Enrique Bermudez person
also: Bermudez, Bermuda's, FDN commander, Enrique Bermudez, FDN's former military commander, CIA agent, Enrico Bermudez, Colonel Bermudez
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Contrasorganization · 37CIAintelligence service · 32Hondurascountry · 18Nicaraguacountry · 13Daniel Blantonperson · 13United Statescountry · 11Legion of September 15organization · 9Fuerza Democrática Nacionalorganization · 9Norwin Menendezperson · 9National Guard (Nicaragua)organization · 9Sandinistasorganization · 8Anastasio Somozaperson · 8San Franciscocountry · 8Democratic Force of Nicaraguaorganization · 7Washington, D.C.place · 7Julio Bermudezperson · 7Miamiplace · 7Guatemalacountry · 7Nicaraguan National Policeorganization · 7Adolfo Caleroperson · 6Los Angelesplace · 6FDNorganization · 6Aristide Sanchezperson · 6Ricardo Lauperson · 6
Claims (30)
CIA funded
Enrique Bermudez documented
“on the CIA's payroll. He began traveling widely, gauging the sentiment of the vanquished National Guardsmen, like basically trying to recruit them all back into their former role, many of which were hiding inside the United States. But also…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 40:26
Enrique Bermudez member_of
Nicaraguan National Police documented
“Bermudez had been the deputy commander of the infantry company Somoza sent to support the U.S.-led invasion of the Dominican Republic. So this is a coup that the CIA staged in the Dominican Republic. So he was a very known quantity to have …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 36:55
Enrique Bermudez member_of
Nicaraguan National Police documented
“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…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 35:29
United States appointed
Enrique Bermudez documented
“to the American military. The Americans thought so highly of him that he was one of the National Guard officers they recommended to head the National Guard during the final days of Somoza's reign. The State Department considered Bermudez a …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 37:57
Enrique Bermudez member_of
Newsweek documented
“rode out the remainder of the Civil War from the safety of NBC Row in Washington, D.C. When the Samosas government collapsed, Bermudez began a new career, you guys are going to love this, as a truck driver for Newsweek. Like the CIA mouthpi…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 38:59
Charles Boyd recruited
Enrique Bermudez documented
“Soon after the uplifting visit from Samosa's cousin, Bermudez got a call from Major General Charles Boyd, a top Air Force official who visited Bermudez and invited him to the Pentagon just to kick some ideas around. Not like we're going to …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 39:29
Enrique Bermudez planned
Operation Magic documented
“while the indigenous rebel group peaked at around 3,000. Colonel Bermudez spent much of his time at the base, Tegu, where the FDN had radio stations and a hospital. He planned a big push for the summer and fall. Operation Marathon. At Langl…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 44 (46) @ 39:59
Enrique Bermudez appointed
Contras documented
“Bermudez to see if Bermudez would be willing to lead the new resistance force that can be put together. He was a logical choice to be the Contra's military commander of all of the former officers of the National Guard. He probably had the b…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 36:02
CIA trained
Enrique Bermudez documented
“Bermudez had been in the United States since 1975. Because, you know, that's where you put people that overthrow governments. You bring them home. First as a student attending courses on subversion and counterinsurgencies at the Inter-Ameri…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 37:28
CIA funded
Enrique Bermudez book_quoted
“Bermudez was inviting them from the base camps and he would call them his secretaries. Dillon wrote that the CIA was sending tens of thousands of dollars a month to Bermudez's general staff to pay the family salaries of his field commanders…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 16:37
Enrique Bermudez overbilled_or_diverted
CIA book_quoted
“They were only shipping things like beans and rice to the base camps, but they were billing the CIA full rations. Several accounts, including Dillon's, paint a picture of a massive corruption inside of the FDN perpetuated by Bermudez and hi…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 17:53
Enrique Bermudez member_of
FDN documented
“Explaining Norwin's relationship with the DEA, the Contras, the drug flights from El Salvador to Texas, the meetings with CIA pilot Aguardo and CIA agent Enrique Bermudez, the FDN's former military commander, meaning the Contras. Quote, Nor…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 22 @ 1:23:37
Enrique Bermudez recruited
Nicaraguan National Police documented
