Edén Pastora
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Edén Pastora Gómez (born January 22, 1937?) was the leader of the Nicaraguan Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ARDE); the largest contra army in southern Nicaragua in the 1980s. Nicknamed Comandante Cero ("Commander Zero"), Pastora was reviled by Oliver North and other Reagan era insiders for his refusal to subordinate to the CIA-backed FDN.
Sandinista
Pastora began his rebel career when he decided that the Somoza government of Nicaragua was corrupt and joined the FSLN in the mid 1960s. He became a rebel guerrilla, and was the mastermind behind the August 1978 attack on the Nicaraguan National Palace, in which he and a band of FSLN operatives disguised as members of Somoza's National Guard stormed the Palace, killing the real National Guardsmen in the process. Among the hostages taken were members of the Nicaraguan Congress, which was in session at the time of the attack, and Somoza's half brother, José Somoza. Members of his band used numbers as codenames, with Pastora as Zero, leading to a lasting identification as Comandante Cero. This operation was organised to free FSLN members imprisoned by the regime, among the prisoners being Daniel Ortega. After negotiating a USD $500,000 deal with Somoza and Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, Pastora, Ortega and other released prisoners left for Cuba where he claimed to have been a "prisoner" lavished with women and luxury, but not allowed to leave the country until Martin, the son of then strongman of Panama, Omar Torrijos, voiced his concern and went to Cuba to rescue him personally.
Pastora was put in command of the FSLN's Southern Front, driving on the town of Rivas from bases in Costa Rica. Somoza sent his best troops to stop Pastora, and his forces made little headway while suffering heavy casualties. However, the Southern Front contributed significantly to the Sandinista victory by tying down National Guard forces, as Somoza remained fixated on stopping Pastora, even as major cities fell to the rebels.
Contra
Disenchanted with the turn of the revolution, and the fact that most of the Sandinista leaders moved to the luxury residences of Managua, while the people did not experience the expected benefits in their lives, Pastora turned against the Sandinista regime and became a Contra with minimal support of the United States (who gave a stronger support to the Rightwing contras) and Carlos Andrés Pérez, then President of Venezuela and fellow social-democrat. In 1984, he was apparently the intended target of the La Penca bombing, which killed three journalists at a press conference he was holding.
His money came from help obtained with the CIA. "When your mother is sick, you accept help from anybody, it doesn't matter who it is", he stated at that time.
Today
Pastora had three failed marriages. Lamenting about the interpersonal strains that occur in the life of a revolutionary, Pastora said: "The first thing we revolutionaries lose is our wives. The last thing we lose is our lives. In between our women and our lives, we lose our freedom, our happiness, our means of living."
He was seen at a Sandinista demonstration over the slow certification of winners in the November 5, 2000 municipal elections. Pastora now has a shark fishing business in San Juan del Norte on the San Juan River along the border with Costa Rica.
Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez wrote El Secuestro, a screenplay based on the August 1978 incident, albeit changing the character names and basic situation (the scenery was the private home of a Somoza supporter, rather than the Nicaraguan Congress, but Msgr. Obando and Jose Somoza were key actual people included).
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