Adolfo Calero, the former leader of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua has died aged 81, the
BBC reports. He had been suffering from pneumonia and kidney failure.
Calero was the man responsible for managing finances and buying weapons for the Contras and as such was heavily involved in the Iran-Contra scandal that threatened Ronald Reagan’s administration.
He visited the White House where he handed Reagan an “I’m a Contra Too” pin and met his aide Col. Oliver North, the mastermind of the scheme to funnel money from the illegal sale of arms to Iran to the Contras.
Calero was manager of a Coca Cola plant in Managua but took up arms against the leftist Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega after it overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somosa in 1979.
He later became president of the Conservative Party of Nicaragua.
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