---
category: "Iran-Contra"
tags:
  - person
  - nicaraguan
  - contra-war
summary: Edgar Chamorro was a former FDN director who publicly confirmed that Norwin Meneses was a Contra leader involved in cocaine trafficking to fund the war.
born: 1931-07-23
---
Edgar Chamorro was a former [[FDN]] director who publicly confirmed that [[Norwin Meneses]] was a Contra leader involved in [[Cocaine]] trafficking to fund the war. Chamorro told the San Francisco Examiner in 1986 that he and FDN director [[Frank Arana]] flew to [[San Francisco]] in October 1982 to select leaders for the [[Contras|Contra]] support committee.[^1]

### Public Confirmation

Chamorro's public statements were among the earliest confirmations from a Contra insider that the drug trafficking and the Contra war were connected. His testimony corroborated what [[Carlos Cabezas]] and other witnesses had described about Meneses's dual role as both a Contra political leader and a major drug trafficker. The fact that a former FDN director was willing to speak publicly about the connection added significant weight to the allegations that the mainstream media had spent years dismissing.[^2]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 2.
[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 2.