“on the CIA's payroll. He began traveling widely, gauging the sentiment of the vanquished National Guardsmen, like basically trying to recruit them all back into their former role, many of which were hiding inside the United States. But also…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 40:26
Enrique Bermudez recruited
Daniel Blanton documented
“In L.A., he paid Blanton's group a visit. Bermudez came to a meeting of the group to give a pep talk and to ask the group to keep the idea of a free and democratic Nicaraguan alive. Not that they ever had one because they didn't. But, you k…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 3 by Gary Webb @ 47:05
Enrique Bermudez appointed
Daniel Blanton host_asserted
“was an old friend of the Menendez's family. I've known him since he was a lieutenant, Menendez said, adding that his brother, Edmundo, had been friends with Enrique Bermudez even longer. They'd known each other since childhood. Menendez, wh…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 4 @ 46:57
Enrique Bermudez headed
Legion of September 15 documented
“if you didn't want to be in the cocaine business in the future. Besides, at that point, Bermudez's contra group, the Legion of September 15, was already busily involved in cocaine smuggling and Bermudez knew it, as did all of the CIA in tha…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 4 @ 50:49
Norwin Menendez trafficked
Enrique Bermudez documented
“His decision to plead guilty and rat out Uncle Norwin could hardly be considered a surprise. Like Pena, Herrera-Menezes was debriefed by the DEA and he too implicated the Contras in Norwin's drug sales, confirming that his uncle had direct …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 10 @ 6:07
Enrique Bermudez member_of
Fuerza Democrática Nacional host_asserted
“Quote, it is clear that there is a network of drug trafficking through the Contras. And it goes right up to Calero, Aldolfo Calero and Enrique Bermudez. And we have people who will testify and who have unquote. But the idea of diving into s…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 16 @ 33:38
Enrique Bermudez headed
Legion of September 15 documented
“Enrique Bermudez, a 47-year-old colonel from the former National Guard and founder of the 15th September Legion, initially served as second-in-command of the FDN forces. A Sandinista spokesman noted at the time that Bermudez was a clean rec…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 43 (45) @ 1:02:05
Enrique Bermudez member_of
Armed Resistance Democratic Force documented
“Enrique Bermudez, a 47-year-old colonel from the former National Guard and founder of the 15th September Legion, initially served as second-in-command of the FDN forces. A Sandinista spokesman noted at the time that Bermudez was a clean rec…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 43 (45) @ 1:02:05
Enrique Bermudez member_of
Legion of September 15 host_asserted
“He had taken up the Nicaraguan cause because he was on the same payroll that the rest of them were. Honduras had been working with the CIA for a while at that point. Bermudez and other National Guard officers with the League of September 15…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 7:23
CIA reassigned
Enrique Bermudez host_asserted
“When the CIA got involved in early 1981, its first project was trying to unite all of the groups under one umbrella called the Contras. The bands were too small to be effective and too disorganized. They weren't communicating with each othe…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 17:24
Enrique Bermudez founded
Democratic Force of Nicaragua documented
“Argentine military officer looking on. Bermudez signed a one paragraph document stating that the Legion and the barn would agree to constitute a single organization that was going to go by the name of Nicaraguan Democratic Forces. What a na…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 22:55
Enrique Bermudez covered_up
CIA host_asserted
“One order the Nicaraguans were repeatedly given was to vehemently deny any knowledge of CIA involvement. Bermudez played that role to the hilt, angrily brushing off any press suggestion that the U.S. government had a hand in the running of …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 32:59
Enrique Bermudez member_of
CIA documented
“Oh, he looked at O'Neill and O'Neill was staring at him from other people because the order prohibiting CIA testimony, Finster was unable to pursue the line of inquiry. He quizzed Blanton about his meeting in Honduras with CIA agent Enrique…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 23 @ 56:23
Enrique Bermudez member_of
FDN documented
“He also said that FDN leader Enrique Bermudez was aware of the drug deals, and Pena described Bermudez as a CIA agent. When challenged by CIA questioner on that statement, Pena merely laughed. It's very obvious, he said, Bermudez had been S…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 1:07:08
Enrique Bermudez recruited
Norwin Menendez book_quoted
