Why the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution is aloof foremost nowadays | Under the Shadow, Ep. 10, Phase 1

Michael Fox: Hi. I’m your host, Michael Fox. You may have noticed that we are a weeklate releasing this episode. I apologize. We were slowed down by the heavy flooding inSouthern Brazil. They're actually calling it Brazil's Katrina. More than 600,000 peoplehave been pushed from their homes. And our incredible sound engineer Gustavo Türck,and the collective he works with Catarse, are in the thick of it, in PortoAlegre. I'll add links to their work and some recent reporting ofmine on the floods in the show notes. Before we get started, I want to say afew more things. First, like Episode 7, about the 2009 Honduran coup, we have alsodecided to split today's episode into two.

Parts. Today we'll look at the 1979 Nicaraguanrevolution against dictator Anastasio Somoza and the beginning of both the Sandinistagovernment and the US response to it. The next part will walk forward in time from thereinto the Iran Contra scandal of the 1980s. The second thing I'd like to say is that thisera is so important to remember. Nicaragua was pretty much ground zero for the US waron Central America in the 1980s. And yet, it’s been completely obscured by discussionsover what that country represents today. That's unfortunate, and it only benefits thosewho would rather conceal the past — Namely, the US government, which wasresponsible for so much damage, destruction, and the loss of tens of thousandsof lives in Nicaragua throughout the 1980s.

Finally, as you can imagine, many portionsof today's episode deal with harsh themes from the US war on Nicaragua in the1980s including killings, torture, and terror attacks. If you are sensitive to thesethings or you’re in the room with small children, you might want to consider another time to listen. OK. Here’s the show… So in June 2023, my family and I visitedthe Nicaraguan town of Leon. It's the second largest city in the country after Managua.It was founded 500 years ago by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdobaon land inhabited by the Chorotegas Indigenous people. Leon was the first capital of Nicaragua— And it was a former base for the Liberals,.

Who often fought for power againstthe Conservatives in Granada. Leon's top attraction is its iconic cathedral.It's the largest in Central America, and if you go up to the roof, the architectureof stark white domes and cupolas almost reminds you of something out of Greece. Thesmoking Momotombo volcano in the distance. This day, we decided to go to a placecalled the Museum of Traditions and Legends. It's a few blocks from the main square. Just inside the main gate, there's a littlegarden with a statue of a camouflaged Sandinista guerrilla fighter, andthen you pass through this big, brick wall with turrets on the corners. Onlythen did I realize where I was. Before this.

Was the Museum of Traditions and Legends,it was a prison — Carcel la 21. Prison 21. This place is really crazy. So it's a formerprison that was liberated by the Sandinista army. There was torture. It's just one big housewith all these different cells that people were apparently taken to, with major repressionand torture and killings throughout the 1970s. That was the time of brutal US-backeddictator Anastasio Somoza. For decades, the National Guard would bring politicalprisoners and the disappeared here. I'll be honest, walking through the museumgives me chills. The bars are still on the windows. They have it set up so that eachroom you step into, there’s a new exhibition with large puppets or figurines showingdifferent Nicaraguan traditions or legends,.

But the walls are painted with black andwhite pictures of what used to be there: prisoners sitting on bunk beds playingcards. The National Guard lining people up, their hands and feet shackled. Images ofpeople undergoing different forms of torture. There's these pages talking about exactly whattype of torture happened in these buildings: injecting drugs, filing victims’teeth, bathing their bodies in water and salt and then making them standon electric wires. It’s just terrifying. But also, at the same time, really beautiful thatthey can recuperate it, like we've seen in so many other places. Another reminder of the storiesthat remain. The history, terrifying history. The terrifying history of the violence of thepast and the revolutionary struggle that would.

