Jose Macario
Exiled Nicaraguan judge and FDN operative who became Danilo Blandon's business partner and immigration lawyer in Miami, helping arrange travel papers for Contra soldiers while investing drug profits in legitimate businesses.
Jose Macario Estrada was an exiled Nicaraguan judge and family friend of Danilo Blandón who became deeply involved with the FDN's Miami support network. Before the revolution, acquaintances said Macario worked at the U.S. embassy in Managua, helping out in the cultural attache's office. "We always joked that he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency," said one acquaintance. Macario denied it, but he had CIA agents for friends who had saved his life during the 1979 revolution.1
Escape from Nicaragua
When the Sandinistas took power, Macario was targeted for elimination. "A squad of Sandinista revolutionaries came to pass me by the arms, you know? Came to, what do you call it, eliminate me in a summary proceedings." Macario sought asylum in the embassy of Colombia, which was located in the home of his friend, attorney Carlos Icaza. Icaza shielded Macario from the Sandinistas, and Macario escaped the country seven months after the revolution on the last day of February 1980. "I have the anniversary of my escape once every four years," he joked.1
FDN Activities in Miami
"I was with the FDN here in Miami, working in Miami since 1980," Macario confirmed in an interview with the author. He worked with the Contras to arrange travel papers and work permits for rebel soldiers and their families, and helped create a number of nonprofit foundations in Miami that supported the Contra cause. In late 1986, Macario was appointed to a blue-ribbon commission by the FDN to investigate newspaper allegations that the Contras were squandering U.S. humanitarian aid money.1
Business Partnership with Blandón
After exonerating the FDN, Macario became a business partner with Blandón, sometimes in partnership with accountant Rene Gonzalez of the Peat Marwick & Mitchell office in Caracas. Both men became directors of Mex-US Import and Export Inc., one of several companies Blandón invested in using his L.A. drug profits. Other directors included Blandón's Mexican college friend Sergio Guerra and Panamanian banker Jose Fernando Soto, the longtime representative of the Swiss Bank Corp. in Panama and an old friend of Blandón's uncle-in-law, Orlando Murillo. Macario also served as Blandón's immigration lawyer.1
Sources
- 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" ↩
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