Tropas Pablo Úbeda

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Tropas Pablo Úbeda

The ( Spanish ) Tropas Pablo Úbeda (also: Tropas especiales Pablo Úbeda ) was a paramilitary special unit of the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior (Spanish: Ministerio del Interior = MINT). They were founded in 1979 and were one of the most important units of the Sandinista warfare against the Contra in the first years of the Contra War .

Foundation, commitment

As far as is known, the TPU were recruited from the guerrilla commandos of the Frente Sandinista. They were named after the FSLN guerrilla Rigoberto Cruz Argüello (*?, † August 27, 1967 Pancasán ) alias Pablo Úbeda, who on August 27, 1967 in the Silvio Mayorga Delgado column near the Washington hacienda near Pancasán, Matagalpa Department , in an ambush of the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua fell and fell along with seven other members of the group, including Mayor gas. During the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1978/79, an FSLN unit called Frente Pablo Úbeda had operated.

The TPU were a paramilitary as well as police specialty and covered a wide range of tasks from counterinsurgency against the contra to the fight against terrorism . This included working against armed demonstrators as well as hostage-takers. They therefore also fulfilled functions analogous to the US- American SWAT teams or the 9th People's Police Company of the German People's Police . They were set up based on the model of the Cuban Interior Ministry MININT.

The TPU worked closely with the Dirección General de la Seguridad del Estado (DGSE = General Directorate of State Security), the Nicaraguan counterpart of the Ministry of State Security , as well as the Dirección Quinta (Fifth Directorate) of the MINT, which is responsible for investigating the intelligence service against the Contra outside Nicaragua (especially in Honduras and Costa Rica ) was responsible.

The preferred mode of operation of the TPU against the contras was the formation of so-called bandas fantasmas ( ghost gangs ). The TPU disguised themselves as alleged Contra commands and made contact with real Contras in the Contras area of ​​operation, mostly in northern Nicaragua on the border with Honduras. If they had accepted the alleged legend, they were attacked at night by the TPU in a common camp and liquidated ; Apparently prisoners were rarely taken.

Operation Ciclón 1984 and its dissolution

Through the development of its own counterinsurgency concept by the Sandinista People's Army (EPS) and the establishment of the Batallones de Lucha Irregular (BLI = battalions for irregular combat), which now bore the brunt of the contra war on the Sandinista side, the TPU generally lost in importance, especially since the EPS in the Tropas Pedro Altomirano (TPA) had an analogous force similar to the Soviet Spetsna .

The use of the TPU in Operation Ciclón in the Boaco Department in 1984 led to an internal scandal . According to the former Guatemalan guerrillero Julio César Macías alias César Montes, who stated in his memoir that he was a member of the TPU, the TPU had set an ambush for a countergroup of the ARDE by Edén Pastora in October / November 1984, which was led by a commander Ciclón was led. The ambush was carefully mined by the actual leader of the TPU, Captain ( Capitán ) Alí Gómez García (* 1951 Caracas, † May 8, 1985 Ciudad Sandino ) alias Nicanor. In the attack on the counter column on November 5, 1984, a good 80 Contras were allegedly killed. The only member of the TPU who fell was its nominal leader, Enrique Schmidt , who was accidentally shot by a member of the TPU after Macías.

The circumstances of Schmidt's death as well as the fact that Schmidt, who was Minister for Telecommunications at the time, even formally directed the operation, even though he did not have the necessary military qualifications, are still unclear. After Miranda, both Daniel and Humberto Ortega were outraged by Schmidt's deployment and the operation was a reason for the dissolution of the TPU and its transfer to the special units of the EPS, the PUFE (previously TPA), 1986/87. (Miranda, p. 35) Alí Gómez was killed on May 8, 1985 during an operation; Details are not yet known.

Organization, uniforms, arming

According to Miranda and Jiménez, the TPU had a strength of 3–500 men, according to Jurado / Thomas 2000, which is likely to be greatly exaggerated. (Jurado / Thomas, p. 24). Initially, Vietnamese and North Koreans acted as trainers, and the uniform consisted of the summer combat uniform of the National People's Army during regular service .

The TPU preferably used Soviet weapons, especially the common also in EPS Maschinenkarabiner AK-47 .

literature

  • Carlos Caballero Jurado / Nigel Thomas / Simon McCouaig: Central American Wars 1959-89, 3rd ed. Oxford (Osprey Men-at-arms series no. 221) 2000. ISBN 0-85045-945-1 .
  • Carlos Arturo Jiménez: Nosotros no le decíamos presidente: conspiraciones al desnudo de la Nicaragua Sandinista, Managua 2008. ISBN 978-99924-0-705-9
  • Roger Miranda Bengoechea / William Ratliff: The Civil War in Nicaragua. Inside the Sandinistas, 2nd ed. New Brunswick, NJ 1994. ISBN 1-56000-064-3
  • Julio César Macías: Wed Camino: La Guerrilla. La apasionante autobiografía del legendario combatiente centroamericano César Montes, Méxiko, DF 1998. ISBN 968-406-811-5

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