Adolfo Calero

Adolfo Calero was a longtime Central Intelligence Agency agent and former manager of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Managua.¹ Selected by the CIA in 1983 to lead the political wing of the FDN, Calero worked closely with Oliver North and met with Norwin Meneses several times during the years Meneses was selling drugs for the Contras.¹ He later became a member of the Nicaraguan Assembly.

Relationship with Meneses and Blandón

Norwin Meneses traveled to Honduras to meet with Enrique Bermúdez and brought Calero a crossbow as a gesture of esteem. Calero confirmed the meeting but denied that Meneses or Danilo Blandón held any official positions with the FDN.²

San Francisco Activities and USACA

In 1984, Calero began visiting San Francisco frequently, staying with Contra supporters Don Sinicco and Dennis Ainsworth while attending to FDN business. At Calero's request, Sinicco founded USACA, a Contra support group. On June 4, 1984, Ainsworth arranged a private reception for Calero at the St. Francis Yacht Club with sixty influential business leaders. At a subsequent dinner at Caesar's Italian Restaurant, Meneses picked up the tab for the entire party. Two days later, at a cocktail party at Sinicco's home, Meneses met privately with Calero and was photographed in the kitchen huddled with Calero and FDN officials.³

Calero has admitted meeting Meneses on at least six occasions in San Francisco but portrayed them as simple greetings at large public gatherings. He repeatedly denied knowing Meneses was a drug trafficker, yet admitted to a Costa Rican paper in 1986 that he knew Meneses was "involved in some illegal things, but I don't know anything." Sinicco's files showed Meneses contributed financially to USACA. Former FDN director Edgar Chamorro declared: "Calero and Bermúdez were our main links with the CIA. They met constantly with the CIA station chief."³

Role in the Contra Leadership

Calero led the political side of the FDN while Enrique Bermúdez commanded the military side and Aristides Sánchez managed supplies and logistics.² Oliver North called Sánchez "Calero's hatchet man," indicating the closeness of their working relationship. Calero worked with Sánchez on Caribbean banking activities and was closely monitored by the CIA throughout his tenure.²

Manuel Porro, a man arrested in a DEA operation alongside Meneses associates who later became a commander of the Legion of September 15, went on to serve as a top aide to Calero and handled some of his Caribbean banking activities.²

In January 1985, as the FDN reached its nadir, Reagan national security adviser Robert McFarlane told Calero that perhaps it was time to start thinking about "cutting both our losses and theirs." The FDN's only ray of hope was to withdraw from battle and lie low until spring, when Congress would let the administration make one more pitch for Contra funding.⁴