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title: Sandinistas
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aliases:
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- Sandinistas
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- FSLN
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- Sandinista
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- FSLN
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- Sandinista National Liberation Front
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- Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional
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- Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional
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created: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-10-05
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category: "Paramilitary"
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Political
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- Nicaragua
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- 1970s
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- FSLN
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- ContraWar
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- IranContra
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- 1970s
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- 1980s
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- DarkAllianceInvestigation
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summary: "Leftist revolutionary guerrilla group that overthrew Somoza's U.S.-supported dictatorship in Nicaragua in 1979 and governed the country during the CIA-backed Contra war."
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start: 1961-01-01
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summary: "Nicaraguan revolutionary front founded in 1961 that overthrew the Somoza dynasty in July 1979, governed under Daniel Ortega, and fought the CIA-backed Contras until losing the 1990 election."
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start: 1961-07-26
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location: "Managua, Nicaragua"
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relations:
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Carlos Fonseca]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1961-07-26
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role: "Carlos Fonseca Amador, Silvio Mayorga and Tomas Borge Martinez founded the FSLN"
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fn: 1
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Tomas Borge]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1961-07-26
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role: "co-founder of the FSLN"
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fn: 1
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- type: member_of
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with: "[[Daniel Ortega]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1979-07
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role: "member of the five-person governing directorate of 1979; elected president in the election of November 4, 1984 and inaugurated January 10, 1985"
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fn: 2
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- type: partner_of
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with: "[[Manuel Noriega]]"
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start: 1978
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end: 1979-07
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role: "Noriega's arms-resale business counted the Sandinistas among its earliest clients, per the Kerry Committee"
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fn: 3
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---
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Frente Revolucionario de Sandino (FRS) were the leftist revolutionary guerrilla group that overthrew [[Anastasio Somoza|Somoza]]'s [[United States|U.S.]]-supported dictatorship in [[Nicaragua]] in July 1979.[^2] Their victory triggered the [[Contras|Contra]] war and set in motion the events documented in the [[Dark Alliance]] investigation.[^1]
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The Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) was formally organized in Nicaragua in 1961. The [[Library of Congress]] country study states that it was founded by [[Carlos Fonseca|José Carlos Fonseca Amador]], [[Silvio Mayorga]] and [[Tomas Borge|Tomás Borge Martínez]], who began in the late 1950s as Marxist student activists at the National Autonomous University in [[Managua]], and that it was "officially founded in [[Honduras]] on the symbolic date of July 26, 1961," the eighth anniversary of the launching of the [[Cuba|Cuban]] Revolution by [[Fidel Castro]]; its rural tactics were patterned after Castro's army and its forces were trained in Cuba.[^1]
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### Revolution
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### The war against Somoza
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Sandinista columns swarmed into [[Managua]] after Somoza fled to [[Florida]] on July 17, 1979, proclaiming an end to both the [[Nicaraguan National Guard|National Guard]] (which had hunted the rebels for more than a decade) and the Somoza dynasty.[^1] The Sandinistas had waged a guerrilla campaign against Somoza's regime for years.
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The FSLN first drew wide attention with its December 1974 raid and hostage-taking at a reception for the U.S. ambassador, after which the government of [[Anastasio Somoza]] accepted demands for ransom and the release of fourteen prisoners. The seizure of the National Palace by a small group in August 1978 set off a mass uprising, and the Front mounted a "final offensive" in May 1979; Somoza resigned on July 16 and fled, and the [[National Guard]] collapsed two days later.[^1] The congressional Iran-Contra Committees give July 17, 1979 as the date Somoza and his family fled, ending a 43-year dynasty and a civil war with more than 130,000 casualties.[^2] The Sandinista victory was supplied in part through [[Panama]]: the [[Kerry Committee]] reported, on the testimony of [[Jose Blandon]], that [[Manuel Noriega]] resold weapons through Panamanian end-user certificates and that "his earliest clients included the Sandinistas." The arms were bought in Europe, moved to [[Costa Rica]] under the eye of Noriega's partner, Costa Rican Security Minister [[Johnny Echevarria]], and flown in on planes from Panama loaded with [[Cuban]] weapons, refueled and repaired at the crop-dusting business of the Costa Rican [[Jaime Guerra]] in the north of the country. Former Costa Rican law enforcement officials told the subcommittee that during the revolution they were instructed to keep their narcotics investigators away from the Nicaraguan border and to let flights go even when they had information about drugs aboard the aircraft delivering weapons.[^3] [[David Westrate]] told the subcommittee in July 1988 that "people on both sides of the equation (in the Nicaraguan war) were drug traffickers, and a couple of them were pretty significant."[^3]
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### Post-Revolution
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### Government, 1979 to 1990
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After taking power, the Sandinistas imprisoned or executed captured National Guard officers.[^1] Former Guard officers who escaped across Nicaragua's borders into [[El Salvador]], [[Honduras]], and [[Costa Rica]] became the founding cadre of the Contras, reassembled by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] starting in 1980.
