas overthrew
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“In the pre-dawn hours of July 17, 1979, Somoza and his closest associates, his top generals, his business partners, and their family boarded two jets and flew to Homestead Air Force Base in Miami, Florida, to begin their exile. The vaulted …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance by Gary Webb Part 2 @ 7:12
CIA funded
Anastasio Somoza documented
“into the United States. Somoza lived in Texas. He is an evil dictator that killed tens of thousands of Nicaraguans backed by the CIA. And they make sure that he gets entrance into the United States and can live a life of Riley after he was …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 2 @ 1:17:22
Sandinistas overthrew
Anastasio Somoza documented
“elites from Nicaragua. And when the Sandinistas overthrew the CIA-backed Samosan government, they do this all the time. They export all of the corrupt oligarchs and people that have been on their payroll.…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 2 @ 1:17:04
Violeta Chamorro restored_properties_to
Anastasio Somoza documented
“They have been backed by the CIA the entire time and was part of the destabilization of Nicaraguan government the entire time the Sandinistas were in charge. She was immediately began bringing back all of the Somoza friends and relatives, g…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 22 @ 33:04
Nicaraguan National Police installed
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“They are a national police force. You cannot think of them as being part of a military like we think about our National Guard. They are literally the jackboots that kept Somoza in power. So he basically is making money off of providing them…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 4:17
Jimmy Carter removed_from_power
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“that the rebels weren't even a real threat. But what Samosa and apparently the CIA didn't realize was that the deal his family had struck with every U.S. administration from FDR, a blood pact to combat quote-unquote communism together, woul…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 8:09
Anastasio Somoza supplied_arms_to
Carlos Castillo Armas documented
“They even took to dropping empty Coke bottles because it made like, they were like water and it made like a big explosion and they wanted people to think that they were actually bombed. Haney reported that Nicaraguan dictator, Taco Somoza,…”
▶ The Colonels Corner President’s Secret Wars chapter 6 @ 58:14
Anastasio Somoza ordered_assassination_of
Springfjord documented
“to fuel their trucks and airplanes to attack Nicaragua to exact revenge. The Nicaraguan dictator turned to Rip Robertson, the top CIA officer at the airfield, and demanded that the ship be stopped. Robertson asked Apalaca for orders, but hi…”
▶ The Colonels Corner President’s Secret Wars chapter 6 @ 1:01:15
Anastasio Somoza appointed
Orlando Morello book_quoted
“was an influential Nicaraguan economist who had been appointed by President Somoza to be the central bank of Nicaragua, which basically functions as the Federal Reserve. The banker was also the official representative to two Swiss banks loc…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 15 @ 36:23
William Michener member_of
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“came from Honduras. So the implication is that they were training these people, some of them here, for a coup of Guatemala. CIA training for the coup was also done in Nicaragua with the Somoza government's approval. Michener acknowledged th…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part 8 @ 45:53
Summit Aviation trained
Anastasio Somoza documented
“If you're hauling drugs, there's different equipment that you want on board as far as palletizing as opposed to seats and stuff like that. Even former employees were uncertain of who they actually worked for. During the Nicaraguan Revolutio…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 42 (44) @ 46:17
Sandinistas overthrew
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“The secret warriors, particularly after Chile, better knew the danger of action taken on shaky policy grounds. Those in charge of Nicaraguan's government, which came to power in 1979 at the head of a popular revolution that deposed Somoza, …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 43 (45) @ 32:26
Anastasio Somoza trafficked
CIA host_asserted
“into the United States. Somoza lived in Texas. He is an evil dictator that killed tens of thousands of Nicaraguans backed by the CIA. And they make sure that he gets entrance into the United States and can live a life of Riley after he was …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 2 @ 1:17:22
Anastasio Somoza carried_out_attack
1954 Guatemalan coup d'état book_quoted
“I threw a GD communist out of Guatemala, unquote. And by communist, he's not actually talking about a communist. He's talking about when they overthrew Guatemala and accused the guy of being a communist. He reminded the ambassador, referrin…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance by Gary Webb Part 2 @ 1:54
Anastasio Somoza supplied_arms_to
Operation Pluto book_quoted
“personally worked on that, he said. When the CIA needed a secret base to prepare for the Bay of Pigs invasion, Somoza couldn't have been more accommodating. The U.S. called me and I agreed to have the bombers leave here and knock the hell o…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance by Gary Webb Part 2 @ 2:23
Anastasio Somoza carried_out_attack
Dominican Republic book_quoted
“personally worked on that, he said. When the CIA needed a secret base to prepare for the Bay of Pigs invasion, Somoza couldn't have been more accommodating. The U.S. called me and I agreed to have the bombers leave here and knock the hell o…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance by Gary Webb Part 2 @ 2:23
