Eden Pastora person
also: Pastora, Commander Zero, Edan Pastora, Eden Pastora, E. Pastor Gomez, Commandante Cero, Eden Pastora Gomez, ARDE commander, Idan Pastora, Mr. Pastora, Petora, Pastira, Comandante Zero
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Contrasorganization · 37CIAintelligence service · 31Sandinistasorganization · 13Nicaraguacountry · 12ARDEorganization · 11United Statescountry · 11Costa Ricacountry · 11Norwin Menendezperson · 10Dewey Claridgeperson · 7Alianza Revolucionaria Democráticaorganization · 7Fuerza Democrática Nacionalorganization · 6U.S. Congressorganization · 5Anastasio Somozaperson · 5Oscar Danilo Blandónperson · 5El Salvadorcountry · 5National Guard (Nicaragua)organization · 5Hondurascountry · 5Roberto Chamorroperson · 5Colombiacountry · 4Alfonso Robeloperson · 4Enrique Bermudezperson · 4Daniel Blantonperson · 4Iran-Contra affairevent · 4Joseph Fernandezperson · 4
Claims (25)
Eden Pastora member_of
Contras documented
“A wing of the Contra movement headed by Calero and Blanton and Menendez used their drug profits to help fund the FDN, meaning the Contras. In January of 1985, Eden Pastora, another Contra leader, had met with Blanton in Miami in an effort t…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 17 @ 9:52
Eden Pastora carried_out_attack
San Juan del Norte book_quoted
“not the fat slobs from the National Guard. In 84, Pastora did invade Nicaragua, capturing a small town of San Juan del Norte. The Sandinistas redeployed and ejected him. On May 30th, he had a brush with death in the form of a bomb built int…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 46 (48) @ 5:23
Sandinistas overthrew
Eden Pastora book_quoted
“not the fat slobs from the National Guard. In 84, Pastora did invade Nicaragua, capturing a small town of San Juan del Norte. The Sandinistas redeployed and ejected him. On May 30th, he had a brush with death in the form of a bomb built int…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 46 (48) @ 5:23
Sandinistas targeted_for_regime_change
Eden Pastora book_quoted
“Both the FDN and the Sandinistas had motive for the assassination. So did the CIA. By the time Pastora had recovered, ARDE had lost steam. Then Pastora again fell victim, this time to injury, suffered in a helicopter crash. Because again, h…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 46 (48) @ 5:52
Eden Pastora member_of
Contras book_quoted
“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 …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 23 @ 23:28
Eden Pastora member_of
Contras documented
“He had told friends that he was convinced that spies, armed merchants, and others were using the reservation as a low-profile site in which to develop weapons for Third World armies, including the Contras. The Chronicle stated that the Cont…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 7 @ 57:36
Eden Pastora member_of
Contras documented
“a brigade of jungle fighters. It was called the Brigada Internacional Simón Bolivar in support of Pastora's southern forces. After the Sandinistas became too oppressive for Pastora's liking, he joined the CIA and took over the command of th…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 13 @ 7:11
Alfredo Caballero helped
Eden Pastora documented
“Just like the shrimp company, this company was ran by a Cuban drug dealer who had been part of the CIA's Bay of Pigs. His name was Alfredo Caballero. Carlton testified that Caballero was involved in drug trafficking, and to a certain extent…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 13 @ 1:09:15
Dewey Claridge recruited
Eden Pastora documented
“One, Alfonso Robelo, another, E. Pastor Gomez, a C.I.A. commander. Claridge enlisted him in Acapulco in February of 1982. Pastora demanded a weapons drop in Costa Rica as a token of the C.I.A.'s sincerity. He's the guy that they eventually …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 44 (46) @ 12:00
Eden Pastora founded
Alianza Revolucionaria Democrática documented
“To Langley, to brief Casey, the deputy director, Admiral Bobby Inman, walked in on the conversation. He thought a weapons drop to rebel troops in a friendly country was a crazy idea. But Casey approved it. The drop took place within a month…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 44 (46) @ 12:40
Dewey Claridge recruited
Eden Pastora documented
