Some ex-Contras warn of a new Nicaragua war

Source: MSNBC/Associated Press

Some ex-Contras warn of a new Nicaragua war
Anger arises from Ortega's push for neighborhood watch committees

updated 1:10 p.m. CT, Sun., Feb. 10, 2008
MIAMI - At the end of Nicaragua's civil war, Juan Gregorio Rodriguez traded his life as a Contra rebel for that of auto mechanic in Florida. He kept in touch with other rebels and supported their political efforts, but mostly from afar.

That changed in 2006, when the Contras' nemesis, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, was elected president, 16 years after his Soviet-backed government lost power in a vote that ended the guerrilla conflict in which some 30,000 people died.

His return to power has galvanized dozens of former Contras in the United States to plunge back into the politics of their Central American homeland, lobbying for support from the U.S. Congress and joining anti-Ortega movements with former colleagues in Nicaragua. Some even warn darkly that armed resistance is again a possibility.
(snip)

Today's Contras are a shadow of the movement the CIA built around a core of former soldiers who had served the dictatorship toppled by the Sandinistas in 1979. With U.S. arms and funds smuggled into Nicaragua from clandestine bases in neighboring Honduras, it grew into one of Central America's largest guerrilla armies.

But continued support despite a congressional ban damaged the Reagan administration's reputation, and the Contras disbanded before the 1990 election led to three consecutive anti-Sandinista governments.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23096032/

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Iran-Contra Affair
Wikipedia

The Iran-Contra Affair was a political scandal occurring in 1987 as a result of earlier events during the Reagan administration in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran, an avowed enemy, and illegally used the proceeds to continue funding anti-Sandinista rebels, the Contras, in Nicaragua.<1> Large volumes of documents relating to the scandal were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials.<2><3> The affair is still shrouded in secrecy. After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, President Ronald Reagan appeared on national-television and denied that they had occurred.<4> A week later, however, on November 13, 1986 Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were indeed transferred to Iran, but that they were not part of an exchange for hostages.<5> On March 4, 1987 in a nationally televised address to the nation he took full responsibility and admitted that "...what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages."<6>

The Iran-Contra Affair was a political scandal occurring in 1987 as a result of earlier events during the Reagan administration in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran, an avowed enemy, and illegally used the proceeds to continue funding anti-Sandinista rebels, the Contras, in Nicaragua.<1> Large volumes of documents relating to the scandal were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials.<2><3> The affair is still shrouded in secrecy. After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, President Ronald Reagan appeared on national-television and denied that they had occurred.<4> A week later, however, on November 13, 1986 Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were indeed transferred to Iran, but that they were not part of an exchange for hostages.<5> On March 4, 1987 in a nationally televised address to the nation he took full responsibility and admitted that "...what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages."<6>

Hostage taking

At the end of the Iran hostage crisis, Vice President George H. W. Bush and other VIPs wait to welcome hostages homeIn the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Middle East was faced with frequent hostage-taking incidents by hostile organizations. In 1979, Iranian students took hostage 66 employees of the United States embassy in Iran. On January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan became President, the hostages were freed following the Algiers Accords. Hostage taking in the Middle East did not end there, however.<9> In 1983, members of Al-Dawa ("The Call"), an exiled Iraqi political party turned militant organization, were imprisoned for their part in a series of truck bombs in Kuwait. In response to the imprisonment, Hezbollah, an ally of Al-Dawa, took 30 Western hostages,<10> six of whom were American. Hezbollah demanded the release of the prisoners for these hostages.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_affair

The Contras were not "rebels" or "freedom fighters," as Saint Ronnie liked to call them. They were primarily counter-revolutionary members of Somoza's old National Guard, along with a few disgruntled former Sandinistas. These Somocistas set about trying to undermine the popular revolutionary Sandinista government, and were supported and funded by the Reagan administration immediately upon Reagan taking office in 1981. The Sandinistas won the free and open, as judged by international observers, election of 1984, but the years of Reagan's proxy war against them took their toll on the Nicaraguan economy, and they were voted out in 1990.

So now these bastards are at it again, threatening once more to undermine the legitimately elected government of Nicaragua because they don't like Daniel Ortega's politics. It is reasonable to suspect that the Bush administration would be more than happy to back these guys, since they are just the sort of fascist thugs that BushCo adore.

I don't know who originally said that, but I believe it was in regards to the Iran/Contra mess.

Not only were the contras terrorists, so were the Iranians.

I wonder how hard it is for the former contras, living here, where they can't rape and murder nuns? I assume they are allowed to sell cocaine here, like they were in the 80s.

at gunpoint and set up armed camps in Guatemala where they herded entire villages to hold hostage so the men would keep fighting. They also told those poor people their men were dead so no effort would be made to find them. Scum of the earth.

I just read another article yesterday that described the "ex-contra" movement in South Florida as becoming rapidly acclimated to life in the US and their movement was largely unorganized and a pipedream.

But we have to recall that the old boogerbears are hard to kill when there is enough money to be made, witness Abrams, Negroponte, et al. not in prison but in the highest halls of power in DC.