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A five-person Provisional Government directorate took office in 1979: [[Violeta Chamorro]], widow of the murdered *[[La Prensa]]* editor, [[Alfonso Robelo]], [[Sergio Ramirez]], [[Moises Hassan|Moisés Hassan]] and [[Daniel Ortega]]. The Committees' report states that the Sandinistas took over television and radio stations, censored *La Prensa*, forced Chamorro and Robelo to resign from the governing council, and announced on September 19, 1980 that national elections would not be held until 1985; the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration gave $39 million in emergency food aid and suspended it as U.S. intelligence found the Sandinistas helping the Marxist rebels in [[El Salvador]]. Cuban military personnel helped set up the Sandinista army.[^2][^1]
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The Sandinista government was opposed by the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration, which authorized the CIA to create and fund the Contra army to overthrow it.[^1] Former Sandinista intelligence officer [[Enrique Miranda]] later became a CIA asset, [[DEA]] informant, and right-hand man to [[Norwin Meneses]] from 1989 to 1991.[^2]
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In the election of November 4, 1984, about 75 percent of registered voters went to the polls, the FSLN won 67 percent of the vote, the presidency and 61 of the 96 seats in the National Assembly. The Library of Congress study states that foreign observers generally reported the election to be fair, while opposition groups said Front domination of government organs, mass organizations and much of the media precluded a truly open election. Ortega was sworn in on January 10, 1985, the seventh anniversary of the assassination of the editor [[Pedro Joaquín Chamorro]]. The Front lost the 1990 elections, and a government headed by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was installed in April 1990.[^1]
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### Unsubstantiated Drug Trafficking Allegations
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Webb wrote that after taking power the Sandinistas imprisoned or executed captured National Guard officers, and that former officers who escaped into El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica became the founding cadre of the [[Contras]], reassembled by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] starting in 1980.[^4] Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited. The congressional Committees describe the Contras as three elements: former National Guardsmen and right-wing figures, anti-Somocistas who had supported the revolution but felt betrayed, and Nicaraguans who opposed the Sandinistas' increasingly anti-democratic regime; "initial support" came from another country, understood to be [[Argentina]], which organized and supplied paramilitary forces in early 1981.[^2]
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Despite the Reagan administration's efforts to link the Sandinistas to drug trafficking, the evidence never materialized. "Although uncorroborated reports indicating Nicaraguan involvement in the shipping of cocaine to the United States had been received, CIA was unable to confirm reports implicating high-level Sandinistas in drug trafficking," the CIA informed the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] in April 1984. Two years later, Justice Department officials reached the same conclusion.[^3]
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### United States policy and the Contra war
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President Reagan displayed a photograph of [[Federico Vaughn]], identified as "a top aide to one of the nine commandantes," loading an aircraft with drugs. A subsequent [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] investigation revealed Vaughn was likely a U.S. double agent whose house had been "continuously rented" by the U.S. Embassy since 1981, and who was associated with both Norwin Meneses and [[Oliver North]].[^3]
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In December 1981 President [[Ronald Reagan]] signed a Finding authorizing a covert CIA operation to support the Contras, with the administration telling Congress the aim was to limit the spread of communism in the region. The first [[Boland Amendment]] of December 21, 1982 barred use of federal funds to overthrow the Nicaraguan government; in April 1984 press accounts reported that the CIA had mined Nicaraguan harbors; and the October 1984 Boland amendment barred any agency "involved in intelligence activities" from supporting military or paramilitary operations in Nicaragua "directly or indirectly."[^2][^5] [[Lawrence Walsh]]'s Final Report records that Reagan compared the Contras' struggle against Nicaragua's "communist-supported Sandinista government" to that of the American revolutionaries.[^6] The [[International Court of Justice]], in its judgment of June 27, 1986 in *Nicaragua v. United States*, rejected the U.S. claim of collective self-defense and found the United States had breached customary law duties not to interfere in another state's internal affairs, not to use force, not to violate sovereignty and not to interrupt peaceful maritime trade, and that it had broken the 1956 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation; the United States had announced on January 18, 1985 that it would not participate. Nicaragua discontinued the proceeding in September 1991 and the case was closed on September 26, 1991.[^7]
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On October 5, 1986 a C-123 cargo aircraft belonging to the Enterprise run by [[Oliver North]] and [[Richard Secord]] was hit by a Sandinista SAM-7 missile over Nicaragua, killing three of the four crew; the survivor, [[Eugene Hasenfus]], was captured.[^2][^8] The Contras' principal arms and money pipeline of those years is described on the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] page.
