Edén Pastora Gómez

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leo Gabriel: Uprising of Cultures. Central America conflict region: Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua . Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1987, p. 223.
  2. ↑ Leo Gabriel: Uprising of Cultures. Central America conflict region: Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua . Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1987, p. 222.
  3. ↑ La Republica of June 13, 2020 (Spanish)
  4. ↑ 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