Edén Pastora Gómez
Edén Atanacio Pastora Gómez , also called Cero or Comandante Cero (born January 22, 1937 in Ciudad Dario , † June 16, 2020 in Managua ) was a Nicaraguan guerrilla leader and politician of the FSLN (Sandinista). Pastora fought in the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1978/79 as a Sandinista guerrilla leader and after her victory was Vice Minister, first in the Interior and then in the Ministry of Defense. After his break with the Sandinista leadership, from 1981 to 1986 he was the leader of the contra organization Alianza Revolucionaria Democrática ( Democratic Revolutionary Alliance = ARDE), which he founded and operated against the Sandinista government in the border area of Nicaragua / Costa Rica .
Political career within the FSLN
Edén Pastora, who had taken on the Costa Rican citizenship in August 1977, undertook an attack on the National Palace in Managua on August 22, 1978 with 25 other FSLN activists . Around 1,000 hostages were taken, including numerous parliamentarians and government employees. Among the hostages were José Somoza Abrego , nephew of President Anastasio Somoza Debayle , and Somoza's cousin, Luis Paillais Debayle . The government gave in to their demands, 59 political prisoners, among others. a. Daniel Ortega was released and a ransom of US $ 500,000 was paid and the guerrillas flown to Panama . As a result of this media-effective action, Pastora was given the nickname " Comandante Zero ", which he had given himself as the leader of the hostage-taking.
After the Sandinista came to power on July 20, 1979, Pastora became Deputy Minister of the Interior (under Tomás Borge ), later Deputy Minister of Defense (under Humberto Ortega ), where he was involved in building up Sandinista people's militias. There were always differences of opinion with Ortega. In July 1981 he resigned as Deputy Defense Minister and went into voluntary exile. From then on he traveled a lot to support liberation movements in other countries, e. B. the ORPA in Guatemala .
He intensified criticism of the repressive politics of the Sandinista government and founded the Alianza Revolucionaria Democrática (ARDE = Revolutionary Democratic Alliance) in the jungle-covered border region between Costa Rica and Nicaragua ; an armed counter-revolutionary movement with the stated aim of disempowering the nine-man leadership of the FSLN. In 1986, however, the ARDE disintegrated again because Pastora refused to cooperate with the United States in the context of the Contra War .
The La Penca bombing
On May 30, 1984, a bomb attack was carried out on Pastora in the village of La Penca in southern Nicaragua during an international press conference. Four journalists were killed and a good two dozen people were injured, some seriously. The background to this attack has not yet been clarified. According to the Swedish journalist and documentary filmmaker Peter Torbiörnsson from 2009, who was present at the press conference at the time, the Nicaraguan secret service was responsible for the attack. Torbiörnsson said he had unwittingly smuggled the assassin, the Argentinian Vital Roberto Gaguine alias Per Anker Hansen , into the press conference.
Other political activities
In mid-May 1986 Pastora withdrew to Costa Rican territory with 150 ARDE guerrillas and applied for political asylum . Then he retired into private life and worked in fishing.
In 1996, Pastora's candidacy was denied by the Nicaraguan Congress. However, he ran for president in 2006 and finished fifth.
In June 2020 there were rumors that he died of COVID-19 in a military hospital in Managua , which the family said was incorrect, but his death on June 16, 2020 has been confirmed.
literature
- Susie Morgan: In search of the Assassin. London 1991.
- Peter Dale Scott: Cocaine politics. Drugs, armies, and the CIA in Central America. Berkeley et al. a. 1991.
- Martha Honey et al. a .: The attack in La Penca. Secret war against Nicaragua . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-85869-045-7 .
- Martha Honey: Hostile acts. US policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s. Gainesville 1994.
- Leslie Cockburn: Out of control. The story of the Reagan administration's secret war in Nicaragua, the illegal arms pipeline, and the Contra drug connection. New York 1987.
- Carlos Caballero Jurado / Nigel Thomas: Central American Wars 1959-89. London 1990, reprint 2000.