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### Drug-trafficking allegations and the Seal sting
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The Kerry Committee found that the U.S. [[United States Department of State|State Department]], in an International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, noted "no evidence" of the use of Nicaragua to ship drugs to the United States "since the allegations made in 1984" in connection with the case of the [[DEA]] informant [[Barry Seal]]. Seal, working undercover after being caught smuggling drugs, flew to Nicaragua with cameras installed in his plane and obtained photographs of [[Federico Vaughn]], whom U.S. authorities identified as a Nicaraguan government official, and [[Pablo Escobar]] loading the plane with drugs; the committee found this material "became the central evidence thereafter used by U.S. officials citing Sandinista involvement in narcotics." After the operation was exposed Vaughn disappeared, and the [[House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime]] found that the telephone number Vaughn used in calls he received from Seal was controlled by the U.S. Embassy.[^3] The Kerry report also states that the Seal operation "directed at officials of the Sandinista government in Managua was prematurely announced publicly by U.S. government officials, shortly before a crucial Congressional vote on Contra aid, thereby jeopardizing an ongoing DEA investigation," and that DEA officials testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime on July 28, 1988 that in June 1985 North suggested that $1.5 million in drug money carried aboard Seal's plane be given to the Contras, which DEA rejected.[^3][^9]
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Webb wrote that the CIA informed the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] in April 1984 that "although uncorroborated reports indicating Nicaraguan involvement in the shipping of cocaine to the United States had been received, CIA was unable to confirm reports implicating high-level Sandinistas in drug trafficking," that [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] officials reached the same conclusion two years later, that Reagan displayed a photograph of Vaughn, "a top aide to one of the nine commandantes," loading an aircraft with drugs, and that the House Judiciary Committee investigation found Vaughn likely a U.S. double agent whose house had been "continuously rented" by the U.S. Embassy since 1981 and who was associated with [[Norwin Meneses]] and North. Webb also wrote that the former Sandinista intelligence officer [[Enrique Miranda]] became a CIA asset, DEA informant and right-hand man to Meneses from 1989 to 1991.[^4] Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited.
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The Kerry Committee recorded two other approaches. In a closed session on June 25, 1987 the money launderer [[Ramon Milian Rodriguez]] testified that he had offered to help entrap the Sandinistas in a drug sting in return for dropping charges against him; [[Felix Rodriguez]] denied his version of a meeting in which Milian offered drug money to the Contras, and no action was taken by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] or CIA. A Miami attorney who in 1985 met lawyers for the [[Medellin Cartel]] in [[Bogota]] and later its leaders in [[Medellin]] told the DEA in October 1986, and passed a polygraph on his account, that a Bogota lawyer for the Cartel said [[Jorge Ochoa]] "finances both Sandinista and anti-Sandinista forces in Nicaragua by setting up drug operations there"; the Cartel proposed to collect intelligence on guerrillas for six months to a year in return for amnesty, and the DEA and FBI broke off contact with the attorney.[^3]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 1: "A Pretty secret kind of thing"
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[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Glossary of Organizations and Locations
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[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends"
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[^1]: Merrill, Tim L., ed. *Nicaragua: A Country Study*, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress (December 1993; DTIC ADA288675), chs. 1 and 5, "The Rise of the FSLN," "Sandinista Guerrilla Movement, 1961-79," "Sandinista People's Army, 1979-90" and the account of the 1984 election. https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA288675
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[^2]: Brinkley and Engelberg, eds., *Report of the Congressional Committees*, Part I, chs. 1 and 2, and "Iran-Contra Chronology." https://archive.org/details/reportofcongres00unit
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[^3]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165 (December 1988), chapters on Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Cuba, Panama and the Cartel, and Panama (testimony of Blandon, Westrate, Milian Rodriguez and the "Miami Attorney"; DEA debriefs of October 21 and November 13, 1986; Jacobsen testimony, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, July 28, 1988; Conclusions). https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
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[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, ch. 1, "A pretty secret kind of thing"; Glossary of Organizations and Locations; ch. 13, "The wrong kind of friends." Sole source for the passages so cited.