Fort Benning trained
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“training both ICE agents and border agents. And those are the same guys that trained Pinochet and all of the Somoza dictators in Latin America that went out and killed tens of thousands of their own citizens. They're all trained at the same…”
▶ Operation Gladio Vietnam Part 3 @ 38:53
Anastasio Somoza supplied_arms_to
CIA documented
“cause an explosive sound. Haney reported that Nicaragua's Somoza had offered two of his P-51 fighter bombers to make up for the rebel losses, but only if the U.S. would replace his aircraft. This sounded simple until State Department's Assi…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 10 @ 49:17
Dwight D. Eisenhower approved
Anastasio Somoza documented
“20%. Mainly because the important psychological impact of air support, Ike agreed anyway to do it. The Somoza Rebel planes were in action the next day and air attacks became the CIA's main activity. Mainly because of the important psycholog…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 10 @ 50:17
Marvin Nathan funded
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, because of course, participated in a land purchase. They bought a 1,185-acre ranch northwest of Houston from the family of, wait for it, Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, the guy the Sandinistas overthrew.…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Mafia CIA and George Bush Part 22 @ 1:07:11
Tom Clines supplied_arms_to
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“be the liaison for the contract. Wilson says that he and Klein's were trying to set up for Nicaragua was a for-profit version of the Vietnam Phoenix program assassination program. Wilson offered Somoza a small initial contract for $700,000.…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 51:54
Tom Clines supplied_arms_to
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“had any intentions of giving Wilson that business. Wilson believed that Somoza simply decided that the CIA connection was not enough to keep him in power. In fact, working through Dr. Artemi, Klein took over the operation, apparently never …”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 52:23
Sandinistas overthrew
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“In Nicaragua that same year, the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship was overthrown by the Sandinistas' Liberation Front, which launched agrarian reform, which pissed off United Fruit because they were going to take their land back that they ha…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Cocaine Death Squads and War on Terror Part 3 @ 26:50
Sandinistas overthrew
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“Sandinistas win the election in Nicaragua and basically begin kicking out United Fruit and everybody else. The entire thing falls apart, and that's Contras. So the Contras get housed over in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. They're flying …”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 38:18
Anastasio Somoza funded
Manuel Artime documented
“Luis Somoza, the Nicaraguan dictator, offered his cooperation. Manuel Artime and other prominent exiles completed their arrangements. They set up shop near a town in Nicaragua. They soon began bombing Cuba. Langley sent Jake Esserling to Pa…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 27 (28) @ 48:30
Sandinistas overthrew
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“was killing his own citizens that tried to do anything about the corruption. Their National Guard, all trained at School of America's and the whole nine yards, just like all the rest of the National Police down there in South America during…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner_ The Medusa Files; Part 12 @ 15:02
Sandinistas overthrew
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“They have to qualify. It's not just bad enough to be a Sandinista. Movement under Daniel Ortega had come to power after overthrowing Somoza in 1979. And the other country of significant note at this time is El Salvador, where what we're tol…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner_ The Medusa Files; Part 12 @ 19:01
CIA funded
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“all of this shit's about, supplying money for the Contras. They're buying his big land estate. And why would this guy be in the United States? Because he was sponsored here by the CIA. He had killed tens of thousands of his own people. He w…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Mafia CIA and George Bush Part 22 @ 1:07:44
CIA installed
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“Chile and Brazil and Nicaragua and everywhere, everywhere we've been. The same thing happened in Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh and the DM down in the South. So everywhere the CIA goes and does destabilization, it generates refugees. And in the c…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Mafia CIA and George Bush Part 22 @ 1:32:49
CIA installed
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“Of Nicaragua. And then he leaves there. And goes back to Guatemala. As the ambassador. At the height. Of Guatemala. Murdering people. And their. Assassination squad. Because you know. We started it back here. When he was there before. And i…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Open Mic Pre Turkey Day @ 13:06
CIA planted
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“Congress Against Soviet Intervention in Latin America, and it was hosted in Mexico City. That same month, Somoza called in the diplomatic corps in Nicaragua and told them his voice was shaking with anger that his police had discovered a sec…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Guatemala 1953-1954&1962-1980’s @ 39:32