“that the CIA knows about all of these things. The money the Contra received from the Reagan administration was peanuts and was growing military organization needed arms, supplies, food, and money to support the families. And the CIA decided…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 1:08:52
Norwin Menendez recruited
Enrique Bermudez guest_asserted
“Miranda also testified that I also took part in meetings with Norwin Menendez and Bermudez, discussed the possibility of using the army to send drug loads to the U.S. and Europe. But those plans were truncated by Bermudez's sudden death. An…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 22 @ 1:24:06
Enrique Bermudez spied_on
Nicaragua guest_asserted
“He also said that FDN leader Enrique Bermudez was aware of the drug deals, and Pena described Bermudez as a CIA agent. When challenged by CIA questioner on that statement, Pena merely laughed. It's very obvious, he said, Bermudez had been S…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 1:07:08
Enrique Bermudez ordered_assassination_of
Daniel Blanton host_asserted
“and put up the Argentinian military that was on the payroll of the CIA. They had nice cars, etc. It was against this backdrop that Menendez and Blanton had been called to Honduras to meet with Enrique Bermudez, where they were told by the n…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 37:02
Mentions (95)
▶ 6:07
His decision to plead guilty and rat out Uncle Norwin could hardly be considered a surprise. Like Pena, Herrera-Menezes was debriefed by the DEA and he too implicated the Contras in Norwin's drug sales, confirming that his uncle had direct …
▶ 14:07
After all the meetings that he had been in with FDN Director Adolfo Calero, Enrique Bermudez, Edgar Chamorro, and Frank Arena, the resultant scandal would likely have wiped out what little Contra support was left in Washington. It would hav…
▶ 33:38
Quote, it is clear that there is a network of drug trafficking through the Contras. And it goes right up to Calero, Aldolfo Calero and Enrique Bermudez. And we have people who will testify and who have unquote. But the idea of diving into s…
▶ 43:45
had another major front page story in the Examiner, exposing Norwin Menendez's cocaine trafficking network and his involvement with the Contras in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Rosenfeld reported on Menendez's meeting with CIA agents Enriq…
▶ 1:23:37
Explaining Norwin's relationship with the DEA, the Contras, the drug flights from El Salvador to Texas, the meetings with CIA pilot Aguardo and CIA agent Enrique Bermudez, the FDN's former military commander, meaning the Contras. Quote, Nor…
▶ 1:24:06
Miranda also testified that I also took part in meetings with Norwin Menendez and Bermudez, discussed the possibility of using the army to send drug loads to the U.S. and Europe. But those plans were truncated by Bermudez's sudden death. An…
▶ 56:23
Oh, he looked at O'Neill and O'Neill was staring at him from other people because the order prohibiting CIA testimony, Finster was unable to pursue the line of inquiry. He quizzed Blanton about his meeting in Honduras with CIA agent Enrique…
▶ 38:09
The story grudgingly and often backhandedly admitted that the basic facts presented in the series were all correct, and it buried key admissions deep inside, such as the fact that the CIA knew about some of these activities and did nothing …
▶ 38:35
but without disclosing Bermuda's relationship with the CIA. CIA agent Adolfo Calero, whom the Post euphemistically described as someone, quote, who worked closely with the CIA, unquote, also admitted to the Post reporters that he had met wi…
▶ 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…
▶ 36:02
Bermudez to see if Bermudez would be willing to lead the new resistance force that can be put together. He was a logical choice to be the Contra's military commander of all of the former officers of the National Guard. He probably had the b…
▶ 36:25
convincing the Americans to back him was going to be critical if the Contras were ever going to get off the ground. Bermudez was a leader who was very palatable to the Americans. He was a known quantity. He fit the profile, one U.S. officia…
▶ 36:55
Bermudez had been the deputy commander of the infantry company Somoza sent to support the U.S.-led invasion of the Dominican Republic. So this is a coup that the CIA staged in the Dominican Republic. So he was a very known quantity to have …
▶ 37:28
Bermudez had been in the United States since 1975. Because, you know, that's where you put people that overthrow governments. You bring them home. First as a student attending courses on subversion and counterinsurgencies at the Inter-Ameri…
▶ 37:57
to the American military. The Americans thought so highly of him that he was one of the National Guard officers they recommended to head the National Guard during the final days of Somoza's reign. The State Department considered Bermudez a …
▶ 38:28
for the National Guard's human rights violations, the tortures, the disappearance, and the bombings, except that he'd actually been part of all of that, to include overthrowing the Dominican Republic government. But we didn't know that, so …