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[^5]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. I (August 4, 1993), Part I, "The Reagan Administration's Contra Policy" and "The Funding Cut-Off." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/part_i.htm
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[^6]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 1, "United States v. Robert C. McFarlane." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm
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[^7]: International Court of Justice, *Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America)*, Judgment of June 27, 1986 (merits), case overview and discontinuance order of September 26, 1991. https://www.icj-cij.org/case/70
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[^8]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, Executive Summary, "The Basic Facts of Iran/contra." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm
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[^9]: National Security Archive, "The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations," Electronic Briefing Book No. 2 ("In 1988, two DEA agents testified ... that in 1985 Oliver North had wanted to take $1.5 million in Cartel bribe money that was carried by a DEA informant and give it to the contras"). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/index.html
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@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ The Horizon Institute for Public Service was founded as a 501(c)(3) public chari
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Horizon's advisory board in 2023 comprised [[Kari Bingen]], former deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence and security; [[Beth Cameron]], former senior director for global health security and biodefense at the [[National Security Council]]; [[Richard Danzig]], former Secretary of the Navy; [[Michael Kratsios]], then managing director at [[Scale AI]] and former chief technology officer of the [[United States]]; [[Jason Matheny]], chief executive of the [[RAND Corporation]] and former director of IARPA; [[Nadia Schadlow]], former deputy national security adviser for strategy; Lieutenant General (ret.) [[Jack Shanahan]], inaugural director of the [[Pentagon]]'s [[Joint Artificial Intelligence Center]]; and [[Andrew Weber]], former assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs.[^1] Its later adviser list described Shanahan as "former inaugural Director of [[Project Maven]] and the Joint AI Center."[^2]
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Horizon says it takes no government or corporate money and that "no foundation or donor provides a majority of our funding." It lists as funders [[Helena]], [[Renaissance Philanthropy]], the [[Maurice Amado Foundation]], the [[Policy Entrepreneurs Network]], the [[Lonsdale Family Philanthropic Fund]] of the [[Palantir Technologies|Palantir]] co-founder [[Joe Lonsdale]], [[Coefficient Giving]] (the renamed Open Philanthropy), the [[Navigation Fund]], the[[ David and Lucile Packard Foundation]], [[Fulcrum Science]], the [[John Quincy Adams Society]] and [[Sentinel Bio]].[^2]
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Horizon says it takes no government or corporate money and that "no foundation or donor provides a majority of our funding." It lists as funders [[Helena]], [[Renaissance Philanthropy]], the [[Maurice Amado Foundation]], the [[Policy Entrepreneurs Network]], the [[Lonsdale Family Philanthropic Fund]] of the [[Palantir Technologies|Palantir]] co-founder [[Joe Lonsdale]], [[Coefficient Giving]] (the renamed Open Philanthropy), the [[Navigation Fund]], the [[David and Lucile Packard Foundation]], [[Fulcrum Science]], the [[John Quincy Adams Society]] and [[Sentinel Bio]].[^2]
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### The Politico Report
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@ -3,33 +3,113 @@ title: Southern Air Transport
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aliases:
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- Southern Air Transport
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- SAT
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- Southern Air Transport Inc.
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- Southern Air
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- Southern Air Holdings
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created: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-10-05
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category: "Private Organization"
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Intelligence
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- CIA
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- 1980s
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- CIAProprietary
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- AirAmerica
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- IranContra
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- ContraWar
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summary: "Southern Air Transport was a CIA-owned airline used for Contra resupply flights that was repeatedly linked to drug trafficking investigations by the DEA, U.S. Customs, and congressional investigators."