Jimmy Carter removed_from_power
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“who ends up being the paymaster for the Brigade 2506. Don't you love how these stories all just kind of meld together? In 1978, Carter was cutting loose and Stacio Somoza de Bile, a West Point graduate and second generation Nicaraguan dicta…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 37:21
Anastasio Somoza paid
Manuel Artime book_quoted
“and Miami doctor by the name of Manuel Artemi, A-R-T-E-M-I, who had the export contracts for all Nicaraguan beef. It's all about the resources. Wilson explained that this was a payoff from samosa to the Cubans because Artemi kept about 100 …”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 42:22
Tom Clines supplied_arms_to
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“Klein and Shackley were still just hanging on, but a lot of people within the CIA wanted to help because they knew that the Sandinistas were the bad guys. In fact, Wilson's notable description of the motive for helping Somoza was only a fra…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 44:25
Stansfield Turner removed_from_power
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“quote-unquote security program. Carter had ordered Turner to cut Somoza off from all intelligence and CIA operations because of his dismal human rights, because he had death squads. According to Wilson, Klein said to him, quote, we can feed…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 44:54
Tom Clines supplied_arms_to
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“that the United States actual government in charge don't want to be affiliated with. Wilson said that Klein urged him to go see Somoza and make a deal. About the same time, a lobbyist by the name of R.C. Wittner, W-H-I-T-N-E-R, whose nickna…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 45:52
Edwin Wilson supplied_arms_to
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“had begun to front for New York Congressman Robert Murphy. Murphy was a West Point classmate and close friend of Samosa's. He was tired of being criticized for sponsoring foreign aid bills for the dictator, so he asked the Texas colleague t…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 46:54
Edwin Wilson supplied_arms_to
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“He went to see Charlie Wilson at the Democrat Club on Capitol Hill. He told the congressman, quote, here's what I want to do. I can make a buck or two out of it, unquote. So Tina and I and Charlie Wilson get on a plane and go meet Samosa in…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 47:52
Edwin Wilson supplied_arms_to
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“I can't understand why the hell you don't help me back. Blah, blah, blah. That's basically what Samosa is saying. At a meeting the next morning, Samosa once again expressed to Ed Wilson his bitterness towards Carter. Wilson said he told Sam…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 50:27
Tom Clines supplied_arms_to
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“I can't understand why the hell you don't help me back. Blah, blah, blah. That's basically what Samosa is saying. At a meeting the next morning, Samosa once again expressed to Ed Wilson his bitterness towards Carter. Wilson said he told Sam…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 50:27
Edwin Wilson supplied_arms_to
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“that that's exactly what the CIA and Wilson had been doing for the Savak in Iran, that they were running basically a covert intelligence operation feeding intelligence to Iran for decades. Wilson suggested that T.P. Quintero, whom Somoza ha…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Prelude to Terror chapter 17 @ 51:24
Anastasio Somoza supplied_arms_to
Vietnam book_quoted
“quell an uprising. Hell, he'd even sent Nicaraguans off to fight in Vietnam. So he's definitely working with the CIA in all of the above. He was their guy, just like Saddam Hussein was until he wasn't. And now when Somoza needed help, when …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance by Gary Webb Part 2 @ 2:53
Anastasio Somoza member_of
United States government host_asserted
“that they would try to frame it on the Nicaraguan government, who they hated because he got rid of their stooge called Somoza. That's the extent to which the U.S. government is corrupt. Well, sometimes it's not always, and this is what I wa…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 14 @ 1:16:40
CIA installed
Anastasio Somoza host_asserted
“Because obviously in Nicaragua, they weren't interested in installing democracy. They had supported Somoza for years as a military dictator. And when the people finally rose up and threw them out of the country, then they wanted to come in …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 48 (50) @ 54:06
J.C. King ordered_assassination_of
Anastasio Somoza book_quoted
“that the Nicaraguan dictator, Somoza, was going to be able to uphold his end of the bargain. And J.C. King wanted to use the first arms delivery to Castillo Armez, based in Nicaragua, to deepen Somoza's commitment. Another part of the plan …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 10 @ 3:25
Mentions (120)
▶ 30:19
You have, and in this case it was true too, what they refer to as Cuban exiles, which is used as the U.S.'s gladio units, training paramilitary style on U.S. grounds to overthrow a foreign country. That is in every stretch of the imaginatio…
▶ 39:32
Congress Against Soviet Intervention in Latin America, and it was hosted in Mexico City. That same month, Somoza called in the diplomatic corps in Nicaragua and told them his voice was shaking with anger that his police had discovered a sec…
