=============================================== The Contras -- Policy of Terror and CIA Origins =============================================== - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --> [Send the 1-line message GET CONTRA TERROR ACTIV-L to ] [LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET for a copy of this file. ] --> [Send GET ACTIV-L ARCHIVE ACTIV-L to above address for a ] [listing with brief descriptions of other files available] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Come the counterrevolution, there will be a massacre in Nicaragua. We have a lot of scores to settle. There will be bodies from the border to Managua." -- Contra officer, Newsweek, November 8, 1982 [Cited in Sklar's book (see below)] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "The contras have ROUTINELY attacked civilian populations. Their forces kidnap, torture, and murder health workers, teachers, and other government employees." -- Americas Watch "_Terrorism_ is premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against NONCOMBATANT TARGETS by subnational groups or clandestine state agents" -- U.S.. Department of State, _Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1983_, Sept. 1984. [Capitalization added] (*)From the Americas Watch report _With Friends Like These_, edited by Cynthia Brown (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985). For the contras' history and human rights practices, see also Christopher Dickey, _With the Contras: A Reporter in the Wilds of Nicaragua_ (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), and Reed Brody's _Contra Terror in Nicaragua: Report of a Fact-Finding Mission, September 1984-January 1985 (Boston: South End Press, 1985) [Found in: _What Are We Afraid Of? An Assessment of the ``Communist Threat'' in Central America_ by John Lamperti, for the American Friends Service Committee (published also by South End Press) $5 plus $2 shipping from: Literature Resources // American Friends Service Committee // 1501 Cherry St. // Philadelphia, PA 19102 TEL (215)-241-7048 or 7167. See AML resource files AFSCcatalog and South.end.press.] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "There can be no doubt, on the basis of what we head and saw, that a PLANNED STRATEGY OF TERRORISM is being carried out by the contras along the Honduras border" --Chairmen of Americas Watch and Helsinki Watch, after a personal visit to study the "great divergence between President Reagan's rhetoric and the conclusions of the [Americas Watch] report" on contra atrocities. Orville Schell and Robert Bernstein, Wall St. Journal, April 23, 1985. [Capitalization added] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Rosa had her breasts cut off. Then they cut into her chest and took out her heart. The men had their arms broken, their testicles cut off, and their eyes poked out. They where killed by slitting their throats, and pulling the tongue out through the slit." Survivor's account of a contra attack. Jonathan Steele and Tony Jenkins, Manchester Guardian Weekly, Nov. 25, 1984. [Cited in _Turning the Tide_ (see below)] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "FDN [contra] units would arrive at an undefended village, assemble all the residents in the town square and then proceed to kill -- in full view of the others -- all persons suspected of working for the Nicaraguan Government or the F.S.L.N., including police, local militia members, party members, health workers, teachers, and farmers from government-sponsored cooperatives. "In this atmosphere, it was not difficult to persuade those able-bodied men left alive to [join the contras] This was, unfortunately, a widespread practice that accounted for many recruits." --Former Contra Director Edgar Chamorro, in his Affidavit to the World Court. Page 117 in: _Washington's War on Nicaragua_, by Holly Sklar. 1988, South End Press, Boston. [South End Press, 300 Raritan Center Parkway, Edison, NJ 08818] [For a free catalog: 1-800-533-8478; see AML resource files] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Upon reflection, I found many of the tactics advocated in the [CIA "Assassination manual" which he helped translate into Spanish] to be offensive, and I complained to the CIA station chief in Tegucigalpa. The station chief defended ..the manual, and no action was ever taken in response to my complaints. In fact, the practices advocated in the manual were employed by FDN troops,. Many civilians were killed in cold blood. Many others were tortured, mutilated, raped, robbed or otherwise abused. "As time went on, I became more and more troubled by the frequent reports I received of atrocities committed by our troops against civilians and against Sandinista prisoners. Calero and Bermudez refused to discuss the subject with me, so I went straight to our unit commanders as they returned from combat missions inside Nicaragua and asked