Overthrow a dictator and usher in a wave of hopenot just for Nicaragua, but across the world. That… in a minute. [Under the Shadow theme music] This is Under the Shadow — A new investigativenarrative podcast series that walks back in time to tell the story of the past byvisiting momentous places in the present. This podcast is a co-production inpartnership with The Real News and NACLA. I’m your host, Michael Fox— Longtime radio reporter, editor, journalist. The producer andhost of the podcast Brazil on Fire. I’ve spent the better part of thelast twenty years in Latin America.

I’ve seen firsthand the role of the US governmentabroad. And most often, sadly, it is not for the better: invasions, coups, sanctions. Supportfor authoritarian regimes. Politically and economically, the United States has cast a longshadow over Latin America for the past 200 years. In each episode in this series, I will takeyou to a location where something historic happened — A landmark of revolutionary struggleor foreign intervention. Today, it might look like a random street corner, a church, a mall, amonument, or a museum. But every place I’m going to bring you was once the site of history-makingevents that shook countries, impacted lives, and left deep marks on the world. I’ll try todiscover what lingers of that history today. Over the last two episodes, I’ve been walkingyou forward in time across the long history of.

US intervention, invasions, and occupationsof Nicaragua. We left the last episode amid the brutal Somoza dictatorship, whichwould last for nearly five decades. Today, we dive from there into the 1980s, torevolution, and the US war on Nicaragua. This is Under the Shadow Season1: Central America. Episode 10: “1980s Nicaragua Part 1: Revolution”. The year is 1978. Dictator Anastasio Somoza, also knownas Tacho, is in power. His family has ruled Nicaragua since 1937, since justa few years after Anastasio’s father,.

Anastasio Somoza García, orderedthe killing of Augusto Sandino. Somoza the father was thehead of the National Guard, which the United States had trained andequipped. He took power after the departure of the US Marines marked the end of the UnitedStates's longest military occupation in Latin American history — 21 years. We talkedabout that in depth in the last episode. In 1939, US president Franklin Delano Rooseveltis alleged to have said of Somoza García, “He may be a son of a bitch,but he’s our son of a bitch.” By the late ‘70s, Anastasio Somoza the sonhas been in power for a decade. He took over in 1967 after his older brother — DictatorLuis Somoza Debayle — died of a heart attack.

Arizona State University History Professor Alex Aviña says Anastasio Somozawas a Cold War warrior. Alex Aviña: He deployed that discourse toget help from the United States. He would position Nicaragua as the frontlines of Western civilization’s struggle against communism. He himself studiedat military academies in the United States, so he's very Americanized. He spoke perfectEnglish. But he was a ruthless dictator. Anastasio Somoza [recording]: I’m gainingsupport from the American people, which is what is important to me — Because I am a friendof the Americans, and so are the Nicaraguans. Michael Fox: That’s him speaking to pressin Miami during a trip to the United States.

In 1979. He wears a suit, walks stiffand upright. He has a large mustache, big aviator glasses, a recedinghairline, and a smug expression. As unrest grew, Anastasio Somoza’sreign became increasingly brutal. John Pilder: Anastasio Somoza founded a dynasty that ran Nicaragua likea family business for 44 years. Michael Fox: In this documentary from the 1980s, Australian investigative journalist JohnPilger stands on the edge of the Masaya volcano, just south of the Nicaraguan capitalManagua. White smoke pours out of the crater. John Pilger: The Somozas were protected bya private army called the National Guard,.

Which the United States created, paid, and armed.Somoza called them “his boys”. And they tortured almost as a sport. This is the Masaya Volcano,which, as you can see, is very much alive. One of the delights of Somoza’s “boys” was to drophis opponents from helicopters into the volcano. Alex Aviña: The last decade of his rule,he really was forced to rely on brutal, overt political violence and terroragainst his political opponents, whether they were FSLN guerrillas, whohad regrouped after their military defeats in the late 1960s to become thisreally powerful force in the 1970s, but also more who scholars would refer to themas moderate elements of the political opposition. Michael Fox: The FSLN. That’s theother name for the Sandinista National.