I shall need to find my old FSLN flags and tee it looks -- things long relegated to the trunk in the attic. . .

http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

The deep-sixing of ALL the matters left outstanding when Clinton took office and chose to protect BushInc led directly to most everything happening today.

http://www.nicanet.org/?p=458

Topic 1: Appointment of Callahan for US Ambassador questioned

The appointment of Robert Callahan as the new US Ambassador in Managua was questioned by the Nicaraguan press this week. Callahan, who was spokesman of the US Embassy in Honduras during the 1980s from where Washington financed and trained contra troops, is due to take over from current Ambassador Paul Trivelli later this month.

On Jan. 29 the weekly magazine Confidencial, of Social Democratic leanings, published a translation of an article by U.S. journalist Stephen Kinzer which asked why the US government would want to “rub salt into Nicaragua’s wound by naming as Ambassador someone who collaborated in one of the bloodiest wars of the country’s history?” Kinzer observes that in Nicaragua Sandinistas and ex-contras were able to reconcile their differences “long ago,” pointing out that President Daniel Ortega’s Vice President, Jaime Morales Carazo, is a former contra leader.

Leader of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) and former presidential candidate Edmundo Jarquin described Washington’s choice as “strange” and “provocative” while several journalists have described Callahan’s name as being “stained with Nicaraguan blood.” Retired army general Hugo Torres believes that Callahan’s principal mission in Nicaragua will be to unite the right wing before the local elections in November in order to produce an electoral defeat for the Sandinista party (FSLN). Uniting the right-wing has been the mission of the past three US ambassadors, all of whom failed at the task.

http://www.nicanet.org/?p=460

2. DEA mission to meet with Ortega in February

John Feeley, head of Central American Affairs at the US State Department announced this week that, as requested by President Daniel Ortega, a mission from the State Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) will visit Managua in early February to meet with Ortega and explain in depth the links between the DEA and the Nicaraguan National Police. Earlier this month Ortega accused DEA officials in Nicaragua of paying individual police officers to carry out favors for them. “With the pretext of combating drug trafficking, is corrupting our police officers,” said Ortega at a National Police event on Jan. 10.

The allegations were firmly denied by the US Embassy in Managua in a press statement. It was denied that the DEA makes any “direct or indirect” payments to individual police officers in Nicaragua. According to the US Embassy statement the DEA’s activities with the Nicaraguan National Police consist of training, technical and expert assistance and donations of equipment.

On Jan. 25, during the Sixth ALBA summit, Ortega reiterated his distrust of the DEA saying that after he assumed the presidency in Jan. 2007 he became aware of a DEA plan to set up a telephone espionage system in Nicaragua, a plan which was aborted when Ortega won the presidential elections in 2006. Ortega said he planned to review the cooperation agreement between Nicaragua and the DEA in order to establish a set of clear rules and regulations for the US agency to follow within the country. He said a set of rules and regulations is necessary because “practically, is occupying Nicaragua.”

In statements to the Nicaraguan press this week John Feeley went on to say that during the meeting with Ortega the DEA mission planned to discuss the Merida initiative, a regional security initiative between the US, Mexico and Central America funded by the US with the aim of combating drug trafficking, international crime and terrorism. Ortega has openly criticized and formally complained to the US government about how the program is to be funded. US President George Bush has requested US$550 million for the first phase of the program, US$500 million of which is to go to Mexico and the other US$50 million of which is to go shared between the Central American countries. Nicaragua, considered by Washington as the most secure country in Central America, is to receive just US$2 million for the first phase of the program, which Ortega described as an “insult” to the Nicaraguan army and police force which are key players in the regional fight against drug trafficking.

In other US diplomatic news, last week Ambassador Paul Trivelli confirmed plans to leave his post in February. A source from the Nicaraguan foreign ministry leaked the name of the man to become the new US Ambassador in Nicaragua: Robert Callahan, the former US spokesman in Iraq. Callahan worked extensively with John Negroponte who was the US Ambassador in Honduras during the Contra War and he is considered as a fierce anti-Sandinista figure.

I just read another article yesterday that described the "ex-contra" movement in South Florida as becoming rapidly acclimated to life in the US and their movement was largely unorganized and a pipedream.

But we have to recall that the old boogerbears are hard to kill when there is enough money to be made, witness Abrams, Negroponte, et al. not in prison but in the highest halls of power in DC.

I shall need to find my old FSLN flags and tee it looks -- things long relegated to the trunk in the attic. . .

I'm making it now.

He was utterly convinced anyone that stood up to so called "Communist" causes was right and just. The "freedom fighters" had a brutal edge to them. The Democrats at the time fought like hell to limit the aid Reagan could give them. This is yet another situation in which the US needs to butt out and allow things to develop the way the actual people in Nicaragua let it.

Most of the DLC Democrats were FOR the Contras, a fact which infuriated me at the time.

The list include Sam Nunn, Scoop Jackson, and yes, kiddies, Al Gore.

