FDN organization
also: Contra commanders, Southern Front, Fuerza Democrática Nicaragüense, Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the Contras, Contra forces, Contra armies, Contra leaders, anti-communist organization, Contra movement, Contra FDN, Fuerza Democrática Nacionalista, FDN's predecessor, Nicaraguan counter-revolutionary groups, Contra
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
United Statescountry · 16CIAintelligence service · 15Nicaraguacountry · 14Oliver Northperson · 10Norwin Menendezperson · 9Daniel Blantonperson · 8Renato Penaperson · 8San Franciscocountry · 8Dennis Ainsworthperson · 7Enrique Bermudezperson · 6Adolfo Caleroperson · 6Washington, D.C.place · 5U.S. Congressorganization · 4Hondurascountry · 4El Salvadorcountry · 4Barry Sealperson · 4Sandinistasorganization · 3Project Democracyoperation · 3Bob Duttonperson · 3Costa Ricacountry · 3Richard Secordperson · 3Felix Rodriguezperson · 3Ron Listerperson · 3DEAintelligence service · 3
Claims (22)
Norwin Menendez funded
FDN documented
“nephew had told him that the US was aware of these dealings and that it was highly unlikely I would even get in trouble. Both Norwin Menendez and Blanton told him that they were raising money for the Contras through drug dealing. Blanton ha…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 1:06:46
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
Oliver North diverted_money_for
FDN book_quoted
“At Langley, Jim McCullough, dismayed when he saw the letter, objected to sending it. Casey's secretary told the staff director he held a copy. The original had already gone out. That afternoon, McCullough was startled again by the White Hou…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 48 (50) @ 26:34
CIA investigated
FDN book_quoted
“We know that emphatically is not true. One DEA agent was, and he was removed. The author then goes on to say, in the 1990s, the CIA IG looked into these reports. He could not substantiate them, but his conclusions were disputed by DEA agent…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 48 (50) @ 10:57
Dennis Ainsworth spied_on
FDN documented
“Ainsworth warned them that the FDN, quote, has become more involved in selling arms and cocaine for personal gain than in a military effort to overthrow the current Nicaraguan Sandinista government, unquote. He told the agents about Menende…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 10 @ 2:33
Norwin Menendez trafficked
FDN 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
U.S. Congress funded
FDN documented
“any CIA contra controversies before the election. The Democrat-controlled Congress succeeded in passing yet another Boland Amendment. Unlike the earlier one, though, this one had teeth. It prohibited the CIA, the Department of Defense, and …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 10 @ 11:38
Adolfo Calero headed
FDN documented
“Even the FDN's normally optimistic handlers in Washington began to despair. Reagan's National Security Advisor, Robert McFarlane, told the FDN leader, Aldolfo Calero, in January 1985, that maybe it was time to start thinking about cutting b…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 10 @ 13:07
Daniel Blanton member_of
FDN documented
“And sneaking them into countries, because this looks exactly like that. Okay, Blanton's application for permanent residency, which disclosed his membership in an unnamed quote-unquote anti-communist organization, meaning the FDN and the Con…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 18 @ 1:01:01
CIA funded
FDN documented
“For 12 months, the Contras had staggered from one public relations disaster to another. There had been a major uproar in Congress in the spring of 84 when it was revealed that the CIA was running the Contra project and had seeded Nicaraguan…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 10 @ 10:03
Condo Carib Cargo Inc. supplied_arms_to
FDN documented
“That's an actual quote. Seals Farm in Baton Rouge, according to a 1983 U.S. Customs report, was allegedly used as a drop site for cocaine and marijuana flown into the country in a DC-4 aircraft that was labeled N-90201. That same plane subs…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 8 @ 3:00
Frank Moss supplied_arms_to
FDN documented
