Edén Pastora

Edén Pastora Gómez (1937?-?) was the leader of the ADREN; the largest contra army in southern Nicaragua in the 1980s. Nicknamed Comandante Cero ("Commander Zero") by the U.S. intelligence community, Pastora was reviled by Oliver North and other Reagan era insiders for his refusal to subordinate to the CIA-backed FDN.

Pastora began his reblelious career when he decided that the Somoza government of Nicaragua was corrupt and joined the FSLN in the mid 1960s. He became a rebel guerrilla, and was the mastermind behind the August 1978 attack on the Nicaraguan National Palace, in which he and a band of FSLN operatives disguised as members of Somoza's National Guard stormed the Palace, killing the real National Guardsmen in the process. Among the hostages taken were members of the Nicaraguan Congress, which was in session at the time of the attack, and Somoza's half brother, José Somoza. This operation was organised to free FSLN members imprisoned by the regime, among the prisioners being Daniel Ortega. After negotiating a USD $500,000 deal with Somoza and Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, Pastora, Ortega and other released prisoners left for Cuba.

Disenchanted at the fact that even though he had devoted a great portion of his life to the revolution he had received no political power in return, Pastora turned against the Sandinista regime and became a Contra.

Pastora was linked to narcotics trafficking, particularly cocaine. It is believed that his cooperation with the Medellín Cartel helped finance his activities.

Gomez had three failed marriages. Lamenting about the interpersonal strains that occur in the life of a revolutionary, Gomez said: "The first thing we revolutionaries lose is our wives. The last thing we lose is our lives. In between our women and our lives, we lose our freedom, our happiness, our means of living."