Central Intelligence Agency

The **Central Intelligence Agency** is the civilian foreign intelligence agency of the United States of America.

Till the 1990s, the CIA was concerned against the spread of communism in Latin America, and closely worked with several right-wing paramilitaries and intelligence agencies of Latin American countries. Many of these organizations directly or indirectly participate in drug trafficking, resulting in the CIA and DEA often butting heads.

## Activities in Latin America

### School of the Americas

The CIA, in conjunction with the US Army, ran the **School of the Americas** (**SOA**) which provided training to various Latin American organizations, ranging from official intelligence agencies to paramilitaries.

Sergio Espino Verdin, a Mexican DFS commander received training from the CIA as part of the SOA. He went on to torture American DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar to death in 1985, and also used his acquired torture to unsuccessfully resist the DEA torturing him a year later.

The ACCU, a far-right Colombian paramilitary also received CIA and US Army training from the SOA. The ACCU later began involved in drug trafficking after the fall of the Medellín cartel.

### Arms Trafficking, Iran–Contra affair and CONVIVIR

The CIA provide extensive support to several anti-communist paramilitaries from Nicaragua to Colombia in the 1970s and 1980s. The CIA used the services of the Mexican DFS agency and Honduran drug trafficker Juan Matta-Ballesteros to supply weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua. One of Matta's planes carrying weapons crashed in 1986, and caused a political crisis back home after it was discovered that operation was funded by arms sales to Iran, resulting in the Iran–Contra affair.

In 1992, the CIA provided high tech armaments to the ACCU in exchange for fighting drug lord Pablo Escobar. Later, the CIA continued to provide weaponry to the ACCU as part of the Colombian government's CONVIVIR program to combat the kidnapping crisis created by FARC, a left-wing paramilitary. Often, the CIA and the US Army fabricated guerrilla activity in the Colombian jungles to secure increased funding from the US government.

### Support of drug cartels

The CIA often supported drug cartels in Colombia, as they believed that they could bring stability in the Colombian jungles by turning peasants away from left-wing guerillas to drug production. As a result, they tolerated the Medellín cartel's narcoterrorism till it was discovered that Escobar had once worked with M-19, a left-wing guerilla movement and had close ties with the Sandinistas. The CIA then provided materiel support to the ACCU, and made them form the Los Pepes, a paramilitary group with the Cali cartel and Escobar's former associates, including Judy Moncada.

The Los Pepes brutality attracted significant attention, and the CIA forced Moncada to give false statements, blaming the formation of the Los Pepes on the DEA instead. After the fall of Escobar, the CIA provided clandestine support to the Cali cartel, hoping that they would maintain the balance of power.

CIA agent Barry Seal transported cocaine for the Medellín cartel in the early 1980s. The CIA also did not reprimand the Contras for their cocaine trafficking business.

In Mexico, the CIA provided support to the Guadalajara cartel after the cartel promised to use their routes to transport weapons to Central America. With the help of cartel leader Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, the CIA had Matta arrested to save face during the Iran–Contra scandal. In exchange, CIA intervened in Rubén Zuno Arce's trial and made sure that Félix Gallardo's name never showed up anywhere. The CIA also forced the State Department to end the DEA's special operation targeting the Guadalajara cartel.

## Known employees

* Bill Stechner (Station Chief, Colombia)
* CIA Officer
* Barry Seal
* Rick