“was also a pilot by the name of Frank Moss, who was later identified in 1989 Senate report as having been investigated, but not indicted for narcotics offenses by 10 different law enforcement agencies during a period of time. The report sai…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 8 @ 4:02
Barry Seal supplied_arms_to
FDN documented
“that a Sandinista soldier blew out of the sky over Nicaragua in 1986 with a SAM-7 missile, breaking open the Iran-Contra scandal. The plane was based at MENA before SEAL sold it and it began flying weapons hauling missions for Oliver North …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 8 @ 16:32
Daniel Blanton member_of
FDN documented
“nephew had told him that the US was aware of these dealings and that it was highly unlikely I would even get in trouble. Both Norwin Menendez and Blanton told him that they were raising money for the Contras through drug dealing. Blanton ha…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 1:06:46
Adolfo Calero member_of
FDN documented
“to various student and labor organizations under Somoza's government in Nicaragua, something we see in all of these stories. Pay the labor people to not be labor people. In early 1983, the CIA had brought Calera out of Nicaragua and install…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 43:48
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
Renato Pena member_of
FDN documented
“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…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 1:01:18
Norwin Menendez supplied_arms_to
FDN documented
“He told the DEA intelligence analyst that Menendez was indeed working for the FDN and had been using drug money to buy weapons for the Contra. He also vouched for Renata Pena's credibility. Renata Pena worked for the nephew Menendez and ran…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 1:08:03
Unification Church funded
FDN documented
“Operation Gladio, Operation Condor, stepped in and began funneling money and supplies to the Contras. Dowling was a member of this organization and was part of the National Advisory Board and a frequent speaker at their events. Among the do…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 9 @ 56:56
Ron Lister supplied_arms_to
FDN guest_asserted
“They showed us a demonstration of the weapons. They showed us machine guns and other weapons. They have the license to sell them. Lister never sold guns directly to the Contras, Blanton said, but not entirely accurate. Norwin Menendez said …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 8 @ 21:31
FDN ordered_assassination_of
Óscar Romero host_asserted
“Power Party and its leader, Roberto Dias Buen. He actually ran all the death squads. He was reported running the death squads leaked to the assassination of San Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero, allegedly by Hitman from the FDN's predeces…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 7 @ 37:52
Norwin Menendez member_of
FDN guest_asserted
“The slang was never solved. Menendez, of course, denied everything. The cocaine wasn't his. It belonged to a drug-dealing Sandinista guy. He claimed the Sandinistas had set him up and his brother on phony drug charges as revenge for their y…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 22 @ 1:24:36
Mentions (63)
▶ 2:33
Ainsworth warned them that the FDN, quote, has become more involved in selling arms and cocaine for personal gain than in a military effort to overthrow the current Nicaraguan Sandinista government, unquote. He told the agents about Menende…
▶ 3:32
about the inner workings of the FDN and the relationships between Contra leaders and the U.S. government officials and that they were cooperating during congressional Iran-Contra investigations. In other words, tampering with witnesses. Ain…
▶ 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 …
▶ 6:37
in court was limited to bookkeeping work he had done for Norwin in San Francisco. He never breathed a word in public about the Contras. Were these men telling the truth? If one looks at the outcome of their criminal cases, the inescapable c…
▶ 9:33
Dealing cocaine, sending supplies to Contras, and his relationship with the U.S. government had never been closer. The potential exposure of Norwin Menendez couldn't have come at a more inopportune time for the Contras and the CIA. During t…
▶ 10:03
For 12 months, the Contras had staggered from one public relations disaster to another. There had been a major uproar in Congress in the spring of 84 when it was revealed that the CIA was running the Contra project and had seeded Nicaraguan…