Liberation Front — An insurgencyfounded in 1961 to rid the country of the Somoza dynasty. It was named afterNicaraguan freedom fighter Augusto Sandino. Somoza's overt political violence andcorruption turns the country against him and… Alex Aviña: — In this situation, liberationtheology plays a big role, as almost an ideological bridge between moreradical revolutionary elements, like those that belong to the FSLN,with grassroots campesino workers, trade unionists in the countryside, and religiousfigures, and religious creyentes, religious folks throughout. It becomes an ideology that justifiesself-defense and, eventually, revolution. Michael Fox: By the late 1970s,the FSLN has gained tremendous.

Strength and support. It launches aseries of nation-wide insurrections. Somoza responds by ratchetingup repression and violence. Anastasio Somoza [recording]: Thisis Nicaragua under martial law. Michael Fox: The images of thisdocumentary from the late 1970s show the rubble of buildingsand twisted metal structures. Anastasio Somoza [recording]: Thearmy stands guard over the ruins of a country. Ruins which bear witness toa national mutiny against a dictatorship so bereft of alternative solutionsthat it chose to bomb its own cities. Sandinista: We have had to arm ourselves —.

Michael Fox: — A member of theSandinista insurrection tells a TV crew, tapping the automatic rifle in his lap. Sandinista: This is the language thatSomoza has used for the last 44 years, and this is the language that we arespeaking. And he is understanding, because we are defeating him inthe countryside and in the city. Alex Aviña: Meanwhile, the moraleof the National Guard was slumping, and the rebellion was so widespread that Somoza'sforces were stretched to breaking point. By June, Somoza was ordering block-by-block streetfighting from his fortified bunker in Managua. By this time, the United States had lost allinterest in propping up an unwanted regime. So.

By the time the revolution breaks out in 1978, hefaces an entire society with very few exceptions: the cliques around him, the NationalGuard that had been organized all the way back in the 1930s by the US, againsta a broad, popular front of revolutionary resistance against his dictatorshipthat leads to his overthrow in 1979. Michael Fox: Finally, July 17, 1979, Somozaresigns and flees the country. He goes into exile in Paraguay, then ruled by its own dictator,who would ultimately be in power for 35 years. American Sandinista: After 16 years of persistentfighting and seven weeks of outright civil war, Nicaragua's Sandinista guerrillas todaysavored a total victory over Anastasio Somoza. By the thousands, the peopleof Nicaragua are pouring towards the.

Capital of Managua to celebrate therevolution. But for the Sandinistas, today was more than IndependenceDay. Today, Managua was theirs. Marvin Ortega Rodriguez: The most importantthing happened in the following days — Michael Fox: — Says Marvin OrtegaRodriguez. He was a member of the Sandinistas, who would go on to serve asNicaraguan ambassador to Brazil and Panama. Marvin Ortega Rodriguez: The entire societycame out to support the FSLN. People who had never participated in any organization intheir lives started getting involved and getting organized — Even some ofSomoza's former public officials. Michael Fox: Marvin sayshe began in his community,.

Coordinating the Sandinista DefenseCommittees. They were the local, community branch of the Sandinistamovement after they overthrew Somoza. Marvin Ortega Rodriguez: Every night, we were out in the streets doing communitywatch. But it wasn't just a couple of people, it was the entire neighborhood. Wehad a tremendous sense of community. William Robinson: In the early1980s, the feeling is euphoric. Michael Fox: That’s William Robinson.Today, he’s a professor of sociology and Latin American Studies at UC Santa Barbara.He arrived in Nicaragua in 1980 and lived there throughout the decade, first workingwith the Nicaraguan Committee in Solidarity.

With the Peoples, and then workingat the state Nicaraguan News Agency. William Robinson: You stillget the sense of revolution in the air. There's this incredibleoptimism. There's this incredible outpouring of enthusiasm and poor people fromthe barrios. There's beehives of organization everywhere. Especially young people are sothrilled, and have endless, boundless energy. Eline Van Ommen: Obviously, the Sandinistas come into power witha radical program of social change. Michael Fox: That is Eline Van Ommen, a historian of Latin America atthe University of Leeds in the UK.