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start: 1947-01-01
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- CIADrugTrafficking
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- 1980s
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- Aviation
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start: 1949-10-31
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location: "Miami, Florida"
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summary: "Miami air carrier the CIA owned from August 5, 1960 to December 31, 1973, which in 1985 and 1986 serviced and supplied the Enterprise's Contra flights; later military cargo carrier."
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relations:
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- type: owned
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with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1960-08-05
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end: 1973-12-31
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role: "CIA proprietary operated under the Air America management team; sold back to a former owner"
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fn: 1
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- type: contractor_to
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with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
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start: 1960
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end: 1973
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role: "supplemental air carrier flying Military Air Transport Service contracts with equipment leased from Air America"
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fn: 1
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- type: contractor_to
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with: "[[The Enterprise (Iran-Contra)]]"
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start: 1985-01
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end: 1986-12
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role: "subcontracted Phase II arms flights, serviced and supplied the resupply aircraft, supplied cash advances, and was paid $1,935,596 for contra-related services including the purchase of a C-123"
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fn: 6
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- type: contractor_to
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with: "[[NHAO|Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office]]"
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start: 1986
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role: "State Department contractor for deliveries of nonlethal aid to the contras"
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fn: 9
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- type: contractor_to
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with: "[[U.S. Department of Defense]]"
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start: 1986
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end: 2012
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role: "Military Airlift Command contracts, about half of contracts in 1986; later Civil Reserve Air Fleet participant"
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fn: 9
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- type: owned
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with: "[[Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 2016-04-07
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role: "acquired Southern Air Holdings for about $110 million in cash"
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fn: 20
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---
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Southern Air Transport was once owned by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and continued to serve as a CIA contractor airline during the [[Contras|Contra]] war. Based at [[Ilopango Airbase|Ilopango Air Force Base]] in [[El Salvador]], Southern Air Transport aircraft were used for Contra supply runs. The airline was "of record" in the [[DEA]]'s databases from 1985 through 1990 "for alleged involvement in cocaine trafficking...several of the firm's pilots and executives were suspected of smuggling narcotics currency," the DEA reported. The CIA and DEA records show the airline was under investigation for drug trafficking by [[U.S. Customs]] in 1987.[^1]
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### Barry Seal's C-123K
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Southern Air Transport was incorporated in [[Florida]] on October 31, 1949, as an air carrier flying under a supplemental certificate, and was bought by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] on August 5, 1960. The company says its own history goes back to 1947 in [[Miami]].[^1][^2]
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The CIA took [[Barry Seal]]'s C-123K cargo plane to Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Ohio, outfitted it with hidden cameras, and used it in a joint CIA-DEA sting operation against the [[Sandinistas]] in 1984. After Seal flew his missions, the plane was parked at [[Mena, Arkansas|Mena airport]] for a year, then sold back to its original owner. In early 1986 it wound up with Southern Air Transport, where it was used for Contra supply runs and based at Ilopango until the Sandinistas shot it down over Nicaragua in October 1986.[^1]
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### CIA ownership, 1960 to 1973
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### Drug Trafficking Allegations