them about their activities. I was saddened by what I was told. The atrocities I had heard about were not isolated incidents, but reflected a consistent pattern of behavior by our troops. There were unit commanders who openly bragged about their murders, mutilations, etc. When I questioned them about the propriety or wisdom of doing those things they told me it was the only way tot win tis war, that the best way to win the loyalty of the civilian population was to intimidate it and make it fearful of us." Chamorro complained to the CIA, as well as to Calero and Bermudez, to no avail...Shortly after that, Chamorro acknowledged to a newspaper reported that FDN troops had killed civilians and executed prisoners. "Calero told me I could no longer work in Honduras," said Chamorro, "and I was reassigned to the local FDN committee in Miami. I was given nothing to do and I no longer had much interest in working for the FDN, or to be more accurate, for the CIA" Chamorro broke with the FDN in November 1984. --Holly Sklar, quoting from her November 24, 1896 interview with Edgar Chamorro. See Sklar's book, p.182-83 ------------------------------------------------------------------ "..The contras cross the border from their bases in Honduras to commit acts of sabotage: burning cooperatives, blowing up bridges, killing and kidnapping teachers, health workers, and farmers. "The victims of contra terror include people like the Barreras, a couple in their 60's who were well known and respected in the town of Esteli'. Last year the Barreras volunteered to help pick coffee near the boder because they felt this was part of their duty as Christians. "The couple was kidnapped by contras and taken to a town in Honduras. There they were kept outside for four months and tortured daily as an example --their torturers said-- of what would happen to Christians who support the revolution. Later, other coffee pickers who managed to escape brought back word that the Barreras were dead. "By September, 1983, the contras had killed nearly 700 Nicaraguans and had caused $600 million in damage to the economy..." --Oxfam America report _Facts for Action_ -- "Nicaragua: Development Under Fire" Sept. 1983 ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Another witness describes a contra attack on his cooperative in April 1984: They had already destroyed all that was the cooperative; a coffee drying machine, the two dormitories for the coffee cutters, the electricity generators, 7 cows, the plant, the food warehouse. There was one boy about 15 years old, who was retarded and suffered from epilepsy. We had left him in a bomb shelter. When we returned...., we saw...that they had cut his throat, then they cut open his stomach and left his intestines hanging out on the ground like a string. They did the same to Juan Corrales who had already dies from a bullet in the fighting. They opened him up and took out his intestines and cut off his testicles. "In Miami -- along with Washington, the base for the war against Nicaragua and one of the major world centers of international terrorism -- Adolfo Calero, political-military director of the central component of the US proxy army (the FDN), stated that "There is no line at all, not even a fine line, between a civilian farm owned by the government and a Sandinista military outpost" -- so that arbitrary killing of civilians is entirely legitimate. Calero is regarded as a meritorious figure and leading democrat by our domestic partisans of mass slaughter, mutilation, torture and degradation. [19] " [19] NYT, Nov. 23, 1984; worse still, Calero added that "we are not killing civilians. We are fighting armed people and retuning fire when fire is directed against us" from cooperatives --which, most surprisingly, have armed guards, justifying the massacre of civilians who are not civilians when contra soldiers, walking by to enjoy the scenery, are inexplicably fired upon by these terrorists. See the full-page ad supporting aid to the "democratic resistance" led by Calero in the NYT, June 2, 1985, signed by Martin Peretz and Leon Wieseltier of the _New Republic_, along with such regular apologists for US atrocities as Sidney Hook and John Silber and numerous other luminaries: Morris Abram, Hyman Bookbinder, Penn Kemble, Samuel Huntington, Seymour Martin Lipset, Michael Novak, Albert Shanker, Allen Weinstein, Ben Wattenberg, etc. [From _Turning the Tide. U.S.. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace_ By Noam Chomsky, 1985, South End Press, Boston.] [South End Press, 300 Raritan Center Parkway, Edison, NJ 08818] [For a free catalog: 1-800-533-8478; see AML resource files] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Our friends are quite aware of what they do. Arturo Cruz, who has been dubbed `the leading Nicaragua democrat' by the US media, concedes that his contra associates have committed ``damnable atrocities'' against civilians. Before joining them, he warned that their victory might lead ``to a possible mass execution of the flower of our youth'' while describing some of them as ``civic cadavers'' and noting that ``most of those persons in positions of military authority within the FDN are ex-members of the National Guard, who unconditionally supported Somoza until the end, against the will of the Nicaraguan people'' -- not ``most,'' but virtually all, from the top military commander on down; Edgar Chamorro, chosen by the CIA to serve as spokesman for its proxy army, writes that ``by mid-1984, 46 out of 48 of the contra commandantes were former National Guardsmen.'' Cruz is unhappy about the fact that the contras ``are almost totally controlled by right-wingers, many of them followers of'' Somoza, Dennis Volman reports. The new unified command (UNO) set up by the CIA is ``dominated by Adolfo Calero, according to all sources interviewd''; ``Mr. Calero is an ultra-conservative Nicaraguan businessman closely allied to those FDN field commanders who were top officers in Somoza's army''..."[28] [28]:New York Times, Nov. 23, 1984; Pamela Constable, Boston Globe, April 24, 1985; Cruz, Foreign Affairs, Summer 1983; Cruz, Op-Ed, New York Times, Dec. 6, 1984; Edgar Chamorro, In These Times, Sept. 4, 1985; Dennis Volman, Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 15, 1985 [From _Turning the Tide. U.S.. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace_ By Noam Chomsky, 1985, South End Press, Boston.] [South End Press, 300 Raritan Center Parkway, Edison, NJ 08818] [For a free catalog: 1-800-533-8478; see AML resource files] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "A study enumerating the former Somoza Guardsmen among contra leaders is "Who Are the Contras?" prepared by the staff of the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus of the U.S.. Congress, _Congressional Record_, April 23, 1985, pages H2335-H2339." [From _What Are We Afraid Of?_ by John Lamperti, South End Press 1988] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "1982 was a year of transition for the FDN [main contra group]...From a collection of small, disorganized and ineffectual bands of ex-National guardsmen, the F.D.N. grew into a well-organized, well-armed, well-equipped and well-trained fighting force of approximately 4,000 men capable of inflicting great harm on Nicaragua. This was due entirely to the C.I.A. which organized, armed, equipped, trained and supplied us." [p.117] [Sklar book] [Former contra director Edgar Chamorro and others give a fuller description in Sklar's book of the CIA's convincing them to work with (i.e., front) and join with the former National Guardsmen] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Thousands of members of Somoza's national Guard fled Nicaragua after the Sandinista triumph. A group of around 60 exiled former guardsmen created a terrorist force called the ``15th of September Legion'' in Honduras. A few short months after the revolution, they commenced their war of terrorism against Nicaragua [Something to note wrt Sandinistas needing from the outset a fair amount of arms to defend their country; not to mention the history of U.S. intvervention they (and few Americans) were well aware of (See George Black's _The Good Neighbor (Subtitle: How the United States Wrote the History of Central America and the Caribbean)_, Pantheon Books, New York, 1988. --HB] "Soon Argentine military experts were advising these Honduran-based guardsmen. In late 1981, prospects for the Somocistas quickly improved. The leader of the guardsmen, Colonel Enrique Bermu'dez Varela recalled that time. Suddenly, he said, ``I could feel the steps of a giant animal.''[13] The giant animal was the Central Intelligence Agency, which took control of the counterrevolutionary war. In the next three years, the CIA fashioned the motley group of guardsmen into a counterrevolutionary army which the CIA labeled the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN). [...] "A 1985 study entitled _Who Are the Contras?_ by the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus of the U.S. Senate revealed the degree to which the FDN was a reincarnation of Somoza's National Guard. The study found that 46 of the FDN's 48 military leaders had been members of the *guardia*. Chief military commander, Enrique Bermu`dez Varela, served as Somoza's military attache` in Washington until June 1979. [...] In opposing the [Reagan] administration's aid requests, Senator Tom Harkin noted that the *contras* ``have promised to bring to Managua a reign of terror that will make the French Revolution look like a Labor Day picnic. Their methods are those of the Marquis de Sade, not the Marquis de Lafayette.''[14] [...] "Edgar Chamorro, who was dumped from the FDN's civilian directorate in 1984 for criticizing human-rights abuses by the former guardsmen, told _Newsweek_ that the *guardia* had no political agenda beyond a desire to restore a Somoza-like regime. Chamorro said they just want ``to return to the way things were before'' and ``to settle accounts'' with the Sandinistas.[15] " [13] Doyle McManus and Robert C. Toth, "the Contras: How US Got Entangled," _Los Angeles Times_, March 4, 1985. [14] Presentation by Sen. Tom Harkin, "Contras or Contadora: Military Solution or Negotiated Political Settlement," March 26, 1985, cited in _Washington Report on Hemisphere_, April 16, 1985. [15] _Newsweek_, April 29, 1985. [From: The Central America Fact Book. By Tom Barry and Deb Preusch. Published by Grove Press, Inc., 196 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014, published 1986 in New York.] [Copyright 1986 by The Resource Center. "The Inter-Hemispheric Education Resource Center is a non-profit organization that produces repots, books, and slide/tape shows on Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. For more information: The Resource Center, P.O. Box 4506, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87196"] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "We got contras because the CIA put together Somocistas, Argentinians and the CIA...You cannot expect too much democracy from that" --Edgar Chamorro [_Washington's War on Nicaragua_, from an interview with the author.] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "On June 5, Nicaragua expelled three employees of the U.S.. Embassy in Managua, accusing them of being CIA agents working under diplomatic cover to destabilize the government. Nicaragua presented evidence of a plot to assassinate Foreign Minister D'Escoto with a poisoned bottle of Benedictine liquor. D'Escoto was reportedly targeted because his vocation as a priest gave the revolution too much respectability in international affairs... Using the explusion of the three U.S. officials as an excuse, Washington closed down all six of Nicaragua's consulates in the Unites States and expelled 21 consular officials. The Nicaraguan government identified the move as part of an economic boycott because the consulates handled virtually all of Nicaragua's $300 million annual trade with the United States [See Latin America Weekly Report, June 17, 1983] On the diplomatic front, Special Envoy Richard Stone..went to Central America in June on what was widely seen as one in a series of diplomatic missions designed mainly for public relations. Stone, who was a registered lobbyist for the Guatemalan dictatorship after losing his Florida Senate seat in 1980, put ``democracy'' in Nicaragua at the top of the list of U.S. concerns... "D'Escoto recalled one of his last meetings with Richard Stone in Managua. At one point Stone asked, `` `Father, do you think that it really would be possible for both of our nations to normalize relations?' And I said, `I think it not only could be, but should be. And all it takes is for both of us to want it. I assure you...that Nicaragua wants to normalize relations...I think that the place to begin is by committing both of our governments to respect in the most categorical way the principles established in the charters of the United Nations and the Organization of American States, both of which we have signed in our laws. That is to say, to regulate our relations with the...principles of international law.' `` `Father, that is your problem,' he [Stone] says. `It must be your background' [They are] always emphasizing the fact that I'm not a professional politician... He says, `But now you have been in politics long enough...to have come to realize that politics is made of concrete things...You talk about international law, Father. That is philosophy.' As if to say poetry, or something optional, I don't know. He says international law `is philosophy.' ``He says, `The contras,' and he looked me straight in the eye, `the contras, they give you a lot of difficulty, don't they Father.' Exactly those words, I remember...And I said, `They surely do, but they wouldn't for too long...if your government would stop financing them and arming them and directing them.' And he said, `Well, I guess you are hopeless. There you go again, philosophy...The only reality is that they have been, that they are and that they will continue to receive aid...' ``And then he says to me, `You seem to be an intelligent person.' Intelligent or rational...`And intelligent people,' he says, `don't like to have difficulties. You have already acknowledged that the contras do give you a headache. And therefore presumably you...would prefer not to have this headache.' And, `you should do as we say.' That crude, `you should do as we say.' And then he says, `You will see how almost by magic the problem will disappear.' And I could have almost imagined someone with a hat pulling out a rabbit...' '' " [Page 142, Holly Sklar] ################################################################## Postscript... ################################################################## Subject: Nicaline Special Note Nicaline Special Note............. Sept. 16, 1989 The following letter was recently received by the Berkeley Committee of Science for Nicaragua which distributes the Nicaline Bulletin. We are distributing it to the Nicaline News Network, in the hopes of inspiring the solidarity movement to bring a final end to contra terrorism. Our computer address is robert@marvax.berkeley.edu (Internet) or arisia!marvax.berkeley.edu!robert (Peacenet) CONTRA ATTACKS CONTINUE Sept. 5, 1989 Since the signing of the Tela Peace Accords last month, calling for demobilization of Washington's mercenary forces, the US-supported contra terrorists have stepped up their campaign of assassinating civilians here in Nicaragua. Last week alone the contras killed 4 civilians in two separate attacks in rural areas where I travel to sample contaminated drinking water supplies. On August 26, a group of about 30 contras attacked a refugee settlement called El Achiote, located near Rio Blanco. Three campesinos were killed and two kidnapped. The second attack was more brutal. On August 31, approximately 30 contras stopped a vehicle traveling near Sarayal (outside Jinotega) carrying 60 campesinos and singled out Marcos Castro (civilian, age 40), one of the campesino leaders at the Abisinia refugee settlement. The contras took him away, and mutilated his body badly. They gouged his eyes out, castrated him, cut his tongue off and broke his limbs, and then they killed him. I just received confirmation regarding the state of his mutilated body from the examining doctor at the hospital in Jinotega. It is clear that the Bush Administration has no interest in supporting the Tela Peace Accords, even though the Agreement has the support of 5 Central American presidents, the United Nations, the OAS, and leaders of the 21 opposition parties here in Nicaragua. The Administration's support of terrorist attacks on civilians to "pressure" the Sandinista government to become "more democratic" and hold "fair elections" in February, 1990, is shameful. While many of the estimated 10,000 to 13,000 have started to turn themselves in under a general amnesty program, we have received word that about 3,000 contras will infiltrate from Honduras into Nicaragua to intimidate people so that they are afraid to vote during the elections next year. This idea has recently been supported by observation teams in Honduras. Apparently the UN and OAS teams sent to observe the demobilization process have found that many contras have abandoned their base camps and scattered in the remote mountains to regroup. If true, such an effort requires money and logistical support. I believe that this recent wave of violence is the beginning of a new strategy to disrupt the upcoming elections. Unless the American people demand an end to these illegal policies, Peace will never have a chance in Central America. When the people speak out, maybe our leaders will finally listen, as they did during the final months of the war in Vietnam. [Ms. Ryan is associated with Veterans for Peace and works for a water purification project in the Sixth Region (Matagalpa/El Cua)] ################################################################## Files relevant to Nicaragua, available with the GET command and listed in ACTIV-L ARCHIVE (see top) are: CONTRA TERROR Contras' origins; make-up; practices - documented FSLN H-RIGHTS Documented HRs comparison w/Somoza,Guat,ES,others FSLN MISKITOS Sandinista treatment of Miskitos;Charges & Realit FSLN NICAJEWS Debunks charges of Sandinista 'Anti-Semitism' OXFAM84 NICARAG Oxfam America's 1984 report on Nicaragua, in full FSLN ACHIEVE Documented: achievements of the Nica. revolution NICA-84 ELECTION Documented: Fair under Sandinistas; US subversion FAIRNESS NICA-USA Flwup:`Is Nicaragua More Democratic than the US?' NICRAGUA ELECTION Study in US subversion of '90 Nicaraguan election ====================================== To get a file named FILE NAME from the archiver (files are two words separa- ted by a space), send the 1-line message GET FILE NAME ACTIV-L to: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET ====================================== ################################################################## ############################################################### # Harel Barzilai for Activists Mailing List (AML) # ################################################################ { For more info about ACTIV-L or PeaceNet's brochure send } { inquiries to harel@dartmouth.edu / mathrich@umcvmb.bitnet } To join AML, just send the 1-line message "SUB ACTIV-L " to: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET; you should receive a confirmation message within 2 days. Alternate address: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU Qs/problems: Rich Winkel, MATHRICH@UMCVMB.["MISSOURI.EDU" or "BITNET"]