Eline Van Ommen: And one of the majoraccomplishments when they come to power is this literacy campaign in which youngNicaraguans from the mostly urban areas, they become brigadistas. They go to therural areas, the countryside, and they teach literacy skills to children, but also adultsbecause illiteracy rates were incredibly high. Michael Fox: This tremendous black-and-whiteNicaraguan documentary from 1980, produced by the newly formed Nicaraguan Film Institute,shows the rollout of the literacy campaign, or what the Sandinistas called La CruzadaNacional, the National Crusade. They kicked it off in March, less than a yearafter the Sandinistas took power. In the film, thousands of young Nicaraguans gatherin Managua before heading off into the countryside.

To teach the people to read. The campaign wasfounded on similar literacy programs in Cuba and elsewhere. 100,000 young Nicaraguansparticipated in the program as teachers. “I'm so proud that all of mychildren can participate in the literacy campaign,” says onemother, with her arms around her children. She says she has five kids— Another one died fighting Somoza. It’s clearly a time of excitement andhope. The literacy campaign lasted five months and was a tremendous success.400,000 Nicaraguans learned to read and write. Illiteracy dropped from justover half the population to under 13%. “We are proud of what we’ve been taught,”says one campesino in the film, “because.

We’ll be able to bring this with us whereverwe go. They didn’t teach this to us before, because they didn’t want us towake up. Today, we have awoken.” But the literacy campaign did create tensions inBlack and Indigenous communities on the Caribbean coast who didn't speak Spanish as a firstlanguage. So, in late 1980, the new government launched a literacy campaign for communitiesthere, focused on English and Native languages. And it didn’t stop there. Eline Van Ommen: There's healthcare programs,vaccination campaigns. So there is all this optimism about improving the standard ofliving and making this country more equal. Michael Fox: The excitement spreadsfar beyond Nicaragua's borders.

That is the British rock band The Clash.In late 1980, they released a triple album entitled Sandinista! — That's Sandinista withan exclamation point at the end. It included this song, “Washington Bullets”, which looksat US intervention in Chile against Allende, the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba, andthen celebrates the Nicaraguan revolution. “Well the people fought the leader and up he flew” sings lead vocalist Joe Strummer aboutthe Sandinista revolution against Somoza. “With no Washington bulletswhat else could he do?” The Washington bullets would clearly come later,but hope is the feeling on the streets now. Joan Krukewitt: Everyday, therewas news coming out of Nicaragua,.

Frontpage headlines in the United States.There were news stories about Nicaragua. It was really exciting, especially fora journalist or a budding journalist. Michael Fox: That's reporter JoanKrukewitt in the 2007 documentary American Sandinista about USsolidarity activists who came to support the revolution. Joan lived andworked in Nicaragua throughout the 1980s. Joan Krukewitt: Nicaragua seemedto be like the center of the world. Michael Fox: Alex Aviña. Alex Aviña: This is the secondsuccessful revolution in Latin America in the Cold War era, sothis is a political earthquake.

Michael Fox: The first, of course, was Cuba, 1959. And the United States is concerned thedominos could fall across Central America. President Jimmy Carter [recording]: Aslong as I am president, the government of the United States will, throughout theworld, continue to enhance human rights. Michael Fox: Even President JimmyCarter. He’s remembered for his strong stance for human rights. He cutaid from Somoza during the last year of his rule. Carter re-upped it when theFSLN took power, but by early 1980, he’d also authorized the CIA to begin to supportunarmed counter-revolutionary forces in Nicaragua. Alex Aviña: Because they recognize that there aresimilar conditions throughout Central America:.

