disinfozone/The_Info_Web
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions

vault backup: 2026-10-09 22:00:52

Browse source
This commit is contained in:
disinfo.zone 2026-10-09 22:00:52 -04:00
parent a407e691bc
commit 5a67e27f97
No known key found for this signature in database
300 changed files with 3832 additions and 1650 deletions
Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

6
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Adolfo Calero.md
View file

@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ relations:
---
Adolfo Calero Portocarrero was a [[Nicaragua|Nicaraguan]] businessman who led the political side of the [[FDN]], the largest [[Contras|Contra]] organization, during the war against the [[Sandinistas]]. The congressional [[Iran-Contra Affair|Iran-Contra]] Committees describe him as an accountant and businessman active in the movement against [[Anastasio Somoza]], who after the 1979 revolution became political coordinator of the Conservative Democratic Party, became an outspoken critic of the Sandinista government and joined the resistance after his office and home were attacked and he was forced into exile.[^1] He had attended the [[University of Notre Dame]] and headed the [[Coca-Cola]] bottling company in [[Managua]], and the [[Associated Press]] reported that he met Sandinista leaders in 1978 to look for common cause against Somoza.[^2] The New York Times editors' cast of characters to the Committees' report describes him as "North's chief contact with the rebels during the two-year ban on U.S. military aid" and as the Contra with "primary responsibility for distributing most private funds received by the Contras."[^3]
The writer [[Gary Webb]] described Calero as a longtime [[Central Intelligence Agency]] agent selected by the CIA in 1983 to lead the political wing of the FDN, and quoted the former FDN director [[Edgar Chamorro]]: "Calero and Bermúdez were our main links with the CIA. They met constantly with the CIA station chief."[^4] Webb wrote that Calero led the political side while [[Enrique Bermudez]] commanded the military side and [[Aristides Sanchez]] managed supplies and logistics; that [[Oliver North]] called Sánchez "Calero's hatchet man"; and that [[Manuel Porro]], arrested in a [[DEA]] operation with associates of [[Norwin Meneses]] and later a commander of the [[Legion of September 15]], became a top aide to Calero and handled some of his Caribbean banking.[^4] Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited.
The writer [[Gary Webb]] described Calero as a longtime [[Central Intelligence Agency]] agent selected by the CIA in 1983 to lead the political wing of the FDN, and quoted the former FDN director [[Edgar Chamorro]]: "Calero and Bermúdez were our main links with the CIA. They met constantly with the CIA station chief."[^4] Webb wrote that Calero led the political side while [[Enrique Bermudez]] commanded the military side and [[Aristides Sanchez]] managed supplies and logistics; that [[Oliver North]] called Sánchez "Calero's hatchet man"; and that [[Manuel Porro]], arrested in a [[DEA]] operation with associates of [[Norwin Meneses]] and later a commander of the [[Legion of September 15]], became a top aide to Calero and handled some of his Caribbean banking.[^4]
### Saudi money, Secord and the Enterprise
@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ North's notebook for July 12, 1985, released through a [[National Security Archi
The [[Kerry Committee]]'s report states that the FDN's chief supply officer was Adolfo Calero's brother [[Mario Calero]], and that under a commercial agreement with the pilot [[Frank Moss]], Mario Calero was to receive an ownership interest in Moss's company [[Hondu Carib]], which flew weapons purchased from R.M. Equipment (the firm controlled by Martin and McCoy); Moss, the report says, had been investigated but never indicted for narcotics offenses by ten law enforcement agencies. [[SETCO]], the Honduran company that carried at least a million rounds of ammunition and other FDN supplies from 1983 to 1985, received funds, according to the testimony of Adolfo Calero to the Iran-Contra committees, from the Contra accounts established by North; U.S. law enforcement records, the report says, state that SETCO was established by [[Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros]]. The report also states that at North's direction Calero paid $10,000 a month to the Costa Rican rancher [[John Hull]] who helped the CIA with Contra supply operations.[^15] North's notebook for August 9, 1985 summarizes a meeting with Owen about a plane used by Mario Calero to transport supplies from [[New Orleans]] to Honduras: "Honduran DC-6 which is being used for runs out of New Orleans is probably being used for drug runs into U.S."[^13] The Kerry Committee's conclusion was that it "did not find evidence that the Contra leadership participated directly in narcotics smuggling," although the FDN "did move Contra funds through a narcotics trafficking enterprise and money laundering operation."[^15]
