Édgar Chamorro Coronel (born 23 July 1931) is an ousted leader of 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 cou ...
n rebel
Contras
The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua, which came to power in 1979 fol ...
who later became a critic of the rebels and their
Central Intelligence Agency
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, ...
sponsors, even cooperating with the Sandinista government in their World Court case, ''
Nicaragua v. United States
''The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America'' (1986) was a case where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that the U.S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Sandinista ...
''. He is a member of the prominent
Chamorro family Chamorro may refer to:
* Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific
* Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas
* Chamorro Time Zone, the time zone of Guam and the Northern Mar ...
that provided five of Nicaragua's past presidents.
Early life
Edgar Chamorro is the son of Julio Chamorro Benard and Dolores "Lola" Coronel Urtecho, the paternal grandson of Filadelfo Chamorro Bolaños and Bertha Benard Vivas and great-grandson of
Pedro Joaquín Chamorro y Alfaro, 39th President of Nicaragua, and María de la Luz Bolaños Bendaña. He has six brothers and four sisters, and is the nephew of intellectual
José Coronel Urtecho. In 1950, 19-year-old Chamorro began studying for the
Jesuit
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, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
priesthood, earning degrees from Ecuador's
Catholic University
Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical univ ...
(B.A., ''magna cum laude''),
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...
(M.Th., ''summa cum laude''), and
Marquette University
Marquette University () is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Henni, John Martin ...
(M.Ed.). Chamorro joined the faculty of the Jesuit-run
University of Central America
José Simeón Cañas Central American University ( es, Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas"), also known as UCA El Salvador, is a private university, private university with Nonprofit organization, nonprofit purposes in San Salvado ...
, eventually becoming a full professor and Dean of the School of Humanities before leaving the priesthood in 1969. He received a masters degree in education from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1972, and later joined a public relations and marketing firm, Creative Publicity, in
Managua
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.
In 1977,
Anastasio Somoza Debayle
Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle (; 5 December 1925 – 17 September 1980) was the President of Nicaragua from 1 May 1967 to 1 May 1972 and from 1 December 1974 to 17 July 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was ''de facto'' ruler of ...
appointed him to a figurehead post as a special ambassador to the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
for a year.
Activities during Nicaraguan civil war
During the
Sandinista Revolution, Chamorro sympathized with the rebels, at one point hiding
Sergio Ramírez
Sergio Ramírez Mercado (; born 5 August 1942 in Masatepe, Nicaragua) is a Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who was a key figure in 1979 revolution, served in the leftist Government Junta of National Reconstruction and as vice president of t ...
from the
National Guard. But as the civil war's climax brought fierce fighting to the capital itself, fears for his family's safety led him to leave for
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
on 17 June 1979. Somoza fell a month later, but after visiting Nicaragua in September, Chamorro decided to remain in Miami.
By late 1979, Chamorro had become involved in the anti-Sandinista activities of the Miami exile community. He joined the
Nicaraguan Democratic Union
The Nicaraguan Democratic Union (UDN, ') was founded in late 1980 by José Francisco Cardenal, an early leader of the anti-Sandinista rebel movement that became known as the Nicaraguan Contras. The UDN was based in Miami, Florida, among its growing ...
(UDN), formed the next year by
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 re ...
, which merged into 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 Somoz ...
(FDN) in August 1981. He served on the FDN's political executive committee, which decided to replace Cardenal with a new political directorate. Chamorro was tapped to be a member of the directorate, unveiled at a 8 December 1982 press conference. With his public relations experience, he took on a spokesman role for the FDN, and based himself in
Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...
, Honduras to liaison with journalists covering the war. Chamorro claimed that the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
prepped him before press conferences and told him to deny that the group had received any funding from the US government.
Chamorro was miffed when the FDN directorate, at the CIA's prompting, appointed
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 responsibl ...
as its president in October 1983. His not-so-private grumblings that his Chamorro lineage was more illustrious than Calero's did not help their deteriorating relations. Chamorro was forced out in November 1984, in the fallout from the furor over the CIA's ''
Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
'', labeled by the press a "murder manual." He turned against the rebel movement, even submitting an affidavit for the Sandinista government before the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...
in ''
Nicaragua v. United States
''The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America'' (1986) was a case where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that the U.S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Sandinista ...
''.
After the war
Chamorro is author of ''Packaging the Contras: A Case of C.I.A. Disinformation'' (1987). He has served as a teacher of
Spanish,
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and Latin American Studies at
Bard College at Simon's Rock
Bard College at Simon's Rock (more commonly known as Simon's Rock) is a private residential liberal arts college in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It is a unit of Bard College, which is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
The school is ...
since 1990 (full-time to 2003), and the
John Dewey Academy
The John Dewey Academy is a private, coeducational college preparatory therapeutic boarding school in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, formerly housed in Searles Castle. It was founded in 1985 by Dr. Thomas E. Bratter, who died in 2012. In May ...
in
Great Barrington, Massachusetts since 2005.
References
:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamorro, Edgar
Contras
Nicaraguan diplomats
Harvard University alumni
Former Jesuits
Bard College at Simon's Rock faculty
Edgar Chamorro
Édgar Chamorro Coronel (born 23 July 1931) is an ousted leader of the Nicaraguan rebel Contras who later became a critic of the rebels and their Central Intelligence Agency sponsors, even cooperating with the Sandinista government in their World ...
Permanent Representatives of Nicaragua to the United Nations
1931 births
Living people
People of the Nicaraguan Revolution