“Claridge brought Pastora to Washington for a secret session with Bill Casey. The former comandante, spirited into the DCI's office by the private elevator that connects to the underground parking facility, gave the CIA chieftain his own dog…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 44 (46) @ 13:07
Eden Pastora headed
Alianza Revolucionaria Democrática documented
“Possibly at the height of activity came in 1983 when the Contras sent in columns of 600 to 800. The indigenous were also active. The ARDE received new CIA aid, communication gear, supplies, and 500 AK-47 assault rifles. Eden Pastora and Alf…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 44 (46) @ 39:29
Eden Pastora complained_about
CIA documented
“at the base, presupposed penetrations from the north and south to cut Nicaragua in half. But if the Contras were doing anything out of Honduras, Pastora in Costa Rica remained totally passive. The agency pushed for action. Pastora repeatedl…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 44 (46) @ 44:52
CIA supplied_arms_to
Eden Pastora documented
“In an odd throwback to the Bay of Pigs, the CIA dropped Pastora rice mix and beans instead of separately. That infuriated him, but he felt positively humiliated when the CIA drops of clothing. Pastora threatened to abandon the war. In other…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 44 (46) @ 45:20
Dewey Claridge visited
Eden Pastora documented
“the bush. Claridge pursued up the San Juan River, but when Pastora found out, he moved further up country. Claridge finally caught up with the ARDE leader, who complained the uniforms were too big and the supplies he really needed were not …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 44 (46) @ 45:51
CIA ordered_assassination_of
Eden Pastora host_asserted
“And he wouldn't let his men, the real good guys, I mean, efficient, not like morally good, wouldn't let any of his good fighters fight with the corrupt former Samosan terrorist. So the CIA wanted him dead so they could steal all his men. Th…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Mafia, CIA, & George Bush Part 8 @ 40:41
Eden Pastora recruited
Contras documented
“So in other words, everybody knew that they were setting up Pastora. After his first meeting with the Contras, Morales testified that he agreed to give men aged C-47 cargo plane that he had stored in Haiti. He also gave them $10,000 to fly …”
▶ The Colonel Corner Dark Alliance Part 12 @ 32:49
Oscar Danilo Blandón funded
Eden Pastora documented
“Pastora said he met Blanton during a trip to L.A. in late 1984. Marcos Aguardo confirmed this and said he had accompanied Pastora to the meeting. Both men agreed that Blanton provided cash, according to Pastora, some $6,000 to Pastora and $…”
▶ The Colonel Corner Dark Alliance Part 12 @ 36:44
CIA targeted_for_regime_change
Eden Pastora documented
“became to replace the uncontrollable Pastora with someone the CIA could control. They wanted to use Fernando Chamorro. To get rid of him, Pastora complained, the Nicaraguan CIA assets approached him with offers of financial assistance, whic…”
▶ The Colonel Corner Dark Alliance Part 12 @ 18:48
Eden Pastora overthrew
Sandinistas documented
“was also involved. But in September of that year, when the former Sandinista commander Petora announced that he was taking up arms against his old Sandinista colleagues, Farn jumped ship, leaving the FDN and officially uniting with Pastora'…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 6 @ 14:55
CIA funded
Eden Pastora documented
“Both Pastora and Bermudez were still reporting to the CIA. When Bermudez, like Bermudez, Pastora was put on the CIA's payroll, and he remained on the payroll to at least 1984. The merger between the Chamorro brothers and Pastora's group mad…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Dark Alliance Part 6 @ 15:54
Joseph Fernandez covered_up
Eden Pastora documented
“And the chief of the Central American Task Force wanted the declassified hearing transcripts that they wanted. That's according to declassified hearing transcripts. Quote, I objected to it in cable traffic in person and it was deemed necess…”
▶ The Colonel Corner Dark Alliance Part 12 @ 31:48
William Casey ordered_assassination_of
Eden Pastora host_asserted
