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category: "Country"
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tags:
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- geography
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- region
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- contra-war
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summary: The Caribbean was a key transit zone for cocaine shipments moving from South America through the Bahamas, Panama, and Costa Rica to the United States during the Contra war.
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The Caribbean was a key transit zone for [[cocaine]] shipments moving from [[South America]] through the [[Bahamas]], [[Panama]], and [[Costa Rica]] to the [[United States]] during the Contra war. The region's geography, with its numerous islands and porous coastlines, made it ideal for drug smuggling operations.[^1]
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### Trafficking Routes
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[[Manuel Noriega|Noriega]]'s pilots flew drugs through two routes north: one through [[Mexico]] for the West Coast market, and the other through the Bahamas for the East Coast's cocaine buyers. [[Pablo Escobar]]'s associate Carlos Lehder set up shop in the Bahamas, buying an island where drug planes from [[Colombia]] could land, refuel, and wait for the right moment to fly into the United States. The Caribbean transit zone was integral to the Contra-connected drug pipeline.[^2]
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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. Ch. 5.
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[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 5, Ch. 14.
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---
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category: "Country"
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tags:
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- Geography
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- Region
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- Central_America
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- Contra_War
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- 1980s
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summary: Geographic region connecting North and South America that was the primary theater of Contra operations, drug trafficking, and CIA covert activities during the 1980s.
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Central America is the geographic region connecting North and [[South America]] that was the primary theater of operations for the Contra war, [[cocaine]] trafficking, and [[Central Intelligence Agency]] covert activities during the 1980s.[^1]
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### Contra War Theater
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The Central American nations of [[Nicaragua]], [[Honduras]], [[El Salvador]], [[Costa Rica]], and [[Guatemala]] formed the battleground for the U.S.-backed Contra war against the [[Sandinistas|Sandinista]] government of Nicaragua. The [[FDN]] operated from Honduras, while [[ARDE]] and [[UDN-FARN]] were based in Costa Rica. [[Ilopango Airbase|Ilopango Air Force Base]] in El Salvador served as the hub for [[Oliver North]]'s Contra air force.[^2]
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### Drug Trafficking Corridor
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Central America was the transit corridor for cocaine flowing from [[Colombia]] and [[Bolivia]] to the [[United States]]. CIA-connected pilots and Contra aircraft moved drugs through airstrips in Costa Rica, Ilopango in El Salvador, and forward operating bases in Honduras. DEA agent [[Celerino Castillo]] documented Contra drug shipments from Ilopango, and [[Enrique Miranda]] testified about cocaine flights from El Salvador to U.S. military airfields in [[Texas]].[^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. Glossary of Organizations and Locations
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[^2]: 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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[^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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---
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category: "Country"
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tags:
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- Geography
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- Costa_Rica
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- 1980s
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- Contra_War
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- Drug_Trafficking
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summary: Guanacaste Province in northern Costa Rica served as the headquarters for Contra drug and weapons trafficking operations during the 1980s, equipped with rural landing strips and corruptible local officials.
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### Contra War Hub
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Guanacaste Province was an isolated northern area of [[Costa Rica]] infested with Contra camps, rural landing strips, and easily bribed government and police officials during the 1980s Contra war. According to a special Costa Rican legislative commission, during 1984 and 1985 the area served as headquarters for "an organization made up of Panamanians, Colombians, Costa Ricans and citizens of other nationalities who dedicated themselves to international cocaine trafficking, using Costa Rica as a bridge for the refueling of planes that came from Colombia."[^1]
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### Drug and Weapons Operations
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The drug ring, run with the help of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, worked closely with the [[Contras]]. "Specifically, use was made of the same landing strips and the collaboration of the same Costa Rican authorities that had aided the Contras," the legislative commission reported. Contra pilots provided "the gasoline that was used for refueling the planes of the organization." Drug planes loaded cocaine in Colombia, refueled at Contra airstrips in Guanacaste, then continued to the United States, dumping loads in Louisiana and Texas.[^1]
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The head of the Costa Rican Rural Guard in Guanacaste Province, Colonel Edwin Viales Rodriguez, was convicted in 1988 of providing security for drug and weapons flights. He allegedly told a friend he was doing it for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and was paid between $20,000 and $30,000 per flight.[^1]
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### Intelligence Failures
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Despite the number of American agents stationed in Costa Rica during the Contra war, and U.S. reconnaissance aircraft and spy satellites making routine overflights photographing the region, a U.S. Senate subcommittee reported in 1988 that "despite obvious and widespread trafficking through the war zones of northern Costa Rica, the Subcommittee was unable to find a single case against a drug trafficker operating in those zones which was made on the basis of a tip or report by an official of a U.S. intelligence agency." Costa Rican prosecutor Jorge Chavarria, who investigated Contra drug cases for the OIJ, said the DEA "knew about the Contras and drugs. All these flights and pilots that were flying in and out with drugs could not have been ignored by the DEA. They were looking in the other direction."[^1]
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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 11: "They were looking in the other direction"
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---
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category: "Country"
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summary: "The Panama Canal is a vital waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1977, the Jimmy Carter administration was determined to sign a treaty regarding the Panama Canal with General Torrijos."
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The [[Panama Canal]] is a vital waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1977, the [[Jimmy Carter]] administration was determined to sign a treaty regarding the Panama Canal with [[General Torrijos]]. This determination reportedly influenced the administration's reluctance to pursue Torrijos, despite his and his family members' alleged involvement at the highest levels of the world cocaine trade.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
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---
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category: "Country"
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tags:
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- geography
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- continent
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- contra-war
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summary: South America was the source of the cocaine that flowed through Contra-connected trafficking networks, with Colombia and Bolivia serving as the primary production countries.
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South America was the source of the [[cocaine]] that flowed through Contra-connected trafficking networks, with [[Colombia]] and [[Bolivia]] serving as the primary production countries. The continent's drug cartels supplied the commodity that linked the Contra war to the devastation of American inner cities.[^1]
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### The Cocaine Supply Chain
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A 1990 [[DEA]] report stated that the [[Danilo Blandon|Blandón]]-[[Norwin Meneses|Meneses]] ring was "a criminal organization that operates internationally from Colombia and Bolivia, through the [[Bahamas]], [[Costa Rica]], or [[Nicaragua]] to the [[United States]]." The ring sourced its cocaine from the politically connected Suarez family in Bolivia and the Ochoa family in Colombia, founders of the [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín Cartel]]. Law enforcement investigators hoped to take down the biggest crack operation ever uncovered, "one whose tentacles reached all the way to South America," and cut off the L.A. ghettos' main source of supply. A pilot known as "Oklahoma Dick" regularly flew to South America to obtain cocaine for the Blandón-Meneses network.[^2]
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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. Ch. 6.
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[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 6, Ch. 17.
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