---
category: Intelligence & Government
summary: Nicaraguan attorney and son-in-law of General Edmundo Meneses who served
  as Adolfo Calero's personal lawyer and was publicly accused by the Sandinistas of
  being a CIA agent involved in a foiled plot to poison Nicaragua's foreign minister.
tags:
- Person
- Person/Intelligence
- Person/Lawyer
- Nicaragua
- 1980s
- Contra_War
---

Carlos Icaza was a Nicaraguan attorney and son-in-law of General [Edmundo Meneses](/people/edmundo-meneses/) who served as the personal attorney of [Adolfo Calero](/people/adolfo-calero/) and was publicly accused by the [Sandinistas](/organizations/sandinistas/) of being a [Central Intelligence Agency](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) agent. Before the 1979 revolution, Calero had been a CIA agent himself, and Icaza was deeply embedded in the pre-revolution [Nicaraguan](/places/nicaragua/) power structure.[^1]

### The Thallium Poisoning Plot

In 1983, the Sandinistas publicly accused Icaza of being a CIA agent and issued a warrant for his arrest. He was charged with being a central conspirator in a foiled CIA plot to poison Nicaragua's foreign minister with a bottle of thallium-laced Benedictine liqueur. Icaza fled Nicaragua.[^1]

### Role with the FDN

After fleeing, Icaza went to work for the [FDN](/organizations/fdn/) in Honduras, as did his wife. He later became an attorney for [Norwin Meneses](/people/norwin-meneses/), arranging the sale of a Salvador Dali painting Meneses owned. Icaza also served as corporate lawyer for economist [Orlando Murillo](/people/orlando-murillo/), whom authorities suspected of being Meneses's money launderer.[^1]

### Shielding Macario

During the 1979 revolution, Icaza's home in Managua also housed the Colombian embassy. When [Jose Macario Estrada](/people/jose-macario/) was targeted by the Sandinistas, Icaza sheltered him there until Macario could escape the country seven months later.[^1]

[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 21: "I could go anywhere in the world and sell dope"