Case Reopened

Martin Arostegui, in his piece “The La Penca Bombing: The Case of the Danish Assassin” (May 24), almost hit the bull’s eye. He came close to accurately determining the true identity of the man who, posing as a Danish photographer, planted a bomb at a 1984 press conference at a Nicaraguan Contra camp. The object of the attack— Edén Pastora (a/k/a Comandante Cero), a maverick rebel leader who was being simultaneously targeted by the Sandinistas, the CIA, ultra-rightist Contras, and the drug cartel—survived. Three journalists died and two dozen others were wounded in the bombing, which became one of the most complex and perplexing mysteries of the Reagan era’s war against the Sandinistas.

Arostegui, however, named the wrong guy and so blew what would have been a major scoop. Instead his piece contributes—to use his own phrase—to the “vine of disinformation” which has surrounded the La Penca investigation. The handful of us who have devoted years to finding the bomber’s true identity and his paymaster know that disinformation—including scores of false identities and phony leads—was time and again circulated by Reagan and Bush hardliners, CIA hirelings, and their Contra underlings. This disinformation always blamed the Sandinistas, but— curiously—always named the wrong trigger man and terrorist group.

MH

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Martha Honey

MA

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Martin Arostegui

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Martin Arostegui, in his piece “The La Penca Bombing: The Case of the Danish Assassin” (May 24), almost hit the bull’s eye. He came close to accurately determining the true identity of the man who, posing as a Danish photographer, planted a bomb at a 1984 press conference at a Nicaraguan Contra camp. The object of the attack— Edén Pastora (a/k/a Comandante Cero), a maverick rebel leader who was being simultaneously targeted by the Sandinistas, the CIA, ultra-rightist Contras, and the drug cartel—survived. Three journalists died and two dozen others were wounded in the bombing, which became one of the most complex and perplexing mysteries of the Reagan era’s war against the Sandinistas.

Arostegui, however, named the wrong guy and so blew what would have been a major scoop. Instead his piece contributes—to use his own phrase—to the “vine of disinformation” which has surrounded the La Penca investigation. The handful of us who have devoted years to finding the bomber’s true identity and his paymaster know that disinformation—including scores of false identities and phony leads—was time and again circulated by Reagan and Bush hardliners, CIA hirelings, and their Contra underlings. This disinformation always blamed the Sandinistas, but— curiously—always named the wrong trigger man and terrorist group.