“One, Alfonso Robelo, another, E. Pastor Gomez, a C.I.A. commander. Claridge enlisted him in Acapulco in February of 1982. Pastora demanded a weapons drop in Costa Rica as a token of the C.I.A.'s sincerity. He's the guy that they eventually …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 44 (46) @ 12:00
Robert McFarlane ordered_assassination_of
Eden Pastora host_asserted
“was surprised when he received a call from Robert McFarlane, the Deputy National Security Advisor. McFarlane said, told him that the arms dealer needed to back off. He said, I could, let's see, the administration did not take Pastora's inde…”
▶ The Colonels corner prelude to terror chapter 30 @ 39:59
CIA covered_up
Eden Pastora guest_asserted
“became to replace the uncontrollable Pastora with someone the CIA could control. They wanted to use Fernando Chamorro. To get rid of him, Pastora complained, the Nicaraguan CIA assets approached him with offers of financial assistance, whic…”
▶ The Colonel Corner Dark Alliance Part 12 @ 18:48
Mentions (92)
▶ 9:39
the chief logistics guy, and the personal assistants of the commander, Shamaro, Guillermo Bolt, a CIA-trained Contra pilot who flew for Edan Pastora's ARDE Contra group, and Sebastian Gonzalez, the man in charge of the Panamanian logistics …
▶ 13:13
In a 1990 interview with a journalist, Gonzalez said that Horacio Pereira had offered him money to help finance a new contra movement he started when he broke with Pastora. It was referred to as M3. Horacio Pereira earlier had loaned money …
▶ 15:54
CIA records and declassified testimony of former CIA officials who oversaw the Contra program in Nicaragua confirm that the intelligence agency began receiving reports of drug trafficking from Edan Pastora's ARDE faction in late 1984. In a …
▶ 16:22
There were certainly substantiated cases, and we can name names if you wish, of people in Pastora's group of supporters and their lieutenants that did have connections to drug traffickers. And in fact, he himself received funds from a perso…
▶ 16:49
claimed that he was a target of an elaborate CIA scheme to force him out of the war, a plot that involved the use of drug dealers working for intelligence agency. This occurred, he said, after he refused CIA orders to unite his forces with …
▶ 17:23
Pablo Escobar. The problem for the agency, Pastora said, was that many of his fighters refused U.S. government help to desert him for the new Contra army the CIA was putting together, and they decided to fight on without the agency's assist…
▶ 17:52
that had been trained as killers for Somoza. While it was tempting to dismiss Pastora's theory as just a ramblings of an embittered asset, a considerable amount of documentation suggests he was right. At one time, the CIA admits, quote, the…
▶ 18:23
effort. But after enduring years of anti-FDN rhetoric and unpredictable behavior, Langley began distancing itself from him and in 1984 ordered its agents to have no contact with him under any circumstances unless it was done for the purpose…
▶ 18:48
became to replace the uncontrollable Pastora with someone the CIA could control. They wanted to use Fernando Chamorro. To get rid of him, Pastora complained, the Nicaraguan CIA assets approached him with offers of financial assistance, whic…
▶ 19:21
When it came time to dispose of him, Pastora said, the CIA leaked the information that he was getting help from drug dealers, both to drain his support in the U.S. and to make him the fall guy for the cocaine trafficking being done by the C…
▶ 20:46
about what was happening and the drug dealing. Further evidence of the CIA's role can be found in the backgrounds of the men who set up the drug deals and eventually ruined Pastora. They had long-standing ties to the CIA and Menendez, somet…
▶ 21:17
Pastora's first offer of assistance came from Agavian Cesar, the former social director of Menendez VIP nightclub in Managua. The CIA now admits that he was one of its snoops. The agency officers met occasionally with Cesar, usually in the …
▶ 21:46
In March of 1984, Cesar and two other contra officials who had close ties to the CIA's ARDE logistics chief, Aldolfo Chamorro, and the Air Force commander, Marcos Awando, met with a major Colombian drug trafficker named George Morales at hi…
▶ 26:28
Fiers Jr. was convinced that Hall's Ranch was being used for Contra drug flights. There is no doubt in Fiers' mind that Pastora's men trans-shipped drugs out of the airstrip on Hall's Ranch. Investigators for the Iran-Contra prosecutor, Law…
▶ 27:25