▶ 38:59
rode out the remainder of the Civil War from the safety of NBC Row in Washington, D.C. When the Samosas government collapsed, Bermudez began a new career, you guys are going to love this, as a truck driver for Newsweek. Like the CIA mouthpi…
▶ 39:29
Soon after the uplifting visit from Samosa's cousin, Bermudez got a call from Major General Charles Boyd, a top Air Force official who visited Bermudez and invited him to the Pentagon just to kick some ideas around. Not like we're going to …
▶ 39:57
After sounding out Bermudez on the idea of running a rebel force against the Sandinista government, Boyd told him that he had a friend at the CIA who was interested in speaking to him. In mid-1980, Bermudez had packed his family and his bel…
▶ 40:26
on the CIA's payroll. He began traveling widely, gauging the sentiment of the vanquished National Guardsmen, like basically trying to recruit them all back into their former role, many of which were hiding inside the United States. But also…
▶ 40:56
everyone that he could recruit. Those who wonder how Bermudez could afford to travel so much when he didn't have a job was basically told that he was living off the profits of his Washington house. You know, the one he got as a truck driver…
▶ 41:26
Bermudez would move there and become their commander. They were actually a terrorist group. Made up mostly of former National Guard officers who had escaped from Nicaragua at the end of the war, the Legionnaires had a safe house in Guatemal…
▶ 45:35
and made two contributions to the Nicaraguans, one for $40,000 and one for $80,000. Written underneath the amounts was the name and telephone number of Colonel Ricardo Lau, L-A-U, a former intelligence and security officer for the National …
▶ 46:03
who was never charged in connection with Romero's murder, would go on to become Enrique Bermudez's right-hand man in the Contra organization. The CIA had admitted that during 1981 and 82, it was receiving regular reports that Lau and seven …
▶ 46:33
for the Contras in Los Angeles. His little exile group was moving up in the world and had switched from cocktail parties and car theft and loan fraud. They had also become an official part of the CIA's new Contra army, the FDN. In 1981, CIA…
▶ 39:56
The Nicaraguan, it appeared, had cocaine coming in from everywhere. Menendez had an endless supply of cocaine, from what I could see, Sandra said. In June of 81, Smith got a break in her case. Detective Joseph Lee of Baldwin Park Police in …
▶ 40:26
the guy we were talking about last time, well, it says here he just has the same last name as Enrique, which is the guy we were talking about, sorry, was making two trips a month to San Francisco where he had contacts with large cocaine smu…
▶ 40:53
was bringing down between 14 and 20 pounds of cocaine on each trip. Another informant reported that Bermudez called San Francisco and places his order by telephone before each trip. The police subpoenaed his phone records for the previous t…
▶ 41:21
and a number belonging to Norwin's nephew, Herrero Menendez. It was enough for the Baldwin cops, along with the members of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and the U.S. Customs Service, to put a tail on Bermudez and stake out his house.…
▶ 41:49
The cops followed, observing him stop to pick up another man, Jose Herrera, before heading to L.A.'s airport. The duo bought two one-way tickets to San Francisco and got there at 3.40 when DEA agent Smith picked up their surveillance. Smith…
▶ 42:15
by an unidentified Latino man driving a gold Toyota with a car registered to Herrera, one of the traffickers. They drove to a small house and the three men went inside. After a bit, Bermudez came out, opened the trunk and got the briefcase …
▶ 42:42
35 minutes later, though, the cops spotted the car in another part of the area parked outside Herrero Menendez's house. Bermudez came out two hours later and drove back to the first house. The sequence of events provided the cops with enoug…
▶ 43:12
He had bought from Norwin Menendez. They also found $17,000 in a drug ledger bearing an entry 11-11-81, $90,000 to Herrera. Bermudez was hustled off to jail and Smith got her warrant for the Menendez house. On November 16th, the police hit…
▶ 46:02
into the U.S. in 1981 alone, which would have generated $54 million in sales. Blanton accepted Menendez's pitch to become a cocaine salesman for the Contras, he said, after he and the drug kingpin took a trip down to Honduras for another pe…
▶ 46:28
At a Contra camp near the Nicaraguan border, Bermudez told them of the trouble that the FDN was having in raising funds and obtaining equipment. He said they needed money. He was in charge. Okay, so how do we run money or raise money in Cal…
▶ 46:57
was an old friend of the Menendez's family. I've known him since he was a lieutenant, Menendez said, adding that his brother, Edmundo, had been friends with Enrique Bermudez even longer. They'd known each other since childhood. Menendez, wh…