▶ 40:03
covert in order to get into Guatemala. In January 1954, the operation appeared to have suffered a serious setback when copies of the liberation documents found their way into Arben's hands. A few days later, Guatemala's newspaper published …
▶ 3:13:04
That's where they assassinated the guy in the car. I can't remember his name. I know you're talking about. Yeah. So in Nicaragua specifically, United Fruit, which again was Rockefeller and Cromwell and Sullivan, all of those guys, they they…
▶ 37:21
who ends up being the paymaster for the Brigade 2506. Don't you love how these stories all just kind of meld together? In 1978, Carter was cutting loose and Stacio Somoza de Bile, a West Point graduate and second generation Nicaraguan dicta…
▶ 37:51
Father Somoza was the guy that the CIA put in. His son succeeds him as a dictator in Nicaragua. And it was the political party of the Sandinistas that won the election when this second generation Somoza goes out the window. Then when the...…
▶ 37:51
Father Somoza was the guy that the CIA put in. His son succeeds him as a dictator in Nicaragua. And it was the political party of the Sandinistas that won the election when this second generation Somoza goes out the window. Then when the...…
▶ 38:47
is how Iran-Contra got created. And Jimmy Carter was basically cutting all ties to the dictator death squad last Somoza. And we've been brainwashed to believe that Jimmy Carter's the bad guy. It's just crazy. He also believed that if he sup…
▶ 39:50
the Sandinista movement, which were the nationalists. But the CIA is not going to like that because the CIA doesn't work for us. They work for the syndicate, and the syndicate wanted to be there with slave labor. As Somoza lost his power gr…
▶ 41:20
to go to war against the people that are truly the freedom fighters and the people that want the land back for their original owners, which happened to be in the Sandinista government. Okay, Tom Clines enjoyed a long history and friendship …
▶ 41:20
to go to war against the people that are truly the freedom fighters and the people that want the land back for their original owners, which happened to be in the Sandinista government. Okay, Tom Clines enjoyed a long history and friendship …
▶ 41:52
in Nicaragua. He provided a great deal of help for the anti-Castro operations. So in the early 60s, when a revolt threatened to topple the elder Somoza's regime, the anti-Castro Cubans were brought in to help. In 1978, Clines asked Wilson t…
▶ 42:22
and Miami doctor by the name of Manuel Artemi, A-R-T-E-M-I, who had the export contracts for all Nicaraguan beef. It's all about the resources. Wilson explained that this was a payoff from samosa to the Cubans because Artemi kept about 100 …
▶ 42:53
and other various parts of the world on retainer because that's the Gladio guys. These Cubans would help him get his government back if he was to ever be overthrown. So they have assassins on retainer living in the United States being train…
▶ 43:55
in charge of the Sandinistas. Castro had no control over the Sandinistas at all. They just wanted their land back from United Fruit. Wilson recalls that Klein told him it looked like Somoza was going down the drain and Carter was not going …
▶ 44:25
Klein and Shackley were still just hanging on, but a lot of people within the CIA wanted to help because they knew that the Sandinistas were the bad guys. In fact, Wilson's notable description of the motive for helping Somoza was only a fra…
▶ 44:54
quote-unquote security program. Carter had ordered Turner to cut Somoza off from all intelligence and CIA operations because of his dismal human rights, because he had death squads. According to Wilson, Klein said to him, quote, we can feed…
▶ 45:52
that the United States actual government in charge don't want to be affiliated with. Wilson said that Klein urged him to go see Somoza and make a deal. About the same time, a lobbyist by the name of R.C. Wittner, W-H-I-T-N-E-R, whose nickna…
▶ 46:23
Simmons, S-I-M-M-O-N-S. She was the mistress to Congressman Charlie Wilson, a Democrat from Texas. According to Whitmer, Simmons' presence in the Congressman's office was causing a problem. Wilson agreed to hire her to handle decorating cho…
▶ 46:54
had begun to front for New York Congressman Robert Murphy. Murphy was a West Point classmate and close friend of Samosa's. He was tired of being criticized for sponsoring foreign aid bills for the dictator, so he asked the Texas colleague t…
▶ 47:25
legislation passed that would include intelligence aid to Samosa. This would pay for the security contract Ed Wilson and his colleagues had in mind. Ed Wilson, who was with a straight face still claiming that he never lobbied on Capitol Hil…
▶ 47:52
He went to see Charlie Wilson at the Democrat Club on Capitol Hill. He told the congressman, quote, here's what I want to do. I can make a buck or two out of it, unquote. So Tina and I and Charlie Wilson get on a plane and go meet Samosa in…
▶ 48:22
sits here and he's like describing where they're all sitting and samosa's witness or what that mistress is where is with him not his wife and i'm at the end of the table with an assistant mayor and samosa is just loving tina like crazy with…
▶ 48:52
with the congressman's mistress. And Samosa's mistress had been with him for many, many years. She's getting mad as hell. And she, Tina, keeps dancing with Samosa. And the mistress is now dancing with Charlie Wilson. I just sat there in ama…
▶ 49:24
All the bodyguards were around and they were all carrying weapons. I'm thinking, I'm not going to get out of here alive. So we get just about ready to go and the mistress picked up something and they start flying around here. He instantly t…
▶ 49:59
and they're in the back. This is so crazy. Charlie Wilson's sitting there with Tina, and I'm sitting there with this gal on a jump seat, and she won't even talk to them. She's talking to the driver, and I'm talking to Samosa, and we're talk…
