Adolfo Calero

[Magda Hassan]

Adolfo Calero

1. Background. Adolfo Calero Portocarrero, an American-educated businessman and politician, was originally active--as were many other Nicaraguan political figures who went on to become Contra leaders--in working to bring down the regime of Anastasio Somoza. After Somoza's ouster in 1979, U.S. Embassy officials reported from Managua that Calero initially sought to work with the FSLN Government, claiming that all sectors needed to contribute to the political and economic reconstruction of Nicaragua. However, Calero had publicly criticized the Sandinistas by late 1980 for "setting themselves up as gods." In December 1982, he left Nicaragua in protest of FSLN policies.
   
2. On leaving Nicaragua, Calero joined the FDN and became a member of its leadership. In January 1983, he traveled to Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia to seek support. That same month, he helped draft a FDN peace initiative calling for elections, pluralism, nonalignment in foreign affairs, and respect for individual and human rights. Calero later became President and Commander-in-Chief of the FDN, the preeminent Contra group that pursued resistance activities on the Northern Front from bases in Honduras.
   
3. When pressures to unify the Contra forces led to the creation of UNO in mid-1985, Calero--along with Arturo Cruz and Alfonso Robelo--was named to share authority and decision making control of the military effort. Disputes with Cruz and Robelo led to Calero's resignation from the UNO leadership in early 1987. However, with the founding of a successor coalition, the Nicaraguan Resistance (RN), in May of that year, Calero was restored to a senior leadership position. In that position, Calero differed with Enrique Bermudez, the RN military commander, over strategies for cease fire negotiations.
   
4. Allegations of Drug Trafficking. A number of Central American publications and public figures mentioned the Northern Contra Front forces in the context of broad-based charges of drug trafficking by the Contras. A cable informed Headquarters in February 1988 that a Nicaraguan exile had alleged at a meeting in Miami, Florida, that Enrique Bermudez, Adolfo Calero, Aristides Sanchez, and another individual were all involved in drug smuggling. The purpose of the meeting in Miami at which this allegation was made was to invite former Nicaraguan National Guard members to return to Nicaragua under a Sandinista amnesty program. The Nicaraguan exile reportedly offered no substantiation for his allegations. According to the cable, he had been characterized by both a U.S. law enforcement source and CIA as mentally unstable.
   
5. CIA Response to Allegations of Drug Trafficking. According to a February 1988 Headquarters cable, CIA records were searched in February 1988 regarding the Nicaraguan exile in response to his allegations that Calero and other UNO/FDN leaders had engaged in drug smuggling. The cable indicated that a number of sources characterized him as unstable, a swindler and as having a reputation of being a drug dealer in Nicaragua before leaving that country in 1983.
   
6. Information Sharing with Other U.S. Government Entities. In February 1988, the information contained in the February 1988 cable concerning the drug trafficking allegation by the Nicaraguan exile against Calero and other Contra leaders was forwarded by CIA to the FBI.
   
7. No record has been found to indicate that the allegation received by CIA regarding Calero and drug trafficking was reported to Congress.
   

https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/gene...north.html