▶ 47:24
Menendez raised funds in the Bay Area and it would be Blanton's job to do the same in the southern part of the state. Menendez became Bermudez's intelligence and security advisor in California. So he's basically working for the CIA, running…
▶ 47:57
There was an understanding among them. No one would join the Contra forces down there without my knowledge or approval. Blanton confirmed that, telling the CIA that Menendez's role in the Contra operations in California was basically a pers…
▶ 48:56
acknowledged that Menendez was involved with both the Contra and Bermudez. It was very early when the Contras did not have any supporters. Very early, the Contras was trying to raise money. This man, Menendez, was connected with all the Con…
▶ 49:22
and they had all been attached or assigned or trained by the Samosan military. It was a brotherhood. Blanton insisted that Bermudez never mentioned drug sales during his fundraising pitch, but from Blanton's description of Bermudez's instru…
▶ 49:51
that the ends justify the means, and that is what Mr. Bermudez told us about the Honduras operations and inferring it was the same for the drug operation. Blanton doubted that Bermudez knew specifically they would be selling cocaine to rais…
▶ 50:49
if you didn't want to be in the cocaine business in the future. Besides, at that point, Bermudez's contra group, the Legion of September 15, was already busily involved in cocaine smuggling and Bermudez knew it, as did all of the CIA in tha…
▶ 51:11
By September of 81, Langley was informed by Cable that the Legion's leadership had made a decision to engage in drug smuggling to the U.S. in order to finance its anti-Sandinista operation. The Cable said Bermudez reportedly had advised aga…
▶ 51:38
Langley was informed that a suitcase full of cocaine was smuggled onto a commercial airliner in July of 1981 by a Legion officer. It was then sold in Miami and the profits given to the Contras. The CIA's inspector general found no evidence …
▶ 52:07
Bermudez asked him and Menendez if they could assist in the procurement of weapons. In court testimony, Blanton called it a mission that they took them to Costa Rica to contact some people to get some connections on how to do it. We have to…
▶ 52:34
Where have we heard that story before? The trip, let's see, both he and Menendez were escorted to an airport by armed Contras. A summary of his CIA interview states, quote, unbeknownst to Bermudez and the Contras, Blanton says, he was carry…
▶ 7:23
He had taken up the Nicaraguan cause because he was on the same payroll that the rest of them were. Honduras had been working with the CIA for a while at that point. Bermudez and other National Guard officers with the League of September 15…
▶ 17:24
When the CIA got involved in early 1981, its first project was trying to unite all of the groups under one umbrella called the Contras. The bands were too small to be effective and too disorganized. They weren't communicating with each othe…
▶ 17:53
to Honduras when the CIA was sending in dozens of new agents and operatives to Honduras, and one of those was Felix Rodriguez. The agency pressured the Miami-based Farn group to link up with Bermudez's men in the September 15th group. That …
▶ 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…
▶ 22:19
bermudez's legion instead so yeah back the killers and the assassins that's from the old government if the farm wanted to stay as part of the contra business they were going to have to suck it up so at a unity meeting that was held in augus…
▶ 22:55
Argentine military officer looking on. Bermudez signed a one paragraph document stating that the Legion and the barn would agree to constitute a single organization that was going to go by the name of Nicaraguan Democratic Forces. What a na…
▶ 23:50
The Chamorro brothers boycotted the meeting rather than sit in the same room with Bermudez, which was fine with Bermudez because he didn't like them either. The Legion moved to Honduras and the FDN was officially created. The Farn were push…
▶ 24:21
By choosing to support Colonel Bermudez and the FDN over other contra factions, the CIA threw its lot in with the single most detested group of Nicaraguans they could have picked from. And that was even reported by former New York Times rep…
▶ 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…
▶ 27:06
His wife's uncle gave him $5,000 to travel to the United States. So Blanton is totally a liar. Like Bermudez, Aristide Sanchez went on the CIA's payroll and began reporting daily to his CIA overseers. Together, Bermudez and Sanchez would be…
▶ 27:37
Adolfo Calero, the former manager of Coca-Cola in Managua. He worked closely with Aristide Sanchez. Oliver North later called Sanchez the Calero's hatchet man. Though the FDN would change and merge with other groups over the years, Bermuda'…
▶ 28:09
thanks largely to the backing of the CIA. Sanchez became one of the Contra's top political and military strategists, plotting logistics, buying supplies, and delivering the weapons, wrote in the Miami Herald in 1993's obituary. Throughout t…