How could they support former enforcers of the brutal dictator Anastasio Somoza whose major tactic seemed to be attacking Sandinista projects intended to improve ordinary people's lives, such as schools, clinics, and water projects?

The War Party, including the men you cited, kept pressuring him to "do something" about "the Communists" in Central America. The president ordered me and my classmates to go register for the draft in response. Militarism was still quite a growing force in America half a decade after we left Vietnam. It led to Reagan's presidency.

The Carter administration were not happy at all about the FSLN, but could not find a consensus on how to do deal with them. Neither were they particularly enthralled with Somoza. In the end, though it was largely through indecision, they allowed a popular revolution to take place.

The lesson for us today is that you cannot even begin to imagine that sort of thing taking place now - not in the western hemisphere. Reagan succeeded, with his adventures in Nicaragua and Grenada, in making US hegemony in the west seem okay again, after four years of the "human rights" presidency.

murdering NBC reporter Bill Stewart. (They made Stewart lie face down on the ground and then shot him in the back of the head.)

I don't think it's a coincidence that the Twin Cities, where Stewart was a popular anchorman before joining the national network, were a hotbed of anti-intervention activity during those years.

I did my reading on Iran Contra years ago and I missed that story.

Here's one:

Reagan created that slush fund from Iranian arms sales in order to fund the Contras to replace money the Contras were getting from RW Latin American regimes. The regimes had pulled the funding because they learned the US had secretly given new weapons to the British Royal Navy for them to retake the Falkland Islands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8zV_LrmJb8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Stewart_(journalism)

It IS remarkable that The Samozas ruled over Nicaragua since the 1930's, turned it into a living hell and it all couldn't have been sweeter with the U.S. government. So ####ing typical, isn't it?

I just looked up the last Samoza's Wikipedia and see that he's buried in Miami. Where ELSE do genocidal right-wing assholes go from Latin America, after all?

Anastasio Somoza Debayle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Anastasio ("Tachito") Somoza Debayle (December 5, 1925 – September 17, 1980) was officially the forty-fourth and forty-fifth President of Nicaragua from May 1, 1967 to May 1, 1972 and from December 1, 1974 to July 17, 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was ruler of the country from 1967 to 1979. He was the last member of the Somoza family to be President, ending a dynasty that had held power since 1936.
(snip)

In 1975 Somoza Debayle launched a violent campaign against the Sandinista Front; individuals suspected of supporting the Front were targeted. The Front, named after Augusto César Sandino, began its guerrilla war against the Somozas in 1963 and was funded by Cuba under Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union. Support for the Sandinistas ballooned after the earthquake, especially when Jimmy Carter withdrew American support for the regime. This proved critical, since the Somozas had been able to hold onto power largely because the United States saw it as a bulwark against Communism. At this point, the opposition to the Somozas included not only Sandinistas, but other prominent figures such as Pedro Chamorro (assassinated on January 10, 1978). In 1979, Somoza resigned the presidency and fled to Miami where he was denied entry by Jimmy Carter, after which he took refuge in Alfredo Stroessner's Paraguay; his regime only survived him by a day until the Sandinistas took full control.

Anastasio Somoza Debayle was assassinated in Asunción, Paraguay, at the age of 54, by a commando team led by the Argentinian Enrique Gorriarán Merlo an ex-ERP (Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo) member. This episode is described by Gorriarán Merlo himself in his book Memorias ("Memories") ISBN 950-49-1063-7. He is buried in Miami, Florida at Woodlawn Park Cemetery and Mausoleum (now Caballero Rivero Woodlawn North Park Cemetery and Mausoleum) .

Somoza family mausoleum.The small multinational team of paramilitary operatives were waiting in ambush for Somoza as he was being chauffered about the city. The team fired two shots from a bazooka from close range. The second shot incinerated Somoza's vehicle, killing him instantly.

A few months before Somoza’s death, his memoirs, Nicaragua Betrayed, were published. In them he blamed the Carter Administration for his downfall. His son, Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero, went into exile in Guatemala.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasio_Somoza_Debayle

and other working-class people join a CIA-backed force meant to protect the interests of the elite?


Nemesis is such a fun word.

who lived in Minneapolis, there's a big time "poverty draft" in Central America.

As you may have observed with U.S. veterans, spending a lot of time in the military MAY brainwash a person into doing things against his own interests, such as fighting in Iraq or Vietnam. Most Vietnam veterans are disillusioned and resentful of the war, but some will still tell you that it was a just war and that the U.S. could have won it; they're "true believers."

I'm sure the same thing has happened with these ex-Contras.

is that in America, 18-year olds are sent to fight in countries on the other side of the world, which they've often only heard about in propaganda news reports, so it's not that difficult to get them to believe whatever their commanders tell them about that country. These were people who were already living in Central America at the time and seeing what was going on first hand. It just seems like maybe they should be a little less easy to trick?

Last time a lot of "brown" people in LA "benefited".

Those brightly colored campaign duds, here or there, need to go into the washing machine before being worn, and the colors are complementary. Remember, freedom ain't free. Looks very much like RINSE, WASH, and, unfortunately, REPEAT!