▶ 50:27
I can't understand why the hell you don't help me back. Blah, blah, blah. That's basically what Samosa is saying. At a meeting the next morning, Samosa once again expressed to Ed Wilson his bitterness towards Carter. Wilson said he told Sam…
▶ 51:24
that that's exactly what the CIA and Wilson had been doing for the Savak in Iran, that they were running basically a covert intelligence operation feeding intelligence to Iran for decades. Wilson suggested that T.P. Quintero, whom Somoza ha…
▶ 51:54
be the liaison for the contract. Wilson says that he and Klein's were trying to set up for Nicaragua was a for-profit version of the Vietnam Phoenix program assassination program. Wilson offered Somoza a small initial contract for $700,000.…
▶ 52:23
had any intentions of giving Wilson that business. Wilson believed that Somoza simply decided that the CIA connection was not enough to keep him in power. In fact, working through Dr. Artemi, Klein took over the operation, apparently never …
▶ 38:53
training both ICE agents and border agents. And those are the same guys that trained Pinochet and all of the Somoza dictators in Latin America that went out and killed tens of thousands of their own citizens. They're all trained at the same…
▶ 26:50
In Nicaragua that same year, the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship was overthrown by the Sandinistas' Liberation Front, which launched agrarian reform, which pissed off United Fruit because they were going to take their land back that they ha…
▶ 29:21
was secured through the World Anti-Communist League. Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, and South Africa immediately recognizes them. A victory party was held in Buenos Aires in which the U.S. was represented by NAC, N-A-T, Hamrick, H-A-M-R-I-C…
▶ 1:50:06
Domestic networks were turned over increasingly to originally expats from foreign countries. You had a lot of the former Nicaraguan people that got thrown out when Somoza got thrown out. And they just kept relocating more and more. You had …
▶ 40:11
It started to bother me. I believe that I had better than average knowledge of the Civil War in Nicaragua. Having religiously followed the Iran-Contra hearings on television, I would videotape them while I was at work and watched them at ni…
▶ 46:18
in jail without bail because they posed a threat to health and the moral fiber of communities. The file contained a transcript of a detention hearing held to determine if the couple should be released on bail. Blanton's prosecutor, Assistan…
▶ 47:44
Blanton's lawyer, Brad Brunin, confirmed the couple's close ties to Somoza and produced a photo of them at a wedding with the president and his spouse. That just showed what fine families they were, he said. Yeah, the murderous dictator. Fi…
▶ 0:58
As his enemy amassed in the hills and suburbs of his doomed capital, the dictator huddled in his mountainside bunker with his aides and his American advisors and cursed his rotten luck. For 46 years, Andasio Samosa's family had ruled the Re…
▶ 1:24
Now, after all of his hard work, the Americans wanted him to disappear. Somoza could hardly believe it. He was glad that he had his tape recorder going so history would bear witness to his cruel betrayal. Quote, I have thrown many people ou…
▶ 1:54
I threw a GD communist out of Guatemala, unquote. And by communist, he's not actually talking about a communist. He's talking about when they overthrew Guatemala and accused the guy of being a communist. He reminded the ambassador, referrin…
▶ 2:23
personally worked on that, he said. When the CIA needed a secret base to prepare for the Bay of Pigs invasion, Somoza couldn't have been more accommodating. The U.S. called me and I agreed to have the bombers leave here and knock the hell o…
▶ 2:53
quell an uprising. Hell, he'd even sent Nicaraguans off to fight in Vietnam. So he's definitely working with the CIA in all of the above. He was their guy, just like Saddam Hussein was until he wasn't. And now when Somoza needed help, when …
▶ 3:21
all because of some nonsense about human rights violations by his troops. It is embarrassing for you to be good friends with the Samoans, the dictator told Rizzolo sarcastically. Somoza then tried his trump card. If he went, the Nicaraguan …
▶ 3:48
As corrupt and deadly an organization as any in Central America, served as Samosa's military, his police, and his intelligence all in one. And they'd all been trained by the CIA. Samosa knew the Americans would loathe to let their investmen…
▶ 4:43
Because obviously this has been going on for a very long time as Somoza is lecturing the ambassador. Quote, what are you going to do with the National Guard of Nicaragua? Somoza asked the ambassador. I don't need to know. But after you have…
▶ 5:16
and Fort Benning and Fort Leavenworth. Out of 900 officers we have, 800 of them were taught by you. Prisulo assured Somoza that the United States was willing to do what it could to preserve the Guard. Putting aside its international reputat…
▶ 5:43
their bulwark against the anti-American interest, and as long as it existed, could be used to keep Somoza's successors, whoever they might be, in line. In other words, they were the guard for the United States. They just happened to be Nica…
▶ 6:14
The ambassador told Somoza that his top generals needed to step down and give them what appeared to be a clean break from its bloodstained past before the Sandinistas marched in and it became too late to salvage anything. In other words, th…
▶ 6:46
The ambassador told him, just sitting here talking to you about it is strange enough. We're talking about a break, i.e. go take a rest. You can come back later when we have control of the country. Samosa knew the game was over. Let's not bu…
▶ 7:12