Webb wrote that Norwin Meneses traveled to Honduras to meet Bermúdez and brought Calero a crossbow as a gesture of esteem; that Calero confirmed the meeting but denied that Meneses or [[Danilo Blandon]] held any official FDN positions; that from 1984 Calero stayed in [[San Francisco]] with the Contra supporters [[Don Sinicco]] and [[Dennis Ainsworth]], that at his request Sinicco founded the Contra support group [[USACA]], and that on June 4, 1984 Ainsworth arranged a reception for Calero at the St. Francis Yacht Club for sixty business leaders, after which Meneses paid for a dinner at Caesar's Italian Restaurant and on June 6 was photographed in Sinicco's kitchen with Calero and FDN officials. Webb also wrote that Calero admitted meeting Meneses at least six times in San Francisco but described them as greetings at large gatherings, and that he told a Costa Rican newspaper in 1986 Meneses was "involved in some illegal things, but I don't know anything."[^4] Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited.
Webb wrote that Norwin Meneses traveled to Honduras to meet Bermúdez and brought Calero a crossbow as a gesture of esteem; that Calero confirmed the meeting but denied that Meneses or [[Danilo Blandon]] held any official FDN positions; that from 1984 Calero stayed in [[San Francisco]] with the Contra supporters [[Don Sinicco]] and [[Dennis Ainsworth]], that at his request Sinicco founded the Contra support group [[USACA]], and that on June 4, 1984 Ainsworth arranged a reception for Calero at the St. Francis Yacht Club for sixty business leaders, after which Meneses paid for a dinner at Caesar's Italian Restaurant and on June 6 was photographed in Sinicco's kitchen with Calero and FDN officials. Webb also wrote that Calero admitted meeting Meneses at least six times in San Francisco but described them as greetings at large gatherings, and that he told a Costa Rican newspaper in 1986 Meneses was "involved in some illegal things, but I don't know anything."[^4]
### Swiss accounts, testimony and later life
@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ In January 1985, Webb wrote, Robert McFarlane told Calero that perhaps it was ti
[^1]: Brinkley, Joel, and Stephen Engelberg, eds. *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, with the Minority Views*, abridged edition (New York: Times Books/Random House, 1988), Part I, ch. 1, "Introduction: Background on U.S.-Nicaragua Relations," section "The Contras." https://archive.org/details/reportofcongres00unit
[^2]: "Former Nicaragua Contra leader Adolfo Calero dies." Associated Press, June 3, 2012 (Deseret News). https://www.deseret.com/2012/6/3/20416430/former-nicaragua-contra-leader-adolfo-calero-dies/
[^3]: Brinkley and Engelberg, eds., *Report of the Congressional Committees*, "Cast of Characters." https://archive.org/details/reportofcongres00unit
[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, Cast of Characters; ch. 3, "The brotherhood of military minds"; ch. 9, "He would have had me by the tail"; ch. 10, "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it." Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, Cast of Characters; ch. 3, "The brotherhood of military minds"; ch. 9, "He would have had me by the tail"; ch. 10, "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it."
[^5]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. I (Washington, D.C.: Division for the Purpose of Appointing Independent Counsels, August 4, 1993), ch. 8, "The Enterprise and Its Finances." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_08.htm
[^6]: Brinkley and Engelberg, eds., *Report of the Congressional Committees*, chapters on the private operation, the Enterprise and the NHAO. https://archive.org/details/reportofcongres00unit
[^7]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 1, "United States v. Robert C. McFarlane," discussion of the North memoranda of November 7 and December 4, 1984. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm