Eden Pastora, known as "Commandante Zero," was a former [[Sandinistas|Sandinista]] war hero who became commander of [[ARDE]], the Southern Front [[Contras|Contra]] army based in [[Costa Rica]].[^1] ### Sandinista War Hero Pastora achieved legendary status during the Sandinista revolution for his daring attacks against [[Anastasio Somoza|Somoza]]'s forces, including the 1978 seizure of the National Palace in [[Managua]]. After the revolution, Pastora grew disillusioned with the Sandinista government and broke with the ruling junta.[^2] ### CIA Recruitment Pastora was recruited by [[Central Intelligence Agency]] officer [[Dewey Clarridge]] in 1981 to assume command of the Southern Front Contra armies based in Costa Rica. Like [[Enrique Bermudez|Bermúdez]], Pastora was put on the CIA's payroll, where he remained until mid-1984.[^1] Pastora was a longtime friend of [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]], from whom he received money, vehicles, and rent-free lodging. Blandón described Pastora as a personal friend and stated that he provided him support during the Contra war.[^1] Pastora visited Blandón's silk-screen printing company JDM Artwork Inc. during a trip to L.A. in 1982, and the firm printed T-shirts with his likeness. The [[San Francisco]] Chronicle stated that Pastora had also visited a firing range near the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation]] for a weapons demonstration in 1981, a claim Pastora has both confirmed and denied on separate occasions.[^3] ### Formation of ARDE In September 1982, Pastora announced he was taking up arms against his old Sandinista colleagues. [[UDN-FARN]], under [[Fernando Chamorro|"El Negro" Chamorro]] and [[Edmundo Chamorro]], jumped ship from the [[FDN]] and united with Pastora's group to form ARDE (Alianza Revolucionaria Democrática). The merger made political sense because both factions, as former Sandinistas, hated the ex-[[Nicaraguan National Guard|National Guard]] officers of the FDN. Pastora frequently outraged his CIA handlers by publicly referring to the FDN as "criminal mummies and gorillas." The FDN considered Pastora a closet Communist and suspected him of being a Sandinista mole.[^2] ### Break with the CIA Pastora eventually broke with the CIA and was accused by the agency of consorting with drug traffickers. [[Marcos Aguado]], a CIA-trained pilot and business associate of [[Norwin Meneses]], got Pastora involved with Colombian drug traffickers.[^1] Pastora claimed he was the target of an elaborate CIA scheme to force him out of the war, a plot that involved the use of drug dealers working for the intelligence agency. This occurred, he said, after he refused CIA orders to unite his forces with the former National Guardsmen in the CIA's northern Contra army, the FDN. 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 United States and to make him the fall guy for the cocaine trafficking being done by the CIA's "approved" Contra armies.[^4] CIA station chief [[Joseph Fernandez]] disputed Pastora's claims, but CIA files showed the agency "disseminated" the drug information about Pastora to a "broad range of senior [U.S. government] intelligence and law enforcement officials"—in stark contrast to the agency's silence about drug dealing by the FDN and UDN-FARN. To this day, Pastora remains the only Contra commander the U.S. government has ever officially admitted was involved with drug money.[^4] ### CIA-Linked Drug Money After the CIA cutoff of his funding in May 1984, Pastora received financial assistance from CIA-linked sources. Colombian trafficker [[George Morales]] provided aircraft, money, and weapons through CIA assets [[Octaviano Cesar]] and Adolfo "Popo" Chamorro, who assured Morales the CIA would resolve his pending drug indictment in exchange for assistance.[^4] Danilo Blandón also provided cash—$6,000 according to Pastora, $20,000 according to Marcos Aguado—two pickup trucks, and the keys to his vacation home in San Jose, Costa Rica, where Pastora lived rent-free for several years. [[Felix Saborio|Dr. Felix Saborio]], a childhood friend of Blandón, became Pastora's representative to the Cuban community in Miami and ARDE fund-raiser. Pastora assumed Blandón was a successful car dealer. "Blandón and Saborio. . .both vanished from my ranks when it became clear that I was not willing to march to the tune of the CIA," Pastora said.[^4] Former CIA official [[Alan Fiers]] testified: "We knew that everybody around Pastora was involved in cocaine. We knew it from November of 1984 forward. We reported it." A few months after the AP exposed Pastora's involvement with drug money in late 1985, Pastora quit the Contra war and became a fisherman. The CIA then replaced him with Fernando "El Negro" Chamorro's UDN-FARN, which had far more links to drug traffickers.[^4] ### Bombing at Headquarters Shortly after the CIA's harbor mining scandal of spring 1984, a bomb exploded at Pastora's jungle headquarters during a press conference, wounding Pastora, killing or injuring a score of ARDE officials and journalists, and throwing the Contra armies in Costa Rica into turmoil. The bombing occurred during a period of intense public relations disasters for the Contra project.[^4] ### Weapons Presentation Danilo Blandón arranged for [[Ronald Lister]] to give a weapons sales presentation to Contra leadership, which Pastora attended along with other top leaders. "Blandón said the attendees showed no interest in Lister's offer and Blandón received the impression that the military arms of the Contras was already being supplied by CIA or another U.S. government agency," the CIA reported. A handwritten note seized from Lister's home in a 1986 raid bore the names of several CIA operatives working with Pastora's ARDE group.[^4] Pastora ran for [[Nicaragua|Nicaraguan]] president in 1996.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Cast of Characters [^2]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 5: "God, Fatherland and Freedom" [^3]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty" [^4]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it" [^5]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance*, Chapter 11: "They were looking in the other direction"