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The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (the [[Church Committee]]) reported that the CIA bought Southern Air Transport because in June 1960 the [[U.S. Department of Defense|Department of Defense]] and the [[Civil Aeronautics Board]] changed the rules for [[Military Air Transport Service]] contracts, requiring a supplemental certificate and participation in the [[Civil Reserve Air Fleet]], which [[Air America]] could not obtain. Director of Central Intelligence [[Allen Dulles]] approved the purchase on July 15, 1960. Air America management surveyed the 18 remaining supplemental carriers and chose Southern Air Transport, which operated two C-46s; the ownership was kept completely separate from Air America to avoid public hearings, but the new company was to fly on equipment under conditional sale from Air America and with transferred personnel, and the Committee wrote that it "was actually an integral part of the complex from a management perspective," its management decisions made by the same CIA consultant and advisory team that set Air America policy. The Agency later acquired [[Boeing]] 727s that Boeing modified to enlarge the ventral exit for airdrops.[^1]
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Miami FBI informant [[Wanda Palacios]] reported in 1986 that she witnessed Southern Air Transport planes being loaded with cocaine and unloading guns in Barranquilla, [[Colombia]], in 1983 and October 1985. She said she accompanied [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín cartel]] boss [[Pablo Escobar]] to the landing site and spoke with [[Jorge Ochoa]], who bragged about working with the CIA. When the downed C-123K's flight logs were recovered in October 1986, they revealed flights to Barranquilla during October 1985 - exactly as Palacios had claimed. Southern Air said the planes carried drilling equipment, not drugs.[^1]
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By 1972 the Agency decided to sell. The DCI on May 5, 1972 approved selling the equity to current management; the Committee wrote that "none of the employees of SAT had ever been an employee of the Agency." An accounting firm valued the company, the asking price was set at $2.7 million for stock plus $3.2 million to pay off a note to Air America, and a former owner, who is not named in the report, made offers in December 1972 and January 1973. The DCI approved a sale at $5.605 million on January 19, 1973 ($2.145 million for stock, $3.125 million in debt and a $335,000 credit). Competing supplemental carriers lobbied [[Congress]], the [[General Accounting Office]] and the General Services Administration against the sale and one offered about $2 million more; on July 31, 1973 the DCI ordered the company dissolved, then on October 1 agreed to entertain a sale if the buyer obtained prompt financing. The sale closed on December 31, 1973 after a $4.5 million loan commitment from the [[First National Bank of Chicago]] on November 29. In early 1974 Southern Air Transport exercised its option on a [[Lockheed]] L-100-30 Hercules for $3.15 million and resold it to [[Saturn Airways]] for $4.35 million; the CIA read this as a breach of the agreement against windfall profit, an arbitrator ruled for Air America on September 5, 1974, and the Agency received an additional $1,304,243. Employees filed a class action in March 1974 alleging the sale was illegal; the federal court dismissed it with prejudice on July 17, 1974. The Agency received $6.47 million in total.[^1] *The [[The Christian Science Monitor]]* reported in 1986 that the buyer was [[Stanley Williams]], who had run the company for the CIA for 11 years, and that [[Lawrence Houston]], the CIA's general counsel at the time of the sale, said that as far as he knew there was no continuing relationship; a company spokesman, [[William Kress]], said Southern had "no contracts with the CIA, nor have we since they owned the airline prior to 1973."[^3]
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Former Meneses aide [[Enrique Miranda]] testified that on occasion, cocaine from Ilopango was loaded onto aircraft owned by the Salvadoran Air Force and Miami-based Southern Air Transport for shipment to the United States. Miranda said [[Marcos Aguado]] and [[Norwin Meneses]] supervised the loading at Ilopango Air Force Base. Southern Air officials vehemently denied involvement with drug smuggling and sued news organizations that aired such allegations.[^1]
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### Contra resupply and the Enterprise, 1983 to 1986
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Colombian informant [[Allen Raul Rudd]] reported that Escobar claimed planes similar to C-130s were flying guns to the cartel in Colombia, off-loading guns, loading cocaine, and flying it to U.S. military bases - an arms-for-drugs swap coordinated between the Medellín cartel and elements of the U.S. government.[^1]
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[[CBS News]] reported in 1984 that a CIA-sponsored Southern Air flight landed in [[Honduras]] with 22 tons of small arms on April 9, 1983.[^3] The independent counsel's report states that in the second phase of the Contra arms sales, in January and March 1985, [[Richard Secord]] arranged air transport with the help of [[Richard Gadd]], a former Air Force subordinate who enlisted Southern Air Transport, and that the company subcontracted those flights to a second carrier.[^4][^5] In late 1985 the company set up a [[Panama]]nian corporation, [[Amalgamated Commercial Enterprises]], at Gadd's request as a "financial cut-out," which received $1,540,956 in Enterprise funds and paid for two C-7 and one C-123 aircraft.[^6] The Enterprise paid Southern Air Transport $1,935,596 in 1985 and 1986 for contra-related services "including the purchase of a C-123 cargo plane, repair and maintenance of aircraft, sale of spare parts and the supply of cash advances," and $200,000 for a Jetstar used by Secord.[^6] The company disbursed about $467,000 in cash from petty-cash funds for the resupply operation, carried to Central America in amounts up to $50,000.[^7] [[Robert Dutton]]'s mid-1986 inventory of the operation lists "Maintenance Support Miami," where a crew worked closely with Southern Air for procurement and delivery.[^6] On April 11, 1986 a Southern Air L-100 under contract to the private benefactors, which had delivered [[Department of State|State Department]] aid to [[Ilopango Airbase]], dropped arms and supplies to contra forces in southern [[Nicaragua]].[^8]