A small oligarchy, big landed elite, anda lot of disaffected civil societies. And you have the emergence of somethinglike liberation theology that can serve as an organizing and ideologicalframework for disparate social elements. Michael Fox: Remember, at the time,guerrillas are waging insurgencies against authoritarian US-backed governmentsin both Guatemala and El Salvador, as we've looked at extensively in this series. Alex Aviña: And you start to see murmurings andmovement to find ways to destabilize this fledgling new revolutionary governmentthat, in its inception, was a multi-class,.

Politically pluralist, social democratic movement. Michael Fox: Alex explains that thisis really important to keep in mind. The Sandinista movement that overthrew Somozawasn’t some ruthless totalitarian regime that would impose their will on the masses; Theywere diverse, with strong support across the country. They wanted democracy. They wantedelections, and they would hold and win them. This clip from a news report in theearly ‘80s shows the extent of the class diversity in the new Sandinista government. News Report: Economists, lawyers, and even richindustrialists have taken positions in government. And United States and Western bankers, Nicaragua'smain hope for raising the massive cash loads it.

Needs, are being assured that the new leadershipis far from committed to a Cuban-style revolution. In fact, it's claimed that 75% of the economy isstill in private hands, and will remain there. Michael Fox: They did launch a landreform. At the time he fled the country, Somoza owned more than 20% of the country'sagricultural land. That was divided up to create state farms and cooperatives thatcould produce food for the country and drive exports. When campesinos demandedtheir own share, the Sandinistas listened, ordering that unproductive agriculturalland also be expropriated and distributed. But at the same time, William Robinsonsays, they tried to walk a tightrope so as not to alienate the traditionalelites and powerful landowners.

William Robinson: Because of the urgency of thecountry defending itself from US aggression, the Sandinista policy was to hold back the classstruggle to support the so-called patriotic bourgeoisie, the land owners, big land owners thatdid not leave the country. The capitalists that didn't leave the country and said OK, we will alsonot participate in the armed counter-revolution. So, they got support in the form of thegovernment, saying to the peasants, don't invade land. Saying to the workers, don't strikefor higher wages. Don't confront the capitalists. Speaker: Sandinista spokesmen say theyhave been criticized on two sides; by some for being revolutionary Marxists,and by others for selling out the revolution to the capitalists. They insist neitheris true. They want a pluralistic society.

And a mixed economy. The main goalis the reconstruction of Nicaragua. Michael Fox: Alex Aviña. Alex Aviña: What emerges from the 1979revolution is the type of revolution that Americans were saying in the ‘60sthat they wanted for the region. But by the time we get to ‘79, ‘80, they'relike, no, actually we don't want it. It's also a tiny… Like it's what, 2.9million people? It's a tiny country with a tiny population but it will assume thisoutsized presence in US foreign policy, especially after Jimmy Carter loses thereelection attempt to President Ronald Reagan. And that completely changes thedynamic of what's really going to happen,.

Which is essentially the US declaringwar on Nicaragua for 10 years. Michael Fox: That… in a minute. [ADVERTISEMENT BEGINS] Maximillian Alvarez: Hey, everyone, MaximillianAlvarez here, editor-in-chief of The Real News Network. We’re going to get you rightback to the program in a sec, I promise, but really quick, I just wanted to remindy’all that The Real News is an independent, viewer- and listener-supported, grassrootsmedia network. We don’t take corporate cash, we don’t have ads, and we never, everput our reporting behind paywalls. But we cannot continue to do this work withoutyour support. It takes a lot of time, energy,.

And money to produce powerful, unique, andjournalistically rigorous shows like Under the Shadow. So if you want more vitalstorytelling and reporting like this, we need you to become a supporterof The Real News now. Just head over to therealnews.com/donate and donatetoday. It really makes a difference. Also, if you’re enjoying Under the Shadow,then you will definitely want to follow NACLA, the North American Congress on LatinAmerica. NACLA’s reporting and analysis goes beyond the headlines to help youunderstand what’s happening in Latin America and the Caribbean from a progressiveperspective. Visit nacla.org to learn more. Alright, thanks for listening. Back to the show.

