José Aristides Sánchez Herdocia served as a key political figure among the

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

n Contras. Early on, he joined Enrique Bermúdez in efforts to start a rebel opposition to the new

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto C� ...

government, a hand-picked choice of the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

for this position. As the conduit between political leader

Adolfo Calero Adolfo Calero Portocarrero (December 22, 1931 – June 2, 2012) was a Nicaraguan businessman and the leader of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest rebel group of the Contras, opposing the Sandinista government. Calero was respons ...

in Miami and rebel base camps in Honduras, he spent more time in the camps than other Contra politicians and had the trust of the rebel field commanders. After working largely behind the scenes, in 1987 he joined the directorate of the

Nicaraguan Resistance The Nicaraguan Resistance (', RN) was the last and arguably most successful effort to unify Nicaragua's rebel Contras into a single umbrella organization. It was established in May 1987, after the United Nicaraguan Opposition (UNO) floundered. Th ...

. Sánchez's Contra career embodied striking contrasts. He was the key ally of the Contra leaders most favored by the CIA and on the agency's payroll, yet he himself was detested by the CIA. Unlike many Contra political leaders, chosen for their ability to woo American Congressmen, he did not speak English. He has been characterized as a Somocista oligarch, but also as an anti-American nationalist. Sánchez came from a family that had been prominent in Nicaragua's Liberal Party early in the 20th century. Exiled by the 1979

Revolution, he joined Enrique Bermúdez in recruiting for the 15th of September Legion. When the 15th of September Legion merged with the Nicaraguan Democratic Union in August 1981 to form the

Nicaraguan Democratic Force The Nicaraguan Democratic Force (', or FDN) was one of the earliest Contra groups, formed on August 11, 1981 in Guatemala City. It was formed to oppose Nicaragua's revolutionary Sandinista government following the 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somo ...

, he joined the FDN's political triumvirate along with the UDN's

José Francisco Cardenal José Francisco Cardenal (born 1940) was a Nicaraguan businessman who became known as one of the most pugnacious opponents of the Somoza and then the Sandinista regimes of Nicaragua, and played an important role in the early days of the Contra r ...

and Mariano Mendoza. But when the FDN replaced the triumvirate with a directorate in late 1982, the CIA's hostility forced Sánchez to recede into background roles. Sánchez became the key link between the political and military leadership of the FDN. He served as Calero's political enforcer in Honduras, while Bermúdez counted on him to be the military's advocate in the political councils of Miami. The tight alliance between the three men became known as the "iron triangle," but privately Sánchez felt he came from a more prominent family than Calero and resented serving under him. In May 1987, he and Calero were elected to the directorate of the new rebel umbrella group, the Nicaraguan Resistance. Now on a more equal footing with Calero, he became a rival for power. As the "iron triangle" collapsed, he opposed Calero's effort to remove Bermúdez in 1988. On November 15, 1990, the day after a clash between police and former rebels at the Sébaco bridge, he was arrested. He filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, charging that he had been coerced by torture and the withholding of medicine into signing false statement

Sánchez died on September 6, 1993, at age 50, after battling cancer for two years. His widow, Cecilia, has continued to support the cause of demobilized resistance fighters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez, Aristides Contras 1993 deaths Year of birth missing People of the Nicaraguan Revolution Deaths from cancer in Nicaragua