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Southern Air Transport also held the State Department's [[NHAO|Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office]] contract for $27 million of nonlethal aid, so that the two flows used the same aircraft and sometimes legs of the same trip; *The Christian Science Monitor* wrote in December 1986 that "the two operations are woven so closely together they are sometimes difficult to separate," that the fleet had grown to seven times the three Hercules the company operated in 1983, and that about half its contracts were with the [[Military Airlift Command]].[^9] In early 1986 [[Alan Fiers]], chief of the CIA's Central American Task Force, saw a Southern Air C-130 being loaded at Ilopango on [[Felix Rodriguez]]'s authority, and persuaded North to have Rodriguez cancel the flight.[^10] The notes of [[Donald Gregg]] on an August 8, 1986 meeting with Rodriguez record, concerning a C-123 sitting in Miami, "Southern Air Transport said plane OK to go. Called Jim Steele," the U.S. Military Group commander [[James Steele]].[^11]
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### The Hasenfus aircraft and crew
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The independent counsel's report records that after the October 5, 1986 shootdown of the aircraft carrying [[Eugene Hasenfus]], news reports linked it to Southern Air Transport, which had in fact contracted to service the resupply network's airplanes, and that Fiers was concerned because the company had been used for NHAO deliveries.[^12] A CIA memorandum of October 10, 1986 on a [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] briefing states that the co-pilot [[Wallace Sawyer]] "later worked for Southern Air Transport" and at one point asked to become a CIA staff employee, and that the [[U.S. Customs|Customs Service]] would investigate the company's activity.[^13] *The Christian Science Monitor* reported that the company had serviced the downed plane, that Sawyer had worked for it until April 1986, that it reportedly said it did not own the plane, and that news reports said the plane was bought six months earlier by a California company, [[Four Aces Inc.]], and leased to Southern Air.[^3][^9] *The [[The Washington Post]]* reported that a Southern Air credential issued to the pilot [[William Cooper]] was found in the wreckage, that Kress said it let Cooper onto the facility to supervise maintenance, and that a second camouflaged C-123 serviced at Southern Air flew from Miami toward Honduras in the days after the shootdown; the only FAA record of that aircraft was a July 3 reservation by a mechanic for "Corporate Air Service," with a Miami address that was Southern Air's.[^14] In December 1986 an air-support manager carried $6,000 in cash from Southern Air in Miami to [[Sally Hasenfus]].[^15]
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On the aircraft identity, the CIA Inspector General's December 24, 1996 review of [[Iran]]-Contra files, Southern Air files from the 1960s and 1970s, and other records found no document indicating a CIA link with N4410F and no document that Southern Air Transport owned, operated or leased a C-123K, and listed review of further Southern Air files as an action remaining.[^16] The Enterprise paid Southern Air for the purchase of a C-123, per the independent counsel; the report does not identify the airframe.[^6]
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### Drug-trafficking records
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The CIA Inspector General's 1998 report recorded that on January 21, 1987 Deputy Director [[Robert Gates]] sent Assistant Secretary of State [[Morton Abramowitz]] a memorandum stating that the Customs office in New Orleans was investigating an allegation of drug trafficking by Southern Air Transport crew members, that the source was a senior official of the FDN, and that the official feared the scandal "could redound badly on FDN interests"; Gates's transmittal letter attributes the allegations to [[Mario Calero]]. A February 23, 1991 [[DEA]] cable stated that Southern Air Transport was "of record" in the DEA's database from January 1985 to September 1990 for alleged involvement in cocaine trafficking, and that an August 1990 entry alleged that $2 million was delivered to the company's business sites and that several pilots and executives were suspected of smuggling "narcotics currency."[^17]
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[[Gary Webb]] wrote in *Dark Alliance* that the Miami [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] informant [[Wanda Palacios]] reported in 1986 that she saw Southern Air planes loaded with cocaine and unloading guns in [[Barranquilla]], [[Colombia]], in 1983 and October 1985, that she accompanied [[Pablo Escobar]] to the landing site and spoke with [[Jorge Ochoa]], who said he worked with the CIA, and that the recovered flight logs showed flights to Barranquilla in October 1985; Southern Air said the planes carried drilling equipment. Webb wrote that [[Enrique Miranda]] testified cocaine from Ilopango was loaded onto Salvadoran Air Force aircraft and Southern Air planes under the supervision of [[Marcos Aguado]] and [[Norwin Meneses]], that Southern Air officials denied involvement and sued news organizations, and that the informant [[Allen Raul Rudd]] reported Escobar's statement that planes like C-130s flew guns to Colombia and cocaine to U.S. military bases. Webb is the sole source for these passages.[^18]