[ADVERTISEMENT ENDS] President Ronald Reagan [recording]: It's thefate of this region, Central America, that I want to talk to you about tonight. The issueis our effort to promote democracy and economic well-being in the face of Cuban and Nicaraguanaggression aided and abetted by the Soviet Union. Michael Fox: William Robinson. William Robinson: Of course, Reaganis elected in the end of 1980, and he makes it clear very soon that there'sgoing to be a major escalation of US hostility. I think for me the key turning pointis 1983, because up until 1983, there's a lot of enthusiasm. Alsothe economy has not been shattered..

People's lives were improving. Therewere subsidies on basic consumption. There was health and education. Theliteracy campaign was ‘80 to ‘81. So all of that starts to change, and 1983 isreally the key year where it becomes clear that the United States is going to launcha war of hostility and escalation. A war to destroy the Nicaraguan revolution. And sothe mood gets more somber, more concerning. Michael Fox: Remember, thisis thick in the Cold War. President Ronald Reagan [recording]:Members of the Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presentingto you the president of the United States. Michael Fox: Alex Aviña.

Alex Aviña: He gives this famous addressto Congress in 1983 where he gives us the domino theory, Central America version. That theSandinista victory was going to unleash communist revolution throughout Central America, is going tolead to the downfall of Mexico, and eventually it was going to reach the United States. And then weget this movie, Red Dawn, which is precisely that. Michael Fox: That's a clip from themovie. If you don't remember it, it's pretty crazy. It's been described asteen Rambo, where an adolescent Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze, and Jennifer Grey —You know, from Dirty Dancing — Well, they have to defend the US from an invasionof communist forces, including Nicaraguans. Alex Aviña: Red Dawn is the fantasy,the fear that the US was going to be.

Overtaken by the Nicaraguans,the Cubans, and the Russians. Michael Fox: Like we have talkedabout often in this podcast series, US president Ronald Reagan saw CentralAmerica as ground zero for his proxy war against the so-called communist threat in theregion. He backed bloody authoritarian regimes, waging war on their populations in Guatemala andEl Salvador. He essentially turned Honduras into a US military base from which he would wage adecade-long invasion against the Sandinistas. No country was more of a directUS battlefield than Nicaragua. Alex Aviña: So the goal was to destabilize.To choke out this revolution. The goal of the Reagan administration was to declare war on thiscountry. And that would, in a wartime footing,.

Would force the Sandinista government to assumeauthoritarian measures, essentially, to survive. And the way that the Reagan administrationis able to do this, or one of the main ways, is to fund a bunch of ex-Somozista,ex-National Guard people, and create something that wenow refer to as the Contras. The other way was to essentiallyhave an invisible economic blockade, and to illegally mine the ports of Nicaragua. Andto use what the CIA referred to as “unilaterally controlled Latino assets” to wage a CIA covertwar against the Sandinistas to blow up oil depots. Michael Fox: We dove into the training andfunding of the Contras extensively in Episode 6 of this podcast about 1980s Honduras. Ifyou haven’t heard that yet, I recommend you.

Go back and listen now. As I mention, according toanthropologist David Vine, in the 1980s there were “at least 32 Contra bases alone in Honduras,Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and even Florida.” And they were brutal. Alex Aviña: The Contras start to take formin ‘81, ‘82, and right away they don't really attack the Sandinista army. What they start doing,through cross-broad incursions from Costa Rica and Honduras, was to wage war on Nicaraguancivil society. To attack “soft targets”, to attack and do horrific things to teachers,to civil workers, to doctors, to communities. They were horrific rapists. They would kidnapyoung girls and essentially turn them into sexual slaves. They had hundreds of people that they keptin this way. The Contras were just monsters. And.

