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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Enrique Bermudez.md

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+---
+category: "Military"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Contra
+  - Military
+  - Nicaragua
+  - 1980s
+  - Dark_Alliance_Investigation
+summary: Supreme military commander of the FDN and former Somoza military attache in Washington who was hired by the CIA in 1980 to reassemble the National Guard into a Contra fighting force, and was murdered in Managua in 1991.
+---
+Enrique Bermúdez "Commandante 380" was the supreme military commander of the [[FDN]], the largest [[Contras|Contra]] faction.[^3] A former military attaché for the [[Anastasio Somoza|Somoza]] regime in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], he was hired by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] in 1980 to reassemble Somoza's scattered [[Nicaraguan National Guard|National Guard]] brigades into a fighting force.
+
+### Contra Leadership
+
+Bermúdez commanded the FDN throughout the Contra war and was a close friend of the [[Norwin Meneses|Meneses]] family. He reportedly trafficked in arms and [[cocaine]] with Norwin Meneses. [[Dennis Ainsworth]], a [[San Francisco]] Contra supporter, told the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] in 1987 that he had discovered Meneses and Bermúdez were dealing arms and drugs together.[^1]
+
+### Earlier Career
+
+Before the revolution, Bermúdez served in the Nicaraguan National Guard under Somoza.[^4] In 1965 he was deputy commander of an infantry company Somoza sent to support a [[United States|U.S.]]-led invasion of the [[Dominican Republic]] to suppress a leftist political movement.
+
+Bermúdez had been in the U.S. since 1975, first as a student attending courses on subversion and counterinsurgency at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington and later as the Nicaraguan government's liaison to the American military. The Americans considered him one of six Guardia officers they recommended to head the National Guard during the final days of the Somoza regime. The [[State Department]] considered Bermúdez a safe choice because he had spent most of the revolution in Washington and could not be held responsible for the Guardia's human rights violations. Somoza picked someone else. When the Somoza government collapsed, Bermúdez began a new career as a truck driver, delivering Newsweek magazines.[^4]
+
+### Recruitment by the CIA
+
+Somoza's cousin, Luis Pallais Debayle, visited Bermúdez to gauge his interest in leading a resistance force. Soon after, Major General Charles E. Boyd, a top U.S. Air Force official, invited Bermúdez to the [[Pentagon]] to discuss ideas. Boyd told him he had a friend at the CIA who was interested in speaking with him. By mid-1980 Bermúdez had moved to [[Miami]] and was on the CIA payroll.[^4] He began traveling widely, gauging the sentiment of vanquished National Guardsmen hiding in the U.S. and [[Central America]] and reporting findings to his CIA handlers.
+
+A U.S. official later told journalist Sam Dillon: "He fit the profile. He was malleable, controllable, docile."[^4]
+
+According to Boyd, the CIA "put Bermúdez in touch" with the [[Legion of September 15]] in [[Guatemala]]. He also co-commanded the Legion along with [[Ricardo Lau|Ricardo "El Chino" Lau]]. In 1981, Bermúdez visited [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s FDN group in [[Los Angeles]], giving a pep talk and asking them to adopt the FDN colors and flag.[^4]
+
+[[Renato Pena|Renato Peña]] Cabrera, the FDN's San Francisco representative, told federal investigators that he was present "on many occasions" when Meneses telephoned Bermúdez in Honduras. "Meneses told Pena of Bermúdez's requests for such things as gun silencers (which Meneses obtained in Los Angeles), cross bows, and other military equipment for the Contras." Meneses would also bring back military information, bulletins, and communiques from Bermúdez that Peña put into newsletters.[^5]
+
+### Death
+
+Bermúdez was murdered in [[Managua]] in 1991. The slaying has never been solved.[^2]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue: "It was like they didn't want to know"
+[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Cast of Characters
+[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Glossary of Organizations and Locations
+[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 2: "We were the first"
+[^5]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 6: "They were doing their patriotic duty"