- Jesús Miguel Blandón: Entre Sandino y Fonseca Amador . Impresiones y Troqueles, Managua 1980.
- Francisco José Barbosa Miranda: Historia militar de Nicaragua. Antes del siglo XVI al XXI . 2nd ed. Hispamer, Managua 2010. ISBN 978-99924-79-46-9
- Humberto Ortega Saavedra : La epopeya de la insurrección (The Epic of the Insurrection). Lea Grupo Ed., Managua 2004, ISBN 99924-830-5-9 .
- Eden Pastora Gomez , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 22/1999 from May 24, 1999, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
- Tim Rogers: Bombing Survivor Seeks Truth, Closure. 25 years after 'La Penca,' Swedish journalist is trying to come clean about his role. In: Nicatimes. San José (Costa Rica), February 5, 2009. (on the renewed investigation into the La Penca bombing)
- Juan O. Tamayo: 84 Bomb Mystery Unravels Sandinistas Tied to Jungle Deaths. In: The Miami Herald. August 1, 1993.
- It runs fine. Eden Pastora, formerly a famous Sandinista, then a famous anti-Sandinista, has a civilian profession . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1987 ( online ).
- Your countrymen. Grenade launchers, mines, planes - the CIA supplies everything that can be used against left Nicaragua. Nicaragua is suing the Hague Court against this . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 1984 ( online ).
- Enrique Müller-Cargua: Sandino is alive - the fight continues . In: Der Spiegel . No. 25 , 1983 ( online ).
- Edén Pastora intentó asesinar a Ortega. “It cierto, Daniel (Ortega) me mandó a matar, pero fueron cosas de la guerra porque yo también lo mandé a matar”, dijo el “Comandante cero”. In: El Nuevo Diario . April 8, 2008.
- Joachim Riedl: Eight German development workers in Nicaragua abducted by the Contras - Comandante Pastora holds out his arms - the rebel leaders in Miami forge a new alliance. The dirty war of the contras . In: Die Zeit , No. 24/1986
- July Marie Bunck / Michael Ross Fowler: Bribes, bullets, and intimidation. Drug trafficking and the law in Central America , University Park, PA (Pennsylvania State University Press) 2012. ISBN 978-0-271-04866-6
- Marie Luise Kaltenegger : Wrong card. Interview with Edén Pastora , in: Günter Wallraff u. a .: Inside Nicaragua , Hamburg (Konkret Literatur Verlag GmbH) 1983, pp. 157–163. ISBN 3-922144-34-9
Web links
- Revolución Sandinista, La Ofensiva Final 5ª parte. (Video on YouTube; 9:21 minutes) June 11, 1979(Spanish, TV interview with Eden Pastora at the border crossing between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Penas Blancas).
- Otto Vargas M .: Sueco declaró el 11 de marzo pasado. Testigo culpa a sandinistas de ordenar atentado en La Penca. In: Nacion (San José, Costa Rica). April 9, 2008 (Spanish).
- Mike Lanchin: Peter Torbiornsson: My guilt over La Penca bombing. In: BBC World Service . July 25, 2012 (English, interview).
- La Penca. (wmv video, 10 minutes; English, with excerpts from the documentary by Peter Torbiörnsson).
- El viejo camaleón Report of the Spanish TV station RTVE about Pastora, around 2012
- Cindy Fuller: Muere el exguerrillero Edén Pastora, a los 83 años , in: La Prensa (Managua) of June 16, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leo Gabriel: Uprising of Cultures. Central America conflict region: Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua . Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1987, p. 223.
- ↑ Leo Gabriel: Uprising of Cultures. Central America conflict region: Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua . Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1987, p. 222.
- ↑ La Republica of June 13, 2020 (Spanish)
- ↑ NYT June 16, 2020.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Pastora Gómez, Edén |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pastora, Edén; Comandante Cero |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Nicaraguan guerrilla leader and Sandinista politician |
DATE OF BIRTH | January 22, 1937 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Ciudad Dario |
DATE OF DEATH | June 16, 2020 |
Place of death | Managua |