is the conspiracy theorist. That never happened. One of Morales' pilots who flew in and out of Hall's ranch, Tito Carrasco, testified that one of Pastora's commanders assured him that he had nothing to worry about because the CIA was protec…
▶ 32:49
So in other words, everybody knew that they were setting up Pastora. After his first meeting with the Contras, Morales testified that he agreed to give men aged C-47 cargo plane that he had stored in Haiti. He also gave them $10,000 to fly …
▶ 33:19
airport. Pastora's plane had been hangared there since 1983 under an arrangement worked out between the CIA pilot and the San Salvadorian Air Force. The C-47 was the first of many aircraft the Colombian trafficker would give to the Contras.…
▶ 33:48
on October 1984 for $1. In 1987, investigative reporter Jonathan Kitney, whose books we've read, obtained the refueling receipts for the C-47 and reported that the plane was repeatedly piloted into and out of the El Salvador airbase by Marc…
▶ 34:18
Another one of the C-47 pilots Kitney found was Geraldo Duran, a Costa Rican drug pilot who also served as chief pilot instructor for the Southern Front Contras. Duran was convicted of narcotics trafficking in Costa Rica in 1987 and thrown …
▶ 34:45
where it was reloaded with drugs before flying back to Florida, Kidney reported. This assertion is entirely plausible and even somewhat corroborated in Justice Department charges that Morales was importing cocaine at the time for the larges…
▶ 35:13
Congressional testimony confirmed. Chamorro gave the subcommittee a list of flights made by the C-47 to ferry arms into El Salvador and to Costa Rica. That was in a Senate subcommittee report. It went on to say between October 18th of 1984 …
▶ 35:43
was moved from the El Salvador base to airfields in Costa Rica. When he quit the war in 1986, Aguardo said that he sold the aircraft for $30,000. Who bought it? Menendez. In 1997, Aguardo said the C-47 was still being used by Menendez in Ve…
▶ 36:15
Pastora said Danielle Blanton popped up waving cash. Pastora knew Blanton from before the Sandinista Revolution when Blanton headed the pro-Samosa student group in college. We knew of him as a man who had always had money, Pastora said. In …
▶ 36:44
Pastora said he met Blanton during a trip to L.A. in late 1984. Marcos Aguardo confirmed this and said he had accompanied Pastora to the meeting. Both men agreed that Blanton provided cash, according to Pastora, some $6,000 to Pastora and $…
▶ 37:13
in Costa Rica, where Pastora lived rent-free for several years. Blanton told the CIA that he could have charged Pastora, but he didn't. The only time Daniello came to Costa Rica was for parties and to meet with Menendez. It was around this …
▶ 37:40
We knew that everybody around Pastora was involved in cocaine, he testified. We knew it from November 1984 forward, and we reported it. Pastora summoned Blanton, assumed Blanton was a successful car dealer, not a drug dealer, and he thought…
▶ 40:03
This is from Pastora. Blanton and Sabario vanished from my ranks when it became clear that I was not willing to march to the CIA's tune. Blanton's interest in helping ARDE always mystified him because I knew he had been with the FDN from th…
▶ 40:27
Pastora's involvement with the Colombian trafficker Morales remained a secret until 1985 when two Associated Press reporters, i.e. CIA, began looking into the allegations of drug dealing and discovered the donations. Their source of informa…
▶ 40:58
ARDE leader, Edan Pastora, used cocaine profits that particular year to buy $250,000 in arms shipment in a helicopter. The AP story also mentioned that Gonzalez's M3 group and the FDN were suspected of being involved in drugs as well, but o…
▶ 42:26
As the evidence of Contra drug dealing piled up and suspicions mounted, CIA and State Department officials immediately pointed to Pastora as the only drug dealer for the Contras, citing him as an example at how ridiculous were accusations t…
▶ 42:58
Eden Pastora remains the only Contra commander the U.S. has ever officially admitted was involved in the drug money. A few months after the AP story appeared, Pastora quit the Contra war and became a fisherman. The CIA linked ARDE commander…
▶ 43:23
Cesar and Chamorro quickly joined forces with his remaining army at the behest of the CIA. Pastor's claim of a CIA plot becomes even more believable when one considers who the agency selected to replace him. Chamorro, his arch enemy, who ha…
