Word: pastora
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...many Americans, Roberto d'Aubuisson, fiery leader of El Salvador's fiercest right-wing faction, represents the dangerous pitfalls of U.S. support for that troubled country. Somewhat similarly, Edén Pastora Gómez, the maverick "Commander Zero" of the Nicaraguan revolution who later took up arms against his victorious comrades, has come to illustrate the troubles of Washington's covert effort to put pressure on the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Both of these flamboyant figures happened to be in Washington last week just after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to cut aid to anti-Sandinista contra...
Seven people were killed, including Linda Frazier, 38, an American journalist who worked for an English-language newspaper in San Jose. Among the 28 injured was Pastora, who suffered first-and second-degree burns on his face and shrapnel wounds in his legs. Seriously hurt was Susan Morgan, a Newsweek stringer whose legs and arms were fractured. Some could crawl out of the building, but others lay moaning in the wreckage for nearly an hour before being pulled out. Two hours passed before a doctor and two nurses arrived...
Helicoptered to San José, the guerrilla leader was taken to the city's most exclusive hospital. His men immediately turned Pastora's floor of the Clinica Biblica into a fortress, sealing off elevators and stationing heavily armed guards in the stairwells. Costa Rican authorities, anxious about their country's neutral status, placed Pastora in government custody; on Friday he was flown on a stretcher to Venezuela...
...Pastora's men sifted through the wreckage looking for clues, the guessing game about who was responsible began. "It could have been the extreme right or the extreme left," said Adolfo ("Popo") Chamorro, spokesman for the Revolutionary Democratic Alliance (ARDE), the contra group that Pastora commands. Especially curious is the timing of the explosion. Since last year, the CIA has been pressuring ARDE and its 4,000 guerrillas to join forces with the Nicaraguan Democratic Front (F.D.N.), the 8,000-strong contra group based in Honduras. ARDE's political leaders, notably Alfonso Robelo Callejas, favored the alliance...
Costa Rican President Luis Alberto Monge implied that the Sandinistas might be responsible for the bombing, but ARDE leaders insisted that the camp area was clear of Nicaraguan soldiers. More logical culprits include ARDE members with access to the base, some of whom may have been angry enough with Pastora's decision to kill him. In the aftermath, Pastora's colleagues quickly down-played their disagreements, but the episode promised not only to delay ARDE's alliance with the F.D.N. but to strengthen Pastora's resolve against any union under conditions other than...