In the pre-dawn hours of July 17, 1979, Somoza and his closest associates, his top generals, his business partners, and their family boarded two jets and flew to Homestead Air Force Base in Miami, Florida, to begin their exile. The vaulted …
▶ 7:43
proclaiming an end to the guard which had hunted the rebels mercilessly for more than a decade. Those National Guard officers who could escape poured across the border into El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Some of them hid inside the …
▶ 8:13
Government was overthrown. A handful of congressmen gathered in a hearing room in the Rayburn building in Washington, D.C. to discuss some of the disturbing activities in Latin America. Though what had happened in Nicaragua was on everyone'…
▶ 36:26
very secretive meeting with former CIA Deputy Director Vernon Walters in May of 1984. According to the story, Walters was dispatched in a frantic attempt to talk the El Salvadoran president out of assassinating Thomas Pinkering, the U.S. am…
▶ 1:16:40
that they would try to frame it on the Nicaraguan government, who they hated because he got rid of their stooge called Somoza. That's the extent to which the U.S. government is corrupt. Well, sometimes it's not always, and this is what I wa…
▶ 35:50
Ronnie transports 100 kilos of cocaine to the black market and has transported millions of dollars to Miami for Blanton. Once Blanton's cash arrived in Florida, the brothers reported a relative of Blanton, Orlando Morello, would launder it …
▶ 36:23
was an influential Nicaraguan economist who had been appointed by President Somoza to be the central bank of Nicaragua, which basically functions as the Federal Reserve. The banker was also the official representative to two Swiss banks loc…
▶ 1:08:50
Everything that has been done to Maduro, the economic isolation, the constant coups through USAID, the isolation, all of the current day operations to attack Maduro, whether you agree with him or not, I'm not even getting into that. That's …
▶ 33:04
They have been backed by the CIA the entire time and was part of the destabilization of Nicaraguan government the entire time the Sandinistas were in charge. She was immediately began bringing back all of the Somoza friends and relatives, g…
▶ 1:01:24
The chief of the Nicaraguan National Police said Commander Roger Mayorga, the head of the criminal investigation section, were well acquainted with Norwin and his family and the work that he had done for Somoza and the Contras. Mayorga, a s…
▶ 1:01:51
Vivas was the earliest member of the Sandinista underground. He had known Norwin Menendez since he was a teenager. Through his attempts to infiltrate anti-Samosa groups, they were itching for a reason to arrest him. In November 1990, a whit…
▶ 1:05:17
He was a Nicaraguan assemblyman who had served as one of Norwin Menendez's lawyers. The records showed that Luis Henry Palas, the son of Somoza's closest political advisor, and Nicaraguan assemblyman Frank Duarte, another longtime Somoza su…
▶ 23:28
He checked it with former Contra commander Eden Pastora. Pastora is the guy who refused to use drug money to fund his efforts in support of the Contras. And they got rid of him. He says that they were friends and business partners and that …
▶ 3:51
One of his firms had a lucrative contract to supply American food to the Nicaraguan National Guard. And the Nicaraguan National Guard is kind of a misnomer. It's basically the control mechanism for Samosa to control the entire country. They…
▶ 4:44
contracts from the Nicaraguan government and with the U.S. So again, very important connections. Daniello and Chapita Blanton were plugged into every aspect of the power structure in the Somoza dictatorship. They were benevolent only to loy…
▶ 5:12
owned nearly all of the country's biggest corporations, the National Airline, the Power Company, the biggest hotels, the biggest department stores, the cement factory, their version of the New York Times, you name it. It was hard to earn a …
▶ 5:42
If he didn't like you, it was virtually impossible to live if he didn't like you. Most of the families who stayed loyal and pleased the dictator partook in the riches to be had. The Blantons had been blessed with Samosa's magic touch. Then …
▶ 6:43
according to one of his compatriots already here. He and his wife had grown up accepting as their birthright the elegant mansions, servants, vacation homes, and elite private schools. All of that was gone. He was very pissed off. Though Som…
▶ 7:12
That would flabbergast both Somoza and his American handlers in the CIA. By the spring of the following year, they had captured many of the smaller cities and were closing in on the capital. Somoza's supporters, who called themselves Somoza…
▶ 7:40
That's what they referred to him as because he was backed by the money in New York City. Could have gotten his ass whipped and so quickly. It was mind boggling to them by a bunch of bearded radicals. More importantly, how could the American…
▶ 8:09
that the rebels weren't even a real threat. But what Samosa and apparently the CIA didn't realize was that the deal his family had struck with every U.S. administration from FDR, a blood pact to combat quote-unquote communism together, woul…
▶ 9:44
if Congress had simply cut off the aid to Nicaragua. Under Secretary of State Lucy Benson replied, I cannot find a single thing. Somoza told his National Guard to ease up on the rough stuff. And miraculously, complaints immediately began to…
▶ 10:41
that northern rural areas was the stomping grounds of an especially efficient National Guard general by the name of Gustavo El Tigre Medina, who would later play an important role in Danielle Blanton's life. Medina was Somoza's top counteri…
▶ 13:41
of them were never seen again, they had been disappeared. Sounds very familiar. The missing peasant farmers were appropriated by members of the National Guard. When the State Department went to Congress for more money to support Somoza, one…