▶ 10:34
from friendly nations. Shortly after that, a bomb went off at an ARDE commander's jungle headquarters, Eden Pastora. During a press conference, wounding Pastora, killing and injuring a number of his ARDE militants and journalists. This thre…
▶ 11:38
any CIA contra controversies before the election. The Democrat-controlled Congress succeeded in passing yet another Boland Amendment. Unlike the earlier one, though, this one had teeth. It prohibited the CIA, the Department of Defense, and …
▶ 12:08
The CIA and Defense Department began withdrawing their trainers, advisors, administrators, technicians, logisticians from Central America. And by the end of the year, the Contras were alone and desperate. Thousands of rebel fighters began r…
▶ 12:39
As the Contras spent their last batch of CIA money, allegations of Contra battlefield atrocities began to surface, spotlighting murders, tortures, assassinations, and the deliberate use of terror by some of the Contra commanders, putting th…
▶ 13:07
Even the FDN's normally optimistic handlers in Washington began to despair. Reagan's National Security Advisor, Robert McFarlane, told the FDN leader, Aldolfo Calero, in January 1985, that maybe it was time to start thinking about cutting b…
▶ 13:36
Reagan had gone so far during a speech as to compare them to the founding fathers of the American Revolution. They're terrorists. The FDN's only ray of hope was to withdraw from battle and lay low until spring, when Congress agreed to let t…
▶ 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…
▶ 16:55
even though one of his top lieutenants had pleaded guilty to cocaine charges and publicly implicated him as a major trafficker. Allowing Menendez to take the witness stand was out of the question. The drug lord knew simply too much. The FDN…
▶ 37:44
later revealed this. Other deposits were marked Cayman Islands and totaled almost a million dollars. Stuck amongst the bank records was a note in Spanish from Blanton's sister, an FDN member, who did Contra fundraising in San Francisco. It …
▶ 39:49
Arpasio, Lister had written FDN coordinator. Another list of names included Bill Nelson, the CIA former deputy director of operations, Salvadoran politician Roberto de Albruson, that's the guy that was basically functioning as their preside…
▶ 1:01:01
And sneaking them into countries, because this looks exactly like that. Okay, Blanton's application for permanent residency, which disclosed his membership in an unnamed quote-unquote anti-communist organization, meaning the FDN and the Con…
▶ 1:12:58
Two prominent Nicaraguan politicians were seemingly implicated as well, although they were never charged. The story made several U.S. newspapers, and reporter Jonathan Marshall of the San Francisco Chronicle, who had just co-authored a book…
▶ 1:22:50
of all remaining Sandinista supporters. In 1991, Menendez's operation, in all likelihood, was simply another version of the 1984 DEA-CIA sting involving trafficker Barry Seale, which the Reagan administration had used to accuse the Sandinis…
▶ 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…
▶ 1:24:36
The slang was never solved. Menendez, of course, denied everything. The cocaine wasn't his. It belonged to a drug-dealing Sandinista guy. He claimed the Sandinistas had set him up and his brother on phony drug charges as revenge for their y…
▶ 57:19
I walked back to my hotel room that night, 10 feet off the ground. It was all out in the open now. The Contra FDN had sold drugs to American citizens, mainly Blacks, and the CIA was on the hook for it. A CIA agent had given the GD order. I …
▶ 37:52
Power Party and its leader, Roberto Dias Buen. He actually ran all the death squads. He was reported running the death squads leaked to the assassination of San Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero, allegedly by Hitman from the FDN's predeces…
▶ 3:30
an air cargo company. The FDN hired that same company called Condo Carib Cargo Inc. The operator of Condo Carib record show was an FDN, meaning the Contras, leader Adolfo Calero's brother, Mario Calera. The Condo Carib's owner,…
▶ 4:02
was also a pilot by the name of Frank Moss, who was later identified in 1989 Senate report as having been investigated, but not indicted for narcotics offenses by 10 different law enforcement agencies during a period of time. The report sai…
▶ 5:31
