La Penca bombing
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The La Penca bombing was a bomb attack carried out in May 30, 1984 at the remote outpost of La Penca, on 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 countr ...
n side of the border with Costa Rica, along the San Juan River. It occurred during a
press conference A press conference or news conference is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicians, corporations, non-governmental organ ...
convened and conducted by
Edén Pastora Edén Atanacio Pastora Gómez (November 15, 1936 or January 22, 1937 – June 16, 2020) was a Nicaraguan politician and guerrilla who ran for president as the candidate of the Alternative for Change (AC) party in the 2006 general elections. I ...
, who at the time was the leader of a
Contra Contra may refer to: Places * Contra, Virginia * Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California * Contra Costa County, California * Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland ...
guerrilla group fighting against the ruling
Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto Cà ...
regime in Nicaragua. Pastora, the presumed target of the attack, survived the bombing, but seven other people were killed, including three journalists, and several others were severely injured. The bombing was carried out by an operative posing as a news photographer and is considered a serious violation of journalistic neutrality during an armed conflict, like the assassination in 2001 of
Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
leader Ahmad Shah Massoud by Al-Qaeda agents posing as international journalists. In the years after the event, some journalists and activists, as well as the Costa Rican judiciary, pointed to the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
government's
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, ...
(CIA), which was seeking to direct the Contra insurgency against the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, as responsible for the bombing. However, in 1993 the man who had placed the bomb, and who had attended the press conference under a false identity as a Danish photographer named Per Anker Hansen, was revealed to have been an Argentine leftist whose real name was Vital Roberto Gaguine and who had died in 1989 during a guerrilla attack on a military base in
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. In 2009, Swedish journalist and filmmaker Peter Torbiörnsson revealed that he had been asked by Renán Montero, a
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n military counter-intelligence officer working with the Sandinista Ministry of the Interior, to meet in Costa Rica with the man posing as Hansen and to escort him to the press conference at La Penca. Torbiörnsson then attempted unsuccessfully to press charges in Nicaragua against Renán Montero, Lenín Cerna, and
Tomás Borge Tomás Borge Martínez (13 August 1930 – 30 April 2012), often spelled as Thomas Borge in United States newspapers) was a cofounder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua and was Interior Minister of Nicaragua during one of th ...
(the Sandinista Minister of the Interior at the time of the bombing) for murder and crimes against humanity. In 2011 Torbiörnsson released a documentary film, ''Last Chapter, Goodbye Nicaragua'', which includes footage of him personally confronting Borge over his role in the bombing.


Attack

A press conference had been arranged in the guerrilla outpost of La Penca by
Edén Pastora Edén Atanacio Pastora Gómez (November 15, 1936 or January 22, 1937 – June 16, 2020) was a Nicaraguan politician and guerrilla who ran for president as the candidate of the Alternative for Change (AC) party in the 2006 general elections. I ...
, a former Sandinista military commander who had switched allegiance to the Contras. The press conference took place in an enclosed hut on stilts, on the northern bank of the San Juan River that separates Costa Rica from Nicaragua. The event had been convened by Contra officials in the Costa Rican capital of San José. The journalists arrived at La Penca past nightfall, after traveling all day over land and by canoe from San José. Because of the late hour, Pastora initially asked that the press conference start on the following morning, but as the reporters began peppering the guerrilla leader with questions, an impromptu conference began and the reporters and television news crews gathered with Pastora around a chest-high table in the main room of the hut. The bomb is believed to have been hidden in an aluminum camera case, planted by an individual carrying a stolen
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
passport issued under the name "Per Anker Hansen". Afterwards, survivors commented that they found it odd that "Hansen" had so zealously guarded his "camera equipment" by wrapping the unwieldy aluminum box in plastic. "Hansen" is believed to have deposited the camera case containing the bomb under the table. News footage showed the suspected bomber gesturing to his camera as if to indicate an equipment malfunction and then leaving the room. The bomber may have detonated the bomb remotely using a
walkie-talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver (HT), is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, ...
signal. Seconds after "Hansen" left the room, an explosion ripped through the hut, leaving the injured and dying crying out in pain and calling for help the darkness. Those killed in the bombing were an American journalist, Linda Frazier; a Costa Rican cameraman, Jorge Quirós; his assistant, Evelio Sequeira; and four of Pastora's men. Pastora was seriously injured in both legs. About a dozen other people were seriously wounded. "Hansen", who was unhurt by the bombing, was taken to San José together with the other victims and soon disappeared.