▶ 43:56
Fernandez confirmed to Congress in 1987 that the CIA decided to diminish Pastora's influence and raise up the statue of Chamorro. What we needed to do was put Pastora aside and at the same time enhance the organization that we were supporti…
▶ 44:26
Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh, in his memoirs of the Iran-Contra scandal, wrote that Chamorro was picked because he had been acceptable to the Contra leader, Calero, and responsive to CIA. The agency's choice demonstrates how contrived…
▶ 44:51
had far more links to drug traffickers than Pastora's accusations ever did. And those ties can be traced all the way back to the beginning of the Contra War. The leadership of the FARN had been dealing directly with the Frogman case in 1983…
▶ 48:24
was creating a very difficult situation. The CIA station chief, Joe Fernandez, was reported to Langley. They said that they were catching flack from both Costa Rican government and the U.S. ambassador to get those people under control. And …
▶ 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…
▶ 4:04
Blanton told the CIA inspectors that Lister had access to such a wide variety of weapons that in 1983 and 84, he arranged for him to give a sales presentation to the leadership of the Contras. Blanton recalls that in addition to the normal …
▶ 30:05
They also found a handwritten note bearing the names of several CIA operatives working with Edan Pastora's Contras in Costa Rica. The document seized from Lister in 1986 largely corroborated his account of his relationship with Blanton and …
▶ 6:42
He was an unusual mix of a warrior and a middle class professional. When he was murdered, Spada Fora had been fighting for the Contras in Nicaragua at the side of his old friend, Edan Pastora. That's the guy the CIA doesn't like. They had f…
▶ 7:11
a brigade of jungle fighters. It was called the Brigada Internacional Simón Bolivar in support of Pastora's southern forces. After the Sandinistas became too oppressive for Pastora's liking, he joined the CIA and took over the command of th…
▶ 10:33
He is aiding Pastora, the guy on the Contra team that refused drug money. He would not work with the CIA using proceeds from drug trafficking. This guy was his key guerrilla fighter. Before leaving for Panama, Spadafora had excitedly told f…
▶ 1:09:15
Just like the shrimp company, this company was ran by a Cuban drug dealer who had been part of the CIA's Bay of Pigs. His name was Alfredo Caballero. Carlton testified that Caballero was involved in drug trafficking, and to a certain extent…
▶ 1:11:37
Edan Pastora's top aide at the ARDE. Quote, I say that because I knew him very well. A lot of times I went to DIA CSA in Miami. Unquote. Prado has a reason to know. In 1985, CIA cable described DIA CSA as the cover company used by the Costa…
▶ 19:56
He greased the skids with Bustillo and eventually became the overseer of Norse Contra resupply operations at the El Salvador base. The Contras had been using El Opango with General Bustillo's blessing since 1983, when Norwin Menendez's frie…
▶ 9:52
A wing of the Contra movement headed by Calero and Blanton and Menendez used their drug profits to help fund the FDN, meaning the Contras. In January of 1985, Eden Pastora, another Contra leader, had met with Blanton in Miami in an effort t…
▶ 10:23
This guy, this informant, just walks off the street into the FBI and fingers Pastora. Now, as we've established in many chapters, Pastora is the only guy fighting in the Contra effort that refused repeatedly to use anything associated with …
▶ 10:54
to finger Pastora as a drug dealer, which he was not. He's probably the only one that wasn't. For the first time, the pieces were falling together to form a complete and horrifying picture. Now, and again, let me just stop right here. We're…
▶ 11:27
for when they want to finger Pastora. They have to get it in the system somehow so that when they can leak it to the media to try to finger Pastora as the drug guy and not all of the DEA, CIA, and FBI guys down in Costa Rica that are actual…
▶ 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 …
▶ 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…
▶ 14:55
was also involved. But in September of that year, when the former Sandinista commander Petora announced that he was taking up arms against his old Sandinista colleagues, Farn jumped ship, leaving the FDN and officially uniting with Pastora'…
