The Case of the Danish Assassin

SPECIAL PROSECUTOR Lawrence Walsh spent six years going after every Reagan Administration Cabinet or intelligence official who might have had anything to do with aiding the Nicaraguan Contras when doing so was allegedly fobidden by Congress. But the conduct of the Marxist side in the Central American conflict has escaped any such scrutiny, and a screen of disinformation has been permitted to obscure the truth about a terrorist atrocity committed in one of the closing battles of the Cold War.

In June 1984, a bomb exploded at a press conference held by Contra leader Edén Pastora (“Comandante Cero”) at La Penca, a jungle outpost straddling Nicaragua’s border with Costa Rica. Pastora himself was only slightly wounded, but a U.S. newswoman was killed and a score of international journalists were seriously injured. The bomber—who posed as a Danish news photographer—was also wounded, but managed to escape before his identity was established. A book, a television documentary, and even a law suit (filed by the left-wing Christie Institute) have tried to pin the blame for the attack on the usual suspects of left-wing conspiracy theories: anti-Castro Cubans, CIA agents, the Mafia, the military-industrial complex, with even a “right-wing Libyan” thrown in for good measure. But fresh evidence supports a more obvious conclusion: that the bombing was commissioned by the Sandinista government with the assistance of Cuba in a bid to decapitate the anti-Communist resistance movement.

MA

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Martin Arostegui

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SPECIAL PROSECUTOR Lawrence Walsh spent six years going after every Reagan Administration Cabinet or intelligence official who might have had anything to do with aiding the Nicaraguan Contras when doing so was allegedly fobidden by Congress. But the conduct of the Marxist side in the Central American conflict has escaped any such scrutiny, and a screen of disinformation has been permitted to obscure the truth about a terrorist atrocity committed in one of the closing battles of the Cold War.

In June 1984, a bomb exploded at a press conference held by Contra leader Edén Pastora (“Comandante Cero”) at La Penca, a jungle outpost straddling Nicaragua’s border with Costa Rica. Pastora himself was only slightly wounded, but a U.S. newswoman was killed and a score of international journalists were seriously injured. The bomber—who posed as a Danish news photographer—was also wounded, but managed to escape before his identity was established. A book, a television documentary, and even a law suit (filed by the left-wing Christie Institute) have tried to pin the blame for the attack on the usual suspects of left-wing conspiracy theories: anti-Castro Cubans, CIA agents, the Mafia, the military-industrial complex, with even a “right-wing Libyan” thrown in for good measure. But fresh evidence supports a more obvious conclusion: that the bombing was commissioned by the Sandinista government with the assistance of Cuba in a bid to decapitate the anti-Communist resistance movement.