Investigations

The bombing led to an investigation by Tony Avirgan, an American journalist injured in the bombing, and his wife, Martha Honey. Both concluded that the
CIA 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, ...
was responsible. In 1986, the Christic Institute filed a US$24-million lawsuit on their behalf against several individuals all associated with
Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Secu ...
, including Rob Owen, John Hull,
Richard Secord Major General Richard Vernon Secord, Retired (born July 6, 1932), is a United States Air Force officer with a notable career in covert operations. Early in his military service, he was a member of the first U.S. aviation detachment sent to the ...
,
Albert Hakim Albert A. Hakim (July 16, 1936 - April 25, 2003) was an Iranian-American businessman and a figure in the Iran-Contra affair. Born into a Jewish Iranian family, Hakim attended California Polytechnic Institute for three years, beginning in 1955. Ba ...
, and
Thomas Clines Thomas Gregory Clines (August 18, 1928 – July 30, 2013) was a Central Intelligence Agency covert operations officer who was a prominent figure in the Iran-Contra Affair. Background Clines served in the 1950–1953 Korean War, and was awarded th ...
. However, the case was thrown out in June 1988, and the Christic Institute was ordered to pay approximately $1 million in costs to the defendants. In 1990, a Costa Rican examining magistrate accused the CIA of orchestrating the bombing by two intermediaries. Charges of murder were laid against Felipe Vidal, a Cuban-American CIA asset, and John Hull, an American farmer who lived in Costa Rica at the time and had been previously named in the Christic Institute lawsuit. In 1993, '' Miami Herald'' reporter Juan Tamayo received a tip that a former member of Argentina's People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), who had defected and was living in Europe, had recognized news photographs of the suspected bomber as being of an ERP militant whom he had known by the codename ''Martín el inglés'' ("Martin the Englishman"). Freelance journalist Doug Vaughn, who was working for the Christic Institute, then established that the stolen Danish passport issued to Per Anker Hansen had been used to apply for a Panamanian visa, and he obtained the corresponding file from the Panamanian government, including a photograph and a right thumbprint. Argentine journalists then obtained Gaguine's fingerprints from the police, and Vaughn and Tamayo took the two sets of prints to a fingerprint expert in Miami, who found a perfect match. Vaughn showed newsphotos of Gaguine to the alleged bomber's brother and father, who confirmed the identification. According to Argentine journalists cited by Tamayo, Gaguine was among a group of guerrillas who were killed in the
1989 attack on La Tablada barracks The 1989 attack on La Tablada barracks was an assault on the military barracks located in La Tablada, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by 40 members of '' Movimiento Todos por la Patria'' (MTP), commanded by former ERP leader Enrique G ...
. After the bomber had been identified as Gaguine, Swedish journalist, filmmaker, and La Penca survivor Peter Torbiörnsson broke nine years of silence and revealed that he had known of "Hansen"'s ties with the Sandinistas before the bombing. Years later, in 2009, Torbiörnsson admitted publicly that, in spite of his work as an ostensibly objective international journalist, at the time of the incident at La Penca he sympathized strongly with the Sandinista cause. The chief of Sandinista counter-intelligence, a Cuban military officer named Renán Montero, introduced Torbiörnsson to "Hansen" in Managua. At Montero's request, Torbiörnsson took "Hansen" under his wing and provided journalistic cover as the two traveled through northern Costa Rica to attend Pastora's press conference. Torbiörnsson explained that, at the time, he realized that his travel companion was a Sandinista spy, but did not suspect that he was an assassin. Tormented by the idea that he had been used as an unwitting accomplice to a terrorist attack and disillusioned with the Sandinistas, Torbiörnsson traveled to Managua in January 2009 and submitted a declaration to Nicaraguan police in which he pointed to Montero, to former Sandinista Minister of Interior Comandante
Tomás Borge Tomás Borge Martínez (13 August 1930 – 30 April 2012), often spelled as Thomas Borge in United States newspapers) was a cofounder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua and was Interior Minister of Nicaragua during one of th ...
, and to former chief of Nicaraguan state security Lenín Cerna as the masterminds of the bombing. Torbiörnsson also made a documentary film, ''Last Chapter, Goodbye Nicaragua'', which premiered in the 2011 DocsBarcelona International Film Festival and in which he renewed his accusation that Sandinista leaders Borge, Cerna, and Montero had planned and ordered the bombing. The film includes an interview with Luis Carrión, who was Borge's deputy at the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior at the time of the bombing, in which Carrión declares that he learned shortly after the events of La Penca that the bombing had been an operation carried out by that Ministry's intelligence directorate. Torbiörnsson also claimed that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega admitted to him five years after the attack that the bombing had been orchestrated by his government, but that Ortega later chose to cover it up and obtain Pastora's silence and co-operation by giving Pastora a position in the second Sandinista administration.


References


External links


La Penca: Thirty years later
(Tico Times article on the 30th anniversary of the bombing) {{coord missing, Nicaragua Nicaraguan Revolution Mass murder in 1984 1984 crimes in Nicaragua Man-made disasters in Nicaragua Sandinista National Liberation Front Terrorist incidents in North America in 1984 Improvised explosive device bombings in North America May 1984 events in North America Terrorist incidents in Nicaragua