Cons in Florida 30 years later

It was late January 1982 that the Contras, with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), approved a plan for war against the Sandinistas Nicaraguan territory, beyond the Honduran border.

Two bridges in northern Nicaragua became targets of the first major operation against the Sandinistas who had taken control of the Central American country after a bloody revolution that triumphed supported by Cuba when President Anastasio Somoza fled Managua in July 1979.

The bombing of the bridges on March 14, 1982 by Argentine military trained Contras and the CIA funded led to a state of emergency in Nicaragua and years after the outbreak of the Iran-Contra scandal in the United States. Eventually negotiations between Contras and Sandinistas were in an era of peace and democracy in Nicaragua.

Today, 30 years after the start of the war, half a dozen veterans gathered in Hialeah cons to share their memories of the historic conflict in interviews with The Miami Herald and so mark the thirtieth anniversary of the CIA-funded war . Two other former contras who could not attend the meeting told their stories in separate telephone interviews.

"War of the Nicaraguan Resistance was one of the last of the Cold War," said Luis Moreno, known as Commander Mike Lima, one of the top leaders from today's accountant in Jacksonville. "The legacy of the war in Nicaragua, along with the wars in Afghanistan and El Salvador, was that it helped to defeat communism and ending the Soviet Union."

But another former Contra, Noel Castillo, alias Commander Cheats, expressed disappointment with the outcome of the war, the peace agreements, because the Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega is once again is in front of Nicaragua.

"Sometimes I think all we did to no avail," said Castillo.

When Ronald Reagan won the U.S. presidential advisers, especially the then head of the CIA, Bill Casey, began to forge a strategy to roll back communism.

The signing by President Reagan on December 1, 1981 of a secret CIA document was what opened the tap of U.S. funding for the Contras through Argentine advisors were interested in Nicaragua because the Sandinistas had granted asylum to rebels montoneros opposing the military regime in Buenos Aires.

"In Nicaragua, the Sandinistas had become a haven for terrorists in the world," recalled Rafael Arias, known as Commander Attila. "Then the Argentines at the time of then Argentine President Leopoldo Galtieri and the junta in Argentina, went looking for guerrilla leader Mario Firmenich montoneros at that time was in Nicaragua. The Argentines were the first who began to help us financially and with training. "

Arias was one of the founders of the Legion September 15, the first anti-Sandinista resistance group that was organized mostly by former National Guard members who had supported Somoza.

"From the Legion was born September 15 Nicaraguan Democratic Force," Arias said, referring to the group that eventually supported the CIA following the document signed by Reagan. During the war, Arias belonged to Jorge Salazar task force, named after a Nicaraguan businessman murdered by the Sandinistas in 1980. Currently working with a company in Miami that builds and installs hurricane protection curtains.

Another of the founders of the Legion September 15, who lives in Miami, is Jose Antonio Lombillo.

"The first to start the resistance were former members of the National Guard of Nicaragua," Lombillo, which broadcasts the program Farándula WRHC radio station Cadena Azul 1550 AM in Miami.

Another former combatant, Eshman Ruiz recalled having joined the Contras in 1983 and participated in an operation that led to the taking of a barracks in San Pedro de Lóvago in the Department of Chontales. When he speaks of the Sandinistas, Ruiz calls "piris", a derogatory nickname short for "piricuaco" meaning mad dog.

"That the 'piris' had all the trimmings and we captured several soldiers and at night, from a hill, we saw as we dragged the bodies," Ruiz recalled. "So we hope to resume the barracks, I do take it."

Ruiz currently works for a bank security company.

Perhaps one of the most prominent former combatants against Miami is Robert Amador, a former air force pilot in Nicaragua during the Somoza era. He also helped found the Legion September 15 after fleeing Managua in July 1979 aboard a DC-6.

After the contras began more systematic acts of war in Nicaragua, Amador became a pilot that the fighters replenished from the air. On October 3, 1983 his plane, with seven crew members aboard, was overthrown by the Sandinistas. Amador was tried and sentenced to 84 years in prison but was released at the cessation of hostilities. Today is a pilot for commercial flights in Miami.