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### Later operations
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Southern Air Transport's operations continued under the Southern Air name after 1999. Southern Air Holdings filed Chapter 11 petitions in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of [[Delaware]] on September 28, 2012, describing itself as a long-haul wide-body air cargo provider for governments and commercial users, a participant in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet with contracts with the Department of Defense and the [[United Kingdom Ministry of Defence]], and [[DHL]] as its largest commercial customer; it attributed the filing to reduced Department of Defense air cargo spending as [[Afghanistan]] deployments wound down.[^19] [[Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings]] completed its acquisition of Southern Air Holdings, including Southern Air and [[Florida West International Airways]], for about $110 million in cash on April 7, 2016.[^20]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 13: "The wrong kind of friends"
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[^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Foreign and Military Intelligence*, Book I, Final Report, S. Rept. 94-755, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. (April 26, 1976), section on CIA proprietaries (pp. 239-247), including "The Sale of Southern Air Transport, Inc." https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf
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[^2]: Amended Declaration in Support of Chapter 11 Petitions, as summarized in American Bankruptcy Institute, "Southern Air Holdings" case summary (company began in Miami in 1947; incorporated in Delaware in 1999). https://www.abi.org/node/24777
|
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[^3]: Warren Richey and George D. Moffett III, "Credibility crisis over downed plane," *The Christian Science Monitor*, October 10, 1986 (citing the Church Committee report, Lawrence Houston, William Kress and CBS News, 1984). https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1010/ashot.html
|
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[^4]: Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters (Lawrence E. Walsh, August 4, 1993), chapter 8, "The Enterprise and Its Finances." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_08.htm
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[^5]: Walsh, chapter 8 (Phase II of the Contra Arms Sales, January to March 1985).
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[^6]: Walsh, chapter 8 (Amalgamated Commercial Enterprises; Southern Air Transport; Dutton's description of the resupply operation).
|
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[^7]: Walsh, chapter 14, "Other Money Matters." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_14.htm
|
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[^8]: Walsh, chapter 19, "United States v. Alan D. Fiers, Jr." (April 11, 1986 L-100 drop). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_19.htm
|
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[^9]: Marshall Ingwerson, "Contra aid shadow dance," *The Christian Science Monitor*, December 15, 1986. https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1215/atrans.html
|
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[^10]: Walsh, chapter 19 and chapter 21, "CIA Subject #1." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_21.htm
|
||||
[^11]: Walsh, chapter 29, "Donald P. Gregg" (Gregg notes, August 8, 1986, AKW 029885-87). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_29.htm
|
||||
[^12]: Walsh, chapter 25, "United States v. Elliott Abrams" (RIG meeting of October 8, 1986). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm
|
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[^13]: CIA Office of Congressional Affairs, memorandum for the record, "Briefing on the C-123 Crash in Nicaragua: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 10 October," OCA 86-3575, paragraph 14. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00788192
|
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[^14]: Joe Pichirallo, "C123 Pilot Flew Aid Mission for U.S.," *The Washington Post*, October 11, 1986 (CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP90-00965R000605070050-2). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000605070050-2
|
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[^15]: Walsh, chapter 8 (Piowaty, FBI 302, June 22, 1987).
|
||||
[^16]: CIA Inspector General, memorandum for the record, "C-123K - Review of Additional Records," December 24, 1996, case Mena 96-0036-IG (CIA Reading Room 0001289850). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001289850
|
||||
[^17]: CIA Office of Inspector General, *Report of Investigation: Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States* (96-0143-IG), Volume II: The Contra Story (October 8, 1998), "Allegations Involving Other Companies Associated With the Contras" and the Gates transmittal letter. https://irp.fas.org/cia/product/cocaine2/pilots.html
|
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[^18]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, chapter 13, "The wrong kind of friends." Sole source for the Palacios, Miranda and Rudd passages as carried here.
|
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[^19]: American Bankruptcy Institute case summary, cited in footnote 2.
|
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[^20]: Ivan Nadalet, "Atlas Air completes acquisition of Southern Air," ch-aviation, April 8, 2016. https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/45363-atlas-air-completes-acquisition-of-southern-air
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