Enrique Bermúdez Varela (December 11, 1932 – February 16, 1991),^[1] known as Comandante 380, was a Nicaraguan soldier and rebel who founded and commanded the Nicaraguan Contras. In this capacity, he became a central global figure in one of the most prominent conflicts of the Cold War.

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Quick Facts Nickname(s), Born ...

Enrique Bermúdez
Nickname(s)	Comandante 3-80
Born	December 11, 1932 León, Nicaragua
Died	February 16, 1991(1991-02-16) (aged 58) Managua, Nicaragua
Allegiance	Nicaragua
Service/branch	National Guard Contras
Years of service	1952–1979
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Commands held	15th of September Legion, Nicaraguan Democratic Force
Battles/wars	Contra Insurgency
Spouse(s)	Elsa Italia Mejía
Children	4

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Bermúdez founded the largest Contra army in the war against Nicaragua's Marxist Sandinista government, which was supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba. From 1979 until the end of the military conflict in 1990, Bermudez was the Contras' top military commander. In addition to being responsible for all of the Contras' military operations, Bermúdez ultimately helped manage the Contras' transition to an opposition political party in the early 1990s after the second election in post-Somoza Nicaragua ended in defeat for the Sandinistas. The first election, held in 1984 with severe irregularities, resulted in a victory for the Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas; it was the rejection of this questionable outcome that led the Contras to continue their insurgency until Ortega and the Sandinistas were ultimately ejected from office.

On February 16, 1991, Bermudez was assassinated in Managua.^[2]

Bermúdez was born on December 11, 1932, in León, Nicaragua, the son of a mechanical engineer and a domestic servant.

Assessments of Bermúdez's military and political leadership varied. His supporters believed that he provided stability among the fractious rebels, holding the FDN together while other Contra factions splintered. Critics, however, charged that he failed to provide strategic direction for the FDN's campaigns, and that he hampered the Contras' effectiveness by rewarding loyal cronies and ex-Guardsmen instead of the most able commanders. Discontent finally led to a council of field commanders ousting Bermúdez, as well as the purging of the Contras' predominantly Miami-based political leadership. Many of the members of the so-called Council were then suspects in his death, along with the Sandinista government.

Critics of the Contras also alleged that Bermúdez was one of several figures who had been engaged in cocaine and other drug-running as a Contra commander.^{[citation needed]}

In the Summer 1988 issue of Policy Review magazine, Bermúdez told the most comprehensive account of his life, a lengthy autobiographical essay titled "The Contras' Valley Forge: How I View the Nicaraguan Crisis", in which the Contra leader chronicled his life from his early career as a military attaché to Somoza through the height of the conflict between the Contras and Sandinista government.^[3]

In the article, Bermúdez staunchly criticized the Sandinistas for their alliances with the Soviet Union and Cuba and for betraying promises they made to establish a representative democracy.^[4] However, Bermúdez also issued some criticism at U.S. policy, writing that some Democrats, such as Jim Wright, then the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, were appeasing the Sandinista regime in ways that were inhibiting the Contras' in their effort to overthrow the Sandinista government. The article was authored by conservative author and writer (and then Policy Review editor) Michael Johns, who interviewed Bermúdez over a series of days in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in May and June 1988.^[5][6]

Following the Sandinista defeat in the 1990 elections, Bermúdez returned to Managua, only to be gunned down on February 16, 1991, after being lured to a meeting at Managua's InterContinental Hotel. He was shot in the hotel's parking lot as he departed the hotel after those with whom he was meeting failed to show. In 1994, Bermúdez' daughter, Claudia Bermúdez, told The Miami Herald: "There were a lot of people who would have benefited from having my dad put away--the Sandinistas, the Chamorro government, the United States. My dad died with a lot of information."^{[citation needed]}

In the last years of the Contra War, Bermúdez had taken up reading the works of noted libertarian author Ayn Rand. While serving as commander of the semi-secret Contra headquarters on the Nicaragua-Honduras border code named "Aguacate" - Spanish for Avocado - he was known for taking solitary walks in the nearby jungle, taking photographs of intricate spiderwebs.^[7] Bermúdez is survived by family members, most of whom live in Miami. He was buried in Miami, following a funeral mass that was attended by many of his U.S. and Nicaraguan supporters.

In 2002 and 2004, his daughter, Claudia Bermúdez, now a resident of the San Francisco area, ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Democrat Barbara Lee for California's 9th congressional district seat. She remains heavily engaged in public policy-related initiatives in the district.

• List of unsolved murders
• National Guard (Nicaragua)
• Nicaraguan Revolution
• Sandinista Popular Army