In 1985, records show Owen reported to Oliver North that a DC-6 owned by Mario Calero, quote, which is being used for runs out of New Orleans, is probably used for drug runs into the United States, unquote. During that time, he was dealing …
▶ 6:00
In 1984, he participated in a joint CIA-DEA sting operation in an attempt to snare Sandinista government officials in drug smuggling because they desperately wanted to shift all of their drug smuggling onto the Contras, which somehow seems …
▶ 16:32
that a Sandinista soldier blew out of the sky over Nicaragua in 1986 with a SAM-7 missile, breaking open the Iran-Contra scandal. The plane was based at MENA before SEAL sold it and it began flying weapons hauling missions for Oliver North …
▶ 21:01
Danielle Blanton met Lister early through the FDN's organization in Los Angeles and began associating with him. And that would last until the late 1980s. Lister and a partner named Bill Downing, Blanton would say, went to the meeting that w…
▶ 21:31
They showed us a demonstration of the weapons. They showed us machine guns and other weapons. They have the license to sell them. Lister never sold guns directly to the Contras, Blanton said, but not entirely accurate. Norwin Menendez said …
▶ 23:05
because he was currently being held in a Nicaraguan prison. Menendez's own involvement in the Contra gun running was confirmed in 1996 by none other than the New York Times, which quoted an unnamed Clinton administration official saying tha…
▶ 39:02
He was a very staunch supporter of the Contras. He threw himself into the cause wholeheartedly as far back as 1983. He had posted, found jobs for, taken care of, donated money to all of the Nicaraguans that flocked to San Francisco. He said…
▶ 39:27
that he was very supportive of all of the refugees. He worked with liberal churches in the San Francisco area, trying to help them all. In February 1984, Ainsworth said he saw an announcement in the San Francisco Chronicle for a seminar at …
▶ 41:52
He believed the press was cheerleading for the Sandinistas, and he fired off letter after letter after letter. In late 1983, Sinico said he had gotten a phone call from a man named Aldolfo Calero, head of the political wing of the FDN. Sini…
▶ 42:21
We need you to be part of our PR group. Sinico formed a small organization called United Support Against Communism in the Americas. He and his friends held local meetings to publicize the plight of the Contras. Sinico said he had never met …
▶ 43:48
to various student and labor organizations under Somoza's government in Nicaragua, something we see in all of these stories. Pay the labor people to not be labor people. In early 1983, the CIA had brought Calera out of Nicaragua and install…
▶ 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 …
▶ 49:23
anti-communist groups, that was an off-branch of the Miami ones. That's weird. Ainsworth said that he did not believe that there was a connection between Menendez and the Cubans other than a political one and a drug one. A former FDN mercen…
▶ 55:17
Bullshit. Okay. And he even jokes, the CIA guy says, yeah, I know everybody thinks the CIA agent never retires, but trust me, I really retired. Quesada also met Menendez and Blanton at the FDN meeting and instantly said his antenna was up. …
▶ 55:49
He was involved on the political side of things. Again, bullshit. All right. In addition to his work with Oliver North and the San Francisco FDN, Father Dowling was also heavily involved in the San Francisco group with Ainsworth. And this i…
▶ 58:22
unwholesome connection between Menendez's drug ring and the FDN and an unnamed religious organization in the United States, which would be the Unification Church. According to a 1998 CIA inspector general's report, the CIA's domestic collec…
▶ 58:53
that there is an indication of links between a U.S. religious organization and two Nicaraguan counter-revolutionary groups. The heavily redacted CIA cable said these links involve an exchange in the United States of narcotics for arms. You …
▶ 59:23
reported that there was to be a meeting among the participants in Costa Rica regarding this exchange and that two law enforcement agencies were aware of it, though the agencies were not known and were not named in the CIA cable. The FBI had…
▶ 1:00:20
And a few days later, another cable arrived at Langley with additional details. The attendees at the meeting would include representatives from the FDN, the UDN, and several unidentified U.S. citizens. The CIA cable reported it identified R…