▶ 28:39
And Norwin Menendez explained that when he was having to deliver weapons and supplies to the FDN, I dealt directly with Bermudez and occasionally his assistant, Sanchez. He was a good friend of mine, he said. By November of 81, the Contra p…
▶ 32:59
One order the Nicaraguans were repeatedly given was to vehemently deny any knowledge of CIA involvement. Bermudez played that role to the hilt, angrily brushing off any press suggestion that the U.S. government had a hand in the running of …
▶ 35:31
The Nicaraguans from Bermudez needing several hundred dollars for the rent of a safe house to a foot soldier on leave in the capital asking for a couple of bucks to go see a movie. It had to come from an Argentinian general. This is a quote…
▶ 37:02
and put up the Argentinian military that was on the payroll of the CIA. They had nice cars, etc. It was against this backdrop that Menendez and Blanton had been called to Honduras to meet with Enrique Bermudez, where they were told by the n…
▶ 13:55
that he was present on many occasions when Menendez telephoned FDN commander Enrique Bermudez in Honduras. Menendez told Pena of Bermudez's request for such things like gun silencers, which Menendez sent to him, crossbows, and other militar…
▶ 15:38
Most of them had been called home by 1982 after their country's disastrous civil war with the Balkan Islands. Enrique Bermudez and other top-ranking FDN officials started living like real generals. They bought houses with balconies overlook…
▶ 16:09
Bermudez and his staff spent their evenings dining, smoking cigars, drinking tequila, and carousing at the best restaurants. Bermudez had also developed a taste for young teenage girls, and his men were recruiting them out of Nicaragua. Tha…
▶ 16:37
Bermudez was inviting them from the base camps and he would call them his secretaries. Dillon wrote that the CIA was sending tens of thousands of dollars a month to Bermudez's general staff to pay the family salaries of his field commanders…
▶ 17:06
were using it. The Southern Front commanders located in Costa Rica, Idan Pastora and Chamorro, constantly complained that Bermudez and his CIA friends were stifling them on supplies, raking off the best weapons and food and sending them the…
▶ 17:29
The guys that are in Honduras are the old National Guard generals that the CIA wants to deal with. And Pastora is the other group that's in Costa Rica that they don't really like. Bermuda's staff officers were pocketing a lot of the money, …
▶ 17:53
They were only shipping things like beans and rice to the base camps, but they were billing the CIA full rations. Several accounts, including Dillon's, paint a picture of a massive corruption inside of the FDN perpetuated by Bermudez and hi…
▶ 18:24
At one point, dozens of mid-level FDN held commander positions petitioned to have Bermudez fired for stealing money and squandering the supplies. Some CIA officers were pushing for his removal as well. That didn't happen. But Bermudez had f…
▶ 18:55
expelled. The CIA brass felt they couldn't dump the obedient asset who had constructed their entire project. Congressional discomfort over the CIA's army was growing. By May, the House Intelligence Committee issued a special report suggesti…
▶ 44:17
was a familiar face of Nicaraguan rebels in the United States. Calero spoke perfect English. He was a graduate of Notre Dame. Calero and Bermudez were our main links with the CIA, Chamorro declared. They met constantly with the CIA station …
▶ 1:01:18
at an FDN meeting and served as an official representative to their political organization in California from 1982 to 84. After that, he said, he was appointed as a military representative of the FDN in San Francisco, in part because Menend…
▶ 1:07:08
He also said that FDN leader Enrique Bermudez was aware of the drug deals, and Pena described Bermudez as a CIA agent. When challenged by CIA questioner on that statement, Pena merely laughed. It's very obvious, he said, Bermudez had been S…
▶ 1:08:52
that the CIA knows about all of these things. The money the Contra received from the Reagan administration was peanuts and was growing military organization needed arms, supplies, food, and money to support the families. And the CIA decided…
▶ 1:02:05
Enrique Bermudez, a 47-year-old colonel from the former National Guard and founder of the 15th September Legion, initially served as second-in-command of the FDN forces. A Sandinista spokesman noted at the time that Bermudez was a clean rec…
▶ 1:02:39
at the Inter-American Defense College. That's kind of the advanced version of School of Americas. Bermudez had effectively been exiled by Somoza. He stayed on for three years as a military attache for Somoza, but somehow was exiled by him. …
▶ 1:03:15
was considered to lead it. He traced his own link to the Argentines in late 1980 when he claimed 70 to 80 legionnaires received training at Argentina. Timing is important as it bears on the initiation of the paramilitary action. Bermudez ma…