▶ 15:25
At that point, it was likely that the cocaine profits from Menendez's San Francisco operations began being used to benefit ARDE. Even then, however, the CIA retained oversight. When the Chamarros switched from the FDN to the ARDE, they simp…
▶ 15:54
Both Pastora and Bermudez were still reporting to the CIA. When Bermudez, like Bermudez, Pastora was put on the CIA's payroll, and he remained on the payroll to at least 1984. The merger between the Chamorro brothers and Pastora's group mad…
▶ 16:24
As former Sandinistas, they hated the National Guard that made up the FDN. Pastora frequently outraged his CIA handlers by making public complaints about his allies to the North, once referring to them as criminal mummies and guerrillas. Be…
▶ 10:06
and Margherita. The company did silk screen printing, and Blanton said it was started by Menendez to provide an income for his family, but there were a lot of other motives behind it. The company quickly became part of the Contra Support Ne…
▶ 10:35
the company during a trip to LA in 1982. It printed up t-shirts with his picture on it. Former Pastira and Carol Prado claimed that Los Angeles printing company connected to Blanton was used to launder money from drug sales for the Contra. …
▶ 57:36
He had told friends that he was convinced that spies, armed merchants, and others were using the reservation as a low-profile site in which to develop weapons for Third World armies, including the Contras. The Chronicle stated that the Cont…
▶ 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…
▶ 1:07:17
Yeah, I appreciate that. And no, that's why I want to hear what you have to say about it. Like, I mean, there's some ties there. As you see, my last name is Pastora. One of the contras there was Eden Pastora, who was like a...…
▶ 39:27
a unappealing Castro-backed Sandinistas. The Israeli government was also a partner in this effort. The administration was at first split on how to support Nicaragua. Sarkis had been supplying the popular independent Eden Pastora, better kno…
▶ 39:59
was surprised when he received a call from Robert McFarlane, the Deputy National Security Advisor. McFarlane said, told him that the arms dealer needed to back off. He said, I could, let's see, the administration did not take Pastora's inde…
▶ 12:00
One, Alfonso Robelo, another, E. Pastor Gomez, a C.I.A. commander. Claridge enlisted him in Acapulco in February of 1982. Pastora demanded a weapons drop in Costa Rica as a token of the C.I.A.'s sincerity. He's the guy that they eventually …
▶ 12:40
To Langley, to brief Casey, the deputy director, Admiral Bobby Inman, walked in on the conversation. He thought a weapons drop to rebel troops in a friendly country was a crazy idea. But Casey approved it. The drop took place within a month…
▶ 13:07
Claridge brought Pastora to Washington for a secret session with Bill Casey. The former comandante, spirited into the DCI's office by the private elevator that connects to the underground parking facility, gave the CIA chieftain his own dog…
▶ 20:52
The FDN claimed 7,000 troops in Honduras in early 1983. Others credited it at around 5,000. There were also a couple of thousand indigenous people in Honduras, while Eden Pastora had another 700 soldiers in Costa Rica. Internal reports show…
▶ 21:18
The indigenous people and Pastora's fighters actually counted in the statistics given out by the FDN strength. So they were just double counting people. The FDN put its troops into task force that spent their time in camp or on forays into …
▶ 22:18
Negroponte advocated pushing Eden Pastora hard to activate a southern front, raising the visibility of U.S. contacts with Calero, and doing more to gain the confidence of the intelligence committees in Congress, encouraging members to go to…
▶ 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, …
▶ 24:13
He refused to do anything with drug money. The author may or may not know that. The CIA cooked up a propaganda coup, producing a video of Pastora speaking, which would be broadcast from a transmitter smuggled to a site near Managua. Then th…
▶ 24:42
on her own time at home. She could not even get Pastora to take off his fancy rings or Rolex watch for the taping. The FDN had its own problems and struggles between factions favoring Nicaraguan civilians and those preferring Somocita's lea…
