National Guard (Nicaragua) organization
also: National Guard, former National Guard, Somocistas, Somoza's guard, National Guardsmen, Samosan National Guardsmen, the Guard, former National Guard colonel, former officers of the National Guard, ex-guard men, ex-guardsmen
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Anastasio Somozaperson · 24Sandinistasorganization · 15Nicaraguacountry · 10Enrique Bermudezperson · 9CIAintelligence service · 8Legion of September 15organization · 6Eden Pastoraperson · 5Hondurascountry · 4Contrasorganization · 3Costa Ricacountry · 3Lawrence Pazuloperson · 3Fuerza Democrática Nacionalorganization · 3United Statescountry · 3Pedro Ortiz Sanintperson · 3Guatemalacountry · 2Miamiplace · 2Stephen Kinzerperson · 2Daniel Ortegaperson · 2House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligenceorganization · 2Democratic Force of Nicaraguaorganization · 2Ricardo Lauperson · 2Rattlesnake Battalionorganization · 2Homestead Air Force Baseplace · 1Christopher Dickeyperson · 1
Claims (2)
Legion of September 15 member_of
National Guard (Nicaragua) host_asserted
“in Nicaragua. The Legion was entirely composed of ex-National Guard members. Naturally, one couldn't make a big splash with that in Nicaragua, even if they were to win, because it's just like the old Guard coming back. So the people at leas…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 21:19
Legion of September 15 member_of
National Guard (Nicaragua) host_asserted
“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…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 5 @ 18:55
Mentions (38)
▶ 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…
▶ 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 …
▶ 2:27
For example, Legion of September 15th, which we've talked about in some of the earlier chapters, talks about them being the hardcore National Guard assassins and terrorists. They were hiding out primarily the senior ranks next door in Guate…
▶ 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…
▶ 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…
▶ 20:49
in Honduras in order to kind of co-locate themselves with this CIA initiative. So lots of bad blood between the groups. They basically wanted nothing to do with each other, resisting the CIA's desire to join forces with the Legion. The Cham…
▶ 21:19
in Nicaragua. The Legion was entirely composed of ex-National Guard members. Naturally, one couldn't make a big splash with that in Nicaragua, even if they were to win, because it's just like the old Guard coming back. So the people at leas…
▶ 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…
▶ 24:46
The Contras and wrote in 1991, quote, the American planners never seem to grasp the simple fact that the Nicaraguans hated the National Guard and would never support an insurgency directed by ex-guardsmen, unquote. So it's just crazy. The C…
▶ 45:56
They were themselves planning a march on Managua. They wanted to do the same thing to the Sandinistas that had been done to Somoza. Other exiles who opposed the National Guard joined them in the summer of... So the National Guard ran out of…
▶ 46:26
They're the former Samosan National Guard. And you guys will remember this because we talked about it in the Gary Webb book, how there were the different factions that made up the Contras. And like the one guy that was based out of primaril…
▶ 59:01
and raised enough cash to buy 200 weapons from local gun shops. Volunteers trained alongside anti-Castro Cubans, i.e. Cuban exiles, our Gladio unit, at camps in South Florida. Former National Guardsmen, the fat, lazy ones, could join if the…
▶ 59:35
Another group had closer ties to Somoza. The 5th of September Legion of several hundred National Guard veterans drew its name from the 1821 date of Nicaraguan's independence from Spain. The Legion, formed in May of 81, was said to be financ…
▶ 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. …
▶ 1:31
In the early days of the anti-Sandinista 15th of September Legion, led by Pedro Ortez Sinetro, numbered fewer than a dozen men with shotguns and .22 caliber pistols. As a sergeant with the National Guard's Rattlesnake Battalion, Ortez took …
▶ 17:24
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…
▶ 23:13
We don't want to negotiate. We don't want peace. We don't want democracy. We want a covert war. Negroponte's idea of U.S. goals for talks agreed with those who favored Managua's surrender. Internal squabbling and shifting regional support w…
▶ 23:44
because he knew they were all disciples of Somoza. And if anything, Pastora didn't like what was going on in Nicaragua by the Sandinista government, which is why he left. Not that he disagreed with their overall aims of kicking out Somoza, …
▶ 27:34
and action against coffee pickers, teachers, and officials, and anyone in a vehicle. Some trace these practices to Argentine advice, holding up the Operation Condor model that was waged in Argentina, also with the help of the CIA. Others sa…
▶ 28:03
used to doing this to their own citizens. So they were just continuing what they had done under Somoza. In a ploy to counter the negative human rights reports, John Negroponte decided to bring together the Contra leaders with American polit…
▶ 29:30
The exchange confirms that whatever the CIA and the administration was telling Congress about the objectives of the secret war were very limited. Privately, no one misunderstood what was going on. Given the origins of the anti-Sandinista op…
▶ 30:01
Constantly striving to deny that, the rebels argued the only a small portion of the troops had been in the Somoza government. The FDN troops numbered about 2,000 in 1983, but they publicly claimed 7,000. Perhaps they had grown to 6,000 by 1…
▶ 30:34
By then, they were claiming they had 15,000. In the spring of 87, Contra leaders claimed a strength of 16,000. Somoza's guard at its peak had 8,000. So who knows what the real numbers are? Reports were that several thousand soldiers remaine…
▶ 31:04
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…
▶ 31:35
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…
▶ 32:05
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 …
▶ 7:16
This army was primarily, as we recently learned in our last book, made up of former Samosan National Guardsmen, native Indians, and there were, at one point, it's a little bit further in the future, so there was basically three elements. Th…
▶ 7:48
guardsmen, which were all trained by the CIA and School of Americas and blah, blah, blah. And were torturing everybody in Nicaragua that opposed the dictator, primarily the Sandinistas. And then shortly after the quote unquote revolution of…
▶ 8:18
Ortega that had been part of the Sandinistas that moved into Costa Rica. And if you guys remember, that is the guy that would not take any drug money that had been laundered for weapons to arm his people. He didn't want to be in an effort w…
▶ 8:47
Samosa with Ortega. So he didn't want to be in the same clump with them. The problem for the CIA was the National Guard's been sucked and they really needed the other guy because that guy knew how to fight because they had actually won and …
▶ 31:19
That refused to participate with the dirty CIA drug money weapons shit. And at least had standards. He wouldn't fight with the CIA guerrilla thugs out of the National Guard that had always been on the payroll of the CIA and Somoza. And he b…