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Cuban and anti-Samosa. As a former National Guardsman, Colonel Bermudez failed the test in Miami in November 1982 because the entire National Guard that they're using worked for Samosa. In Miami in November of 1982, CIA officers contacted a…
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Exile leader Edgar Chamorro met with the chief gruner and his head of political operations, Joseph Fernandez, to plan a sort of Congress of perhaps about 20 Nicaraguans, in which Bermudez would merely be one voice. In early December, a new …
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shortchanged on supplies in favor of the Contras. In addition to Honduran government, feared both the FDN troops on his territory and Nicaraguan incursions to get to their base camps. Among the troops, Colonel Bermudez demanded fidelity, ph…
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had become the unquestioned commander. Any remaining doubt concerning whether he would act independently was gone. In Honduras, the CIA-minted FDN board did not have the presence to exert any control. They made just one visit to the camp as…
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and set up shop there. More often, individuals went, but then they seemed scattered, with Bermudez the reigning chief. On one occasion, several Contra intelligence officers actually told FDN commissioners that Bermudez and his chief intel, …
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the commissioners that was also on the CIA's payroll. The FDN directors could do nothing to investigate the charges, which Bermudez just dismissed. Allegations of human rights abuses inside Nicaragua actually reflected widespread injury as …
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peasants in Nicaragua during the Somoza regime. These overall figures also obscure the leadership role of the Guard. Bermudez is the obvious example, but only the tip of the iceberg. When reporter Christopher Dickey visited FDN camps in the…
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rose to command 2,000 FDN troops while boasting to journalists about having murdered people during the Somoza government. Ricardo Lau, the chief spy, had been notorious for cruelty under Somoza while working in the National Guard. Lau becam…
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of the worst kind of Somoza influence, refusing to join any united front in which he participated. Months after the FDN announced Lau's resignation, records propagandist Edgar Samaro noted, Lau was still the last person to talk to Bermudez …
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while the indigenous rebel group peaked at around 3,000. Colonel Bermudez spent much of his time at the base, Tegu, where the FDN had radio stations and a hospital. He planned a big push for the summer and fall. Operation Marathon. At Langl…
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The secret war spawned a generation of freelance cowboys. Project Democracy then brought the ultimate distortion, the office of the president working directly with private citizens to fund covert action. It became apparent almost immediatel…
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future shipments. Uh-huh. Infighting among arms dealers eventually sullied the White House. At a meeting with North, Secord, Singlib, and Calero to discuss anti-aircraft weapons, desperate to get SAMs, Bermudez had a Secord offer of $180,00…
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after they received a huge Saudi Arabia donation and warned Calero of the money's appearance. Owen carried another packet of intelligence to Calero in April when Oliver North told Robert McFarlane that Bermudez planned a big FDN offensive i…
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Declassified U.S. cable traffic confirms half that number. Despite the troops and the weapons bought by Calero, June was most notable for a shooting incident on the Costa Rican border. Nothing indicated an offensive at all. Bermuda's lacked…
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and it involved Calero, Bermudez, General Secord, and Oliver North. Secord stated his opinion that without aircraft, the Contras would be driven from the field and defeated post-haste. He then volunteered to create an aircraft capability.…
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and Sandinista power. For Colonel Bermudez and Sanchez, chief of the FDN logistics, he was moving stuff to columns in the field and that basically consumed all of their time. They mostly bought food locally. Material for the columns in the …
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Men could not carry much while the mule trains could not be very long without observation. This translated into patrols that could not stay out very long. Bermuda sent a few columns deep into Nicaragua to exert presence, but their rebel uni…