Enrique Bermúdez

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Enrique Bermúdez
December 11, 1932 - February 16, 1991

Nickname Comandante 3-80
Place of birth León, Nicaragua
Place of death Managua, Nicaragua
Allegiance National Guard, Contras
Service/branch engineer
Years of service 1952 - 1979
Rank Lieutenant Colonel
Commands held 15th of September Legion, Nicaraguan Democratic Force
Battles/wars Contra insurrection
Relations wife: Elsa Italia Mejía; children: Claudia, Enriquillo, Angela, Elsita

Enrique Bermúdez Varela (December 11, 1932 - February 16, 1991) was a Nicaraguan who founded and commanded the Nicaraguan Contras. In this capacity, he became a central global figure in one of the most prominent conflicts of the Cold War.

Bermúdez founded the largest Contra army and was the Contras' top military commander in their war against Nicaragua's Marxist Sandinista government from 1979 to 1990. In addition to being responsible for all of the Contras' military operations, Bermúdez ultimately helped managed some of the Contras' transition to an opposition political party in the 1990s.

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[edit] Founding the Nicaraguan contras

Bermúdez was born on December 11, 1932 in León, Nicaragua, the son of a mechanical engineer and a domestic servant. After graduating from the military academy in 1952, he took a commission in the engineer corps of the Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel under former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and was serving as military attaché to the United States at the time of the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua by the Sandinistas.

Bermúdez moved almost immediately into armed opposition against the new government, ultimately becoming one the most influential leaders in the armed opposition to the Sandinista government. Together with Ricardo Lau, he created the 15th of September Legion, the first armed opposition movement against the Sandinistas. In 1981, Bermúdez returned to Tegucigalpa, Honduras from exile in Miami, Florida. He would later become commander of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), the primary Contra movement.

During the Contra war, Bermúdez held the nom de guerre, Comandante 380.

[edit] Role in prominent Cold War conflict

The Contras' guerrilla war against the Sandinista government became one of the most contentious and prominent Cold War conflicts, with the United States supporting the Contras through overt and covert military assistance, and the Soviet Union, Cuba, East Germany and other Eastern bloc nations supporting the Sandinistas. Under the Reagan Doctrine, through which the U.S. believed it could drive the Soviet Union out of Central America and other regions around the world, the U.S. began supplying Bermúdez' Contras with arms and other support.

[edit] Criticisms

Assessments of Bermúdez's military and political leadership varied. His supporters believed that he provided stability among the fractious rebels, holding the FDN together while other Contra factions splintered. Critics, however, charged that he failed to provide strategic direction for the FDN's campaigns, and that he hampered the Contras' effectiveness by rewarding loyal cronies and ex-Guardsmen instead of the most able commanders. Discontent finally led to a council of field commanders ousting Bermúdez, as well as the purging of the Contras' predominantly Miami-based political leadership.

Critics of the Contras also alleged that Bermúdez was one of several figures who had been engaged in cocaine and other drug-running as a Contra commander, but evidence of this allegation was never fully established and it was presented predominantly by Contra opponents who sought to terminate U.S. support to the Contras.

[edit] Relations with U.S.

Bermúdez, however, was the key military leader behind the Contras' war. He also was a key contact for the Reagan administration, who saw him, along with Adolfo Calero, as their primary contacts within the Contra leadership. Votes on U.S. aid to the Contras were some of the most contentious and close votes in the United States Congress during the 1980s, but the predominant sentiment in Congress was that continued aid to the Contras was critical both to establishing a non-communist government in Nicaragua and driving the Soviet Union from the American hemisphere during the height of the Cold War.

[edit] Autobiography: The Contras' Valley Forge

In the Summer 1988 issue of Policy Review magazine, Bermúdez told the most comprehensive account of his life, a lengthy autobiographical essay titled "The Contras' Valley Forge: How I View the Nicaraguan Crisis," in which the Contra leader chronicled his life from his early career as a military attache to Somoza through the height of the conflict between the Contras and Sandinista government.

In the article, Bermúdez staunchly criticized the Sandinistas for their alliances with the Soviet Union and Cuba and for betraying promises they made to establish a representative democracy, which they then failed to do. However, Bermúdez also issued some criticism at U.S. policy, writing that some Democrats, such as Jim Wright, then the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, were appeasing the Sandinista regime in ways that were inhibiting the Contras' in their effort to overthrow the Sandinista government. The article was authored by conservative author and writer (and then Policy Review editor) Michael Johns, who interviewed Bermúdez over a series of days in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in May and June 1988.[1][2]

[edit] Murdered in Managua

Following the Sandinista defeat in the 1990 elections, Bermúdez returned to Managua, only to be gunned down on February 16, 1991 after being lured to a meeting at Managua's InterContinental Hotel. He was shot in the hotel's parking lot as he arrived for the meeting. Bermúdez' assassination remains unsolved.

In 1994, Bermúdez' daughter, Claudia Bermúdez, told The Miami Herald: "There were a lot of people who would have benefited from having my dad put away--the Sandinistas, the Chamorro government, the United States. My dad died with a lot of information."[3]

[edit] Personal

Bermúdez left behind family members, most of whom live in Miami. He was buried in Miami, following a funeral mass that was attended by many of his U.S. and Nicaraguan supporters.

In 2002 and 2004, his daughter, Claudia Bermúdez, now a resident of the San Francisco area, ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Democrat Barbara Lee for California's 9th congressional district seat. She remains heavily engaged in public policy-related initiatives in the district.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Shultz to Visit Central America on Faltering Talks," The New York Times, June 19, 1988.
  2. ^ "For the Record," The Washington Post, August 4, 1988.
  3. ^ Narconews quoting The Miami Herald.

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