A wide ranging enquiry into the Nicaraguan Contras.

Part One; The Contras and the Latin Nations

This book is not for the squeamish or delicate reader. Still less is this book suitable for people who value prejudices and political opinions more than mere facts. This book is not a hymn of praise to the Sandanista government, nor is it an attack on all things American. This book is simply an attempt to find an adequate explanation for the most controversial American war of our generation.

OLD MAPS OF HELL

A wide ranging enquiry into the Nicaraguan Contras.

Part One

The Contras and the Latin Nations

Foreword

In 1982 reports were appearing in British newspapers of a small and unimportant war in a poor and little-known country. Hated and feared, Somoza's National Guard had fled Nicaragua when the dictator was forced out in 1979. Now they were fighting to regain control. The Contras were returning. It seemed in some ways an unusual little war. By 1983 it was getting a lot of media attention, and its scandalous nature was becoming clear. Yet it was not until 1984 that I became fully aware of it, and began to make a serious effort to gather and interpret evidence from every possible source. It proved to be a huge task, but the conclusions and ramifications were more amazing and alarming than I would ever have imagined possible when I started. As the evidence began to fit together, it seemed at times that a map was being slowly unrolled, a faded and incomplete map on which there could nevertheless be traced the outlines of an entire unknown continent. It is a continent of evil and deception whose true nature and extent has only been dimly discerned by a handful of people. It has no clear boundaries, no capital city, no central government and no obvious leader, yet its servants wield a power greater than that of any individual politician or leader in the world.

Some of those servants were raping, murdering and destroying in Nicaragua. Some of them work in Washington. Some of them may even be living round the corner from you today, carrying out their own little acts of hatred and cruelty, while they wait for their day to come.

On the presentation of the text

This work was not designed for easy reading. It was an attempt to compress, to summarize and highlight a great mass of information, amounting to many millions of words, and with few concessions to luxuries of style. This source material did not lend itself to easy presentation in any obvious or logical order, either chronologically, or country by country. The interrelations were too many and too complex for that. What I did was to present it more or less in the way I first explored it myself - working outwards from the familiar to the bizarre. Though the first part may seem sensational beyond belief, it is the second volume that moves from the daylight of well-known or credible events to the even more amazing darkness at the

heart of this evil story. Like a kaleidoscope pattern, the many fragments of information could be arranged in an infinite number of ways. I tried to arrange them in such a way as always to show their bearing on events in Nicaragua.As much direct quotation was used as possible, consistent with the laws of copyright. This seemed the most honest, accurate and authentic way to present the evidence. Quotation also seemed fairer and more beneficial to those I quoted, and to their publishers, than mere paraphrase. There has been a great burst of extraordinary and valuable investigative writing in the past ten years, and without the many fine books which have resulted, this task would have been impossible. Some of them had no obvious connection to Nicaragua until after the wider implications of this disgraceful story had become clear.

The very shortest quotations - not always attributed - are in inverted commas. All others are distinguished by the use of a distinct typeface. A very few sources have not been effectively published before. Notable among these are a script from Magnus Linklater, and some material about the coup in Bolivia that was planned by Hitler's former S.S. chief, Klaus Barbie.

The references and sources I have used, if listed all at once, would make a formidable document, a sort of information ghetto at the back of the book, which few readers would have the courage to explore. I have tried rather to intersperse them with the text, to give lists of sources at the end of each chapter, and to make them as much a part of the ordinary reader's experience as possible. This text is only a tiny and inadequate reflection of the extraordinary truth which so many people have laboured to uncover. If every reader can make it a point of honour to acquire and read at least a few of the many original books on which this work is based, that will be some reward. I acknowlege also the help of people who have contributed material I would otherwise have missed, most especially material on events in Bolivia - and in Britain itself - and on the activities of a certain Lyndon LaRouche, who seemed to have been part of this story. These helpers would not necessarily wish to be named, for some of them felt that even in a country as civilised and peacable as Britain, this was a dangerous subject to study too openly.

In writing this, I saw enough of the evidence to convince me that I should respect their judgement.

CONTENTS

1. SOMOZA'S REIGN. pp. 1-14 A brief account of the Somoza dynasty and of its downfall.

2. THE CONTRAS. pp.15-33. A history of the guerrilla war from 1980 to 1986, and of the various factions.

3. CONTRA ATROCITIES. pp. 34-46 A summary of accounts already effectively published.

4. FROM THE BAY OF PIGS. pp.46-67 The mercenary invasion of Cuba, its Mafia connections, and the role of anti-Castro Cubans in the Kennedy assassination enquiries, in Watergate, and in the Contra campaign.

5. MURDER INTERNATIONAL. pp. 68-85. The murder of Letelier, related terrorist visits and crimes in Europe, and links to the Contras.

6. NAZIS AND NARCOTICS. pp. 87-119. Ricord,Schwenk and Barbie. Argentina and Paraguay. The Bolivian cocaine coup. Colombia, Peru, Lehder. Cocaine and the Contras today.

7. THE ITALIAN CONNECTION. pp. 120-147 U.S. policy towards Mafia and fascists from 1944. Sindona, Gelli, Calvi. Calvi, the IMF and Somoza.

8. FROM ARGENTINA. pp. 148-174. Links to Italy. Neofascist and Nazi abuses and influences on events under the Junta.

The junta and the Contras. Far-right terrorism in Argentina 1984-6.

9. INTERLUDE, OUT OF THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY.

pp. 175-177. Review of a strange book about Argentina, by a supporter of the Contras.

10. THE AGINTER PRESS. pp. 178-194 Skorzerny and Franco's hit-squads. Services to Portugese and Latin American governments. Text of a contract with Guatemalan and Nicaraguan government, and its consequences

11. SUMMARY AND LINK. pp. 196-197 Main facts listed, link to volume II.

INDEX

BACK COVER TEXT;

This book is not for the squeamish or delicate reader. Still less is this book suitable for people who value prejudices and political opinions more than mere facts.

This book is not a hymn of praise to the Sandanista government, nor is it an attack on all things American.

This book is simply an attempt to find an adequate explanation for the most controversial American war of our generation.