▶ 14:39
The congressman said, I know. We have been doing that for the last 20 or 30 years. Between the National Guard, because the National Guard had such a tight lock on the country, it was considered invincible. And it might have been had the Car…
▶ 15:12
except distance themselves from Somoza and his human rights abuses. When it became obvious to the Nicaraguan people that they would no longer live under Somoza rule, the American plan for dealing with the crisis boiled down to dump Somoza a…
▶ 15:36
Apparently, the administration never realized that the Sandinistas and most other Nicaraguans hated the National Guard. And Somoza was basically the evil twin of the National Guard. You could not have one without the other. As Sandinista's …
▶ 17:41
Inner city people live in Los Angeles, one person said, despite the fact that they were one of the richest families in Nicaragua. The Blantons were social friends with Somoza and shared common business interests. Julio Blanton and Somoza we…
▶ 18:11
Several generations. Blanton's mother was from the Reyes family, which had an illustrious history in the Somoza regime. His grandfather was Colonel Reyes, former minister of war and the commander of the National Guard. Dinello's in-laws, th…
▶ 19:04
including the National Telecommunications Company's headquarters, along with cattle ranches and plantations all over the country. In some ways, Danilo Blanton had more to fear from the Sandinistas than other Samosan friends. He was part of …
▶ 20:03
It paid for his master's degree in business administration at the University of Columbia at Bogota. The National Guardsmen and Sandinista rebels were shooting each other in the streets. By June 11, things had gone so far, so far gone for So…
▶ 21:00
The CIA hastily revised the estimate of Somoza's staying power on June 12th, giving his government only a short time to survive. Somoza fired the Colombian general staff four days later. Many had fought the Sandinistas for decades, and most…
▶ 21:32
for its ingratitude for all of the years of his service. I want the U.S. people to help me, just as I helped them for 30 years. We want the North Americans to return what we contributed during the Cold War. The CIA shortened Somoza's life e…
▶ 31:10
They would talk about developments in Nicaragua. Blanton later told the CIA, other members of the group also opposed Somoza and the Sandinista regime. They simply came together to share common experiences and discuss their mutual desires to…
▶ 33:40
a violent brand of former National Guard men that were based in Guatemala. The Legion was a terrorist organization started by former Samosan bodyguards soon after Samosa's fall. It was to become the hard core at the center of the FDN after …
▶ 34:08
into smaller resistant groups in August of 1981. Blanton's contra-fundraising efforts bore little fruit at first. At the beginning, we started to have some parties, you know, just to raise money, like in the park. We had rallies. Blanton al…
▶ 34:36
and helped put out anti-Sandinistas newsletters printed by a shop owned by a sympathetic Nicaraguan. Blanton and his compatriots began their fundraising efforts in earnest in Los Angeles. Samosa's cousin, Luis Pallas de Bali,…
▶ 35:29
revolutionaries blasted a rocket propelled grenade in a hail of m16 fire into samosa's mercedes-benz killing samosa and splattering pieces of him all over the inside of his german automobile another visit peleus made with happier results wa…
▶ 2:38
In his home country, Blanton had heard him referred to as El Padrino, the godfather, and he'd heard rumors of drug trafficking. So a lot of the people in the Somoza government was involved in drugs already. So you can take what Blanton says…
▶ 3:10
who had killed in Nicaragua, you know, for the Somoza government. Barrios didn't say why he wanted Blanton to meet with him, but Blanton figured it had something to do with the Contras, because he, Barrios, was in the Contras.…
▶ 4:31
who in 1987 was murdered and it sparked an uprising that eventually toppled Somoza. Norwin Menendez, record show, was a partner of Valletta Chamorro in a finance company before the revolution. So, and the guy that's like going to weddings w…
▶ 5:01
After the Sandinista takeover, Donald Barrios reportedly became a financial angel to Sandinistas, to the dispossessed, sorry, I'm screwing this all up, to basically the people that were in exile from Nicaragua that had been formerly attache…
▶ 5:32
business partners with some of them, including at least two members of the Samosa General Staff and the owner of the largest pharmaceutical company in Nicaragua. And we know what pharmaceuticals do. At the same time, he called Blanton in L.…
▶ 6:01
El Tigre Medina, the counterinsurgency expert who'd ravaged the northern mountains routing out the Sandinistas. Medina was head of G4, the officer in charge of all supplies for the National Guard at the end of the war. He fled Managua with …
▶ 10:55
who also headed up investigations for the Nicaraguan National Police Narcotics Unit. Mayorga says the drug kingpin's association with the Colombians began after a plane full of marijuana made an emergency landing at a ranch owned by Somoza.…
▶ 11:24
In Samosa's Nicaragua, the Managua Police Department was a branch of the National Guard because, of course, they were. The National Guard officer who commanded the Managua police for many years was Colonel Edmundo Menendez Cantario, Norwin'…
▶ 13:25
was anti-Sandinista to the death. It is a hate that seems almost genetically ancestral. The National Guard wasn't just an army. It had its hands in everything. If the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, and the IRS, the Army, the Air Force, the Marines,…
▶ 13:55