They were being financed and organized andtrained by the United States led by Reagan. Michael Fox: Miguel d'Escoto was a Catholicpriest and the foreign minister of the Sandinista government throughout the 1980s. Inthis documentary from that period, he lays out what he says is the US responsibilityfor the Contra war on his country. Miguel d’Escoto: They conceived it. They are directing it. They are financing it.And the United States is also arming it. President Ronald Reagan [recording]: Wehave an obligation to be of help where we can to freedom fighters, lovers of freedomand democracy, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua. Michael Fox: Peter Kornbluh is a senioranalyst at the National Security Archive,.

Which has worked to get documentsdeclassified on US intervention and, in particular, South and CentralAmerica. And, of course, Nicaragua. Peter Kornbluh: Ronald Reagan called theContras freedom fighters. You know, the George Washingtonians of modern Central America.But in fact they were vicious, repressive, brutal beyond description. And we were supporting them,if not leading them, if not doing some of our own operations and then letting them claim credit forthem. So it was a bloody, overt covert operation. The Contra War, I would say, became the mostnotorious and protracted CIA covert operation in modern history. And yet, all these yearslater, everybody's forgotten about this. The Contras had no real backing, funding, trainingother than the United States after an initial few.

Months of some Argentine agents, a small team ofArgentine agents being in Honduras and Costa Rica. Michael Fox: The Sandinistasarmed and fought back. And they were more than clear about whowas backing their adversaries. “They are people from outside our country, peoplefrom outside our lives that are screwing us,” says one member of the Sandinista forces in adocumentary produced in the ‘80s. He’s young, in a green camouflage uniform, leaning against atree somewhere in the field. “Who's financing the counterrevolution?,” he asks. “It’s the gringos.Who's sending the planes to do reconnaissance? It’s the gringos. So it’s the gringos that arewaging war on us. If they weren’t financing the old National Guard, they wouldn’t exist. Theywould have been defeated 1,000 times over.”.

But news of the Contras’ brutality was getting outas international journalists began covering the abuses. In this news story from the 1980sby the CBS television program West 57th, reporter Jane Wallace visits a village and speakswith an American nun about the Contra attacks. Jane Wallace: The Contras, she says, arespecifically targeting civilians. Gregorio Devilo was orphaned by them. His family wasmurdered by the Contras in November when the baby was six days old. Her parents were murdered?Yes. A brother of the mother. His girlfriend. The 4-year-old brother of this baby. The Contrasattacked about 20 of them in the night. Alex Aviña: As a result of some of this reportingthat the US government could not ignore, we had a series of Boland amendments, named afterthe representative from Massachusetts, that forbid.

The US government from funding or giving anysort of support or financial aid to the Contras. Michael Fox: So the Contras findtheir revenue streams run dry. And Reagan’s government decides toget both creative and illegal about how to finance its so-calledfreedom fighters in Nicaragua. Peter Kornbluh. Peter Kornbluh: The Reagan administration wasso obsessed with overthrowing the Sandinistas and reasserting US domination control in theregion that they violated the law of the land. The American public and the US Congress said no, we're not going to be supporting acounter-revolutionary effort to overthrow.

The Sandinista government. And theReagan administration said, well, yes, we are. And if you don't give us themoney, we're going to secretly get it. Michael Fox: And that is where we willhead next time, in Part 2 of this episode. President Ronald Reagan [recording]:They are the moral equal of our founding fathers and the brave men andwomen fighting the French resistance. Michael Fox: Even deeper into the CIA war onNicaragua, but also to the solidarity movement that would respond, and the scandalthat would rock the Reagan presidency, President Ronald Reagan [recording]: A fewmonths ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. Myheart and my best intentions still.

Tell me that's true. But the factsand the evidence tell me it is not. Michael Fox: That is nexttime on Under the Shadow. [Under the Shadow theme music] As always, if you like what you hear,please check out my Patreon page: patreon.com/mfox. There you can also support mywork, become a monthly sustainer, or sign up to stay abreast of the latest on this podcastand my other reporting across Latin America. Under the Shadow is a co-production inpartnership with The Real News and NACLA. The theme music is by my band, Monte Perdido. This is Michael Fox. Many thanks.

See you next time…

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