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

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

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

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...

government, a hand-picked choice of the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

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 responsib ...

in Miami and rebel base camps in

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

, 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 Contras, ...

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 The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese language, Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des ...

, 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