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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Martha Honey.md

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+---
+category: "Authors & Journalists"
+tags:
+  - person
+  - journalist
+  - contra-war
+summary: Martha Honey was a New York Times stringer in Costa Rica who pursued the Contra drug story and was placed under FBI surveillance for her reporting.
+---
+Martha Honey was a [[New York Times]] stringer in [[Costa Rica]] who pursued the Contra drug story and was placed under [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] surveillance for her reporting. Honey and her husband [[Tony Avirgan]], an ABC cameraman, were among the journalists who investigated the connections between the [[Contras]] and drug trafficking on Costa Rica's Southern Front.[^1]
+
+### Under Surveillance
+
+The FBI's decision to place Honey under surveillance revealed the government's willingness to monitor journalists who investigated the Contra-drug connection. Honey's reporting from Costa Rica documented the overlapping worlds of covert operations, drug trafficking, and Contra political activity on the Southern Front. The surveillance of a journalist by federal law enforcement illustrated the lengths to which the government went to suppress information about its relationship with drug traffickers.[^2]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 18.
+[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 18.