the Somoza's National Guard. It had power over every part of your everyday life in Somoza's Nicaragua. Nicaragua is one of the few countries we are aware of in which all arms shipments that go into the country, whether they're sporting good…
▶ 14:26
when she testified in front of Congress in 1978. We have been shipping hunting equipment, for example. They are in effect purchased by the National Guard and then resold if they don't use it themselves. The stunned congressman said, say tha…
▶ 14:58
It is more of an accounting procedure, she told him. But everybody laughed. But the pervasive corruption of the National Guard was no laughing matter in Nicaragua to the Nicaraguans. Gambling, alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, and every vice…
▶ 15:27
Nicaraguan's Roman Catholic bishops complained in a letter to Somoza about this very thing. Quote, widespread corruption continues unchecked and public scandals further undermine the confidence in the morale of the people, unquote. To many,…
▶ 15:57
was closest to Edmundo. He was known as Mundo, for short, who was one of his favorite generals. In 1960, Mundo, who'd been trained in irregular warfare by the School of Americas in Panama, you know, that's probably why they call it a death …
▶ 16:28
Those campaigns killed key members of the Sandinistas and crippled the guerrilla movement for years. Later, Somoza gave Mundo the National Guard Choices Plum control of the Managua police, a perch from which a man was so inclined, if he was…
▶ 16:59
When it came to making profit off of any vice, quote, you have to realize that you did a lot of things in your career in the National Guard and you progressed up through the ranks. So you might have been a lot of things, unquote, explained …
▶ 17:28
had in his military career. Then he retired, and they made him a diplomat. He's a mafia guy. Under Mundo's watchful eye, Managua became an open city for Brother Norwin, who by the late 1970s owned discotheques, VIP clubs, drive-in whorehous…
▶ 18:31
down in Managua where he would spend weekends partying with the Menendez brothers. You'd walk down the street with Mundo and everyone would salute you. We went riding around in Jeeps, you know, guys with big guns everywhere around us. It wa…
▶ 19:00
Acquaintances of his said that he was an undercover informant for basically their FBI. Samosa's plainclothes secret police, which rooted out subversives or anyone that they thought was Sandinista or Sandinista affiliates. Before going to Gu…
▶ 21:31
which was using the National Guard to import stolen American cars into Nicaragua and then selling them to various people in the Somoza government. Importing cars through the National Guard allowed the buyer to evade tariffs the Nicaraguan g…
▶ 24:17
just as the dying inspector had claimed. In 1986, federal prosecutors in San Francisco debriefed Edmundo Menendez's son, Herrero, who informed them that during the Somoza regime, Norwin Menendez smuggled weapons, silencers, and video equipm…
▶ 24:49
who was a high-ranking customs official under Somoza. Norwin then arranged for Reyes' assassination. After the publicity died down, Norwin calmly resumed his smuggling ventures, but the FBI kept an eye on him. As Somoza's government teetere…
▶ 25:39
Norwin's political connections in Nicaragua didn't do any of it. And it would not be the last time that the office would exhibit such odd reluctance to tackle the Menendez crime family. You know, because they're in on it. One longtime Contr…
▶ 26:08
that it may have triggered his heart attack in July of 1977, after which he went off to the U.S. to recuperate. Edmundo soon left the police department and was promoted to brigadier general and retired from the National Guard. Somoza sent h…
▶ 26:39
in Guatemala City, catching three bullets in his back. Two days later, as he clung to life at a medical center, a revolutionary group, the People's Guerrilla Army, claimed credit for the assassination. The ECP's communique described Menende…
▶ 5:51
own experiences under Somoza's secret police led them to build an efficient body of police inside their Ministry of Interior to thwart any attempt by this CIA amassing of forces around their border. The Contras were forced to rely on help f…
▶ 18:27
Legion member, Pedro Yunez, said that they actually hated each other because the foreign commander, Fernando Chamorro, was a rabble rouser. And he had actually fought for the Sandinistas against Somoza.…
▶ 18:55
It was not until after the Sandinistas took control that he got disgruntled, not unlike a lot of the Cuban exiles, and decided to form his own group in Miami. So the September 15th guys were always for Somoza because they were in his Nation…
▶ 19:19
The Farn, because it was created by people who were initially against Somoza, because they weren't in the National Guard, and for the Sandinista government. But they get disgruntled and leave. So they're like mortal enemies. But the CIA ins…
▶ 25:40
were all approved by the CIA. That's in his affidavit. As luck would have it, the CIA selected another one of Norwin Menendez's friends to assist Bermudez in running the FDN. His name was Aristides Sanchez. He was also a wealthy landowner w…
▶ 26:41
That introduced him to Norwin Menendez. Remember, because Blanton is the guy that was in with Samosa big time, flew to Miami, but flew his wife and kids directly to Los Angeles and then lied about the fact that he was in Miami and what he w…
▶ 41:26
kind of a self-made man in Nicaragua. And in the 1970s, he went to the United States where he spent four years studying to be a commercial pilot, working nights as a janitor to support himself. He took his pilot license back to Nicaragua an…
▶ 43:00
He then took that opportunity to get a law degree. So he's an accountant. He's a pilot and a lawyer in Nicaragua. So he sets up a practice. But the very next year after he got his law license, the Sandinistas were on the outskirts of Managu…