▶ 1:00:47
who would represent the FDN at the Costa Rica meeting. Ronaldo Pena Cabrera was one of Norwin Menendez's San Francisco drug dealers and a friend of Dennis Ainsworth. Pena was dating Danielle Blanton's sister, Leza, and was a top official in…
▶ 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…
▶ 1:04:08
Langley wanted to know if Contra leaders had scheduled any meeting in the next few weeks. If so, what information do you have and who's going? The response, several Contra officials had recently gone to the United States for a secret meetin…
▶ 1:04:31
This was during October 1982 that the FDN leaders met with Menendez in LA and San Francisco. The CIA inspector general's report is silent about what, if anything, the agency did next. Pena told CIA inspectors that the unnamed U.S. religious…
▶ 1:04:57
humanitarian support to Nicaraguan refugees and logistical support to the Contra rallies. When Renato Pena said Menendez's nephew was arrested on cocaine trafficking, Ainsworth began suspecting that the FDN was involved in drug trafficking.…
▶ 1:06:46
nephew had told him that the US was aware of these dealings and that it was highly unlikely I would even get in trouble. Both Norwin Menendez and Blanton told him that they were raising money for the Contras through drug dealing. Blanton ha…
▶ 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…
▶ 1:08:03
He told the DEA intelligence analyst that Menendez was indeed working for the FDN and had been using drug money to buy weapons for the Contra. He also vouched for Renata Pena's credibility. Renata Pena worked for the nephew Menendez and ran…
▶ 5:07
Max Gomez, i.e. Felix Rodriguez, went back to El Salvador. Dutton had made the chief pilot in charge of maintenance as well. The Enterprise had sent the damaged C-123, the one that sunk in the mud, to Southern Air Transport for repairs whil…
▶ 6:41
He told Bermudez to consider Secord's planes FDN property. At Ipilopango, Rodriguez arranged for armed guards on each flight to ensure that the planes didn't divert from their mission. In Washington, on August 8th, Rodriguez met with Donald…
▶ 10:01
Telephone calls between San Salvador and Washington complemented every active flight program. Drop zones remained elusive. But in August, Fernandez managed another mission to the Southern Front. Again, the aircraft landed at San Jose, where…
▶ 13:28
As part of that visit, Dutton went along on a supply flight, another abortive mission that found no one. It was rainy. The ceiling was barely 1,500 feet. The plane searched for an hour. And by the KL-43, the encrypted device, on September 9…
▶ 13:57
On September 13th, Dutton reported on the encrypted device that Project Democracy had delivered 55,000 pounds of supplies. Through the rest of the month, perhaps seven loads were checked out of the warehouse and delivered to the Southern Fr…
▶ 14:58
Secret agreements, the ones that are used by the CIA. The time came on October 5th, 86. That day, one of the C-123s had laid on to deliver supplies to the FDN patrols. The marker was to be used as a smoke signal. Bill Cooper and Buzz Sawyer…
▶ 16:25
Buzz Sawyer's flight log recovered from the wreckage showed that he had performed flights for the U.S. military with Southern Air. It also showed that Southern Air transport personnel, including its president, William Langton, along for som…
▶ 17:26
out of El Pelopengo. Secord alleges that Langley decided to take over Project Democracy assets. Oliver North met with CIA officials on October 9th. The agency actually did purchase for $1.2 million the group's last weapon shipment that was …
▶ 20:51
At the Senate Intelligence Committee on December 3rd, George declared that he had learned of Richard Secord only after the fact. In a post-Hawk ass-covering attempt on December 5th, the CIA General Counsel issued an opinion claiming that wh…
▶ 21:49
Meanwhile, phone records tied North explicitly to all of the actions. Inquiries in El Salvador quickly revealed that Max Gomez was Felix Rodriguez and led directly to Donald Gregg in Vice President Bush's office. As if that weren't enough, …
▶ 26:34
At Langley, Jim McCullough, dismayed when he saw the letter, objected to sending it. Casey's secretary told the staff director he held a copy. The original had already gone out. That afternoon, McCullough was startled again by the White Hou…