▶ 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 …
▶ 39:29
Possibly at the height of activity came in 1983 when the Contras sent in columns of 600 to 800. The indigenous were also active. The ARDE received new CIA aid, communication gear, supplies, and 500 AK-47 assault rifles. Eden Pastora and Alf…
▶ 44:52
at the base, presupposed penetrations from the north and south to cut Nicaragua in half. But if the Contras were doing anything out of Honduras, Pastora in Costa Rica remained totally passive. The agency pushed for action. Pastora repeatedl…
▶ 45:20
In an odd throwback to the Bay of Pigs, the CIA dropped Pastora rice mix and beans instead of separately. That infuriated him, but he felt positively humiliated when the CIA drops of clothing. Pastora threatened to abandon the war. In other…
▶ 45:51
the bush. Claridge pursued up the San Juan River, but when Pastora found out, he moved further up country. Claridge finally caught up with the ARDE leader, who complained the uniforms were too big and the supplies he really needed were not …
▶ 46:21
Pastora glared at Claridge at best he could from his lesser height, a full foot shorter than Claridge. And then the guerrilla commander abruptly pulled off his American made pants to reveal his American made undershorts. Huge shorts tailore…
▶ 46:50
Pastora stood in front of his men, underwear flapping to his knees. Claridge tried to mollify the ARDE commander playing Santa Claus, distributing watches and radios. Pastora agreed to resume the fight, but ARDE continued to do little. Clar…
▶ 53:31
Eden Pastora sponsored an air raid on Managua on September 8, 1983. Two planes bombed the airport, one flying so low it disintegrated in the blast of its own bombs. Two ARDE airmen were killed. Two U.S. senators, whom Bill Casey had encoura…
▶ 2:41
You wait until 1984 to do that. Shouldn't you have had that right away? And shouldn't you have attempted that at the beginning? So shouldn't that still be your position? No. So the NSC, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, were intende…
▶ 4:12
When gems turned up among the clothing, 17 Cuban Americans, meaning Cuban exiles, thought to be en route to join Pastora were ordered out of the country. Reports persisted of Pastora's group becoming involved in running cocaine for the Colo…
▶ 4:49
They floated the story that Pastora's associates were involved in a drug running scheme. And that was the excuse for supposedly the CIA severing the relationship with Pastora. But again, that's a lie. Pastora refused to do anything with the…
▶ 5:23
not the fat slobs from the National Guard. In 84, Pastora did invade Nicaragua, capturing a small town of San Juan del Norte. The Sandinistas redeployed and ejected him. On May 30th, he had a brush with death in the form of a bomb built int…
▶ 5:52
Both the FDN and the Sandinistas had motive for the assassination. So did the CIA. By the time Pastora had recovered, ARDE had lost steam. Then Pastora again fell victim, this time to injury, suffered in a helicopter crash. Because again, h…
▶ 24:40
Kind of like the logic used by the Cuban exiles blaming JFK for their fuck up. But I digress. In fact, there had been a disaster and it had nothing to do with Congress. Langley cashed in all of his chips for a high-risk operation. The disaf…
▶ 39:43
when he found out the possible connections to drug smuggling. Later, he worked as a paid investigator for the Christic Institute, which sued a number of CIA-connected people, including Richard Secord, for their alleged involvement in the bo…
▶ 40:11
They put a hit out on him because he was the good Contra that had all of the really good guys working for him, not the corrupt Somoza guys that came out of Nicaragua and was put over in all of the surrounding areas like Costa Rica. They wer…
▶ 30:49
And that is the organization that was doing all of the Gary Webb drug stuff out in California with Freeway Ricky and all of that stuff. The last of the three regional commanders, Eden Pastora Gomez, that's the guy. I refer to him as the goo…
▶ 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…
▶ 23:22
talked to Wheaton and Jenkins, he had something else on his mind, a two-year-old bombing in Nicaragua. On May 30, 1984, a bomb had exploded at a press conference in Nicaragua that was being held by Eden Pastora, P-A-S-T-O-R-A, a maverick Co…