Thursday, March 14, 2019
"American Made" and the Iran-Contra affair
Many of us have seen the movie American Made, the story of a pilot who makes millions while working as a drug smuggler and undercover CIA operative during the Nicaraguan revolution. After learning a bit more about the conflict in central america in class today, I decided to look a bit deeper into the whole scenario that made Barry Seal infamous. Barry was let go from his job as a pilot for TWA for his part in an organization that smuggled explosives out of the united states (couldn't find much information on this), he moved into the less risky business of smuggling marijuana and cocaine into the united states (seems logical?). While this made him some good money on the side, he was still unemployed and his hussle couldn't pay the bills. He ultimately was arrested in 1974 for smuggling. In jail, he met a few people that could help him turn this into a real-deal smuggling ring. Of those people, one was a pilot, one was the brother of his first wife, and a few became partners (tasked with picking up the smuggled drugs and delivering them to dealers). Over the next decade he began to work his way through mexican, columbian, and a few other cartels, to a position where he would work for the biggest cartel in the world, the medellin cartel. He indirectly smuggled several tons of cocaine for the cartel until his capture by the DEA in 1984. Although this could have landed him in jail for life several times over, the CIA jumped on the opportunity. They saw a pilot who was familiar with the back country of nicaragua and throughout south america and was used to flying low and fast to avoid detection. This was ideal for their mission: to aid the contras against the sandinista government. He was all but forced to work as a spy for the CIA. He was tasked with taking pictures of government installations throughout central america, aiding the US government, the cartels, and the contras alike. This morphed into him transporting arms from the united states to nicaragua and transporting the money back, all in exchange for the united states turning a blind eye to his smuggling efforts. All of this ended however when his deal between the CIA and DEA fell through and he was indicted on his charges. This whole ordeal left me very confused. The US government was paying someone to smuggle drugs into the united states, while they are fighting an illegal proxy war against the communist sandinista regime? This all seems pretty sketchy in the end.
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The story of this pilot is not only interesting and unique but also demonstrates the secrecy of American support of the Contras. As you mentioned, much of what this pilot had done under orders of the CIA were illegal. The violation of Reagan's administration's own policies undermined its credibility and honesty, allowing the discovery of the Iran-Contra Affair to unfold into a perilous scandal for the Reagan administration. It would be interesting to hear about how this pilot had contributed to the spread of this scandal within the United States, or if he was even known to the American public during that time.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Barry Seal was gunned down in a cartel related shooting while volunteering at the Salvation Army (where he was volunteering as part of his plea deal). This occured before a conclusive resolution to the investigation was reached, meaning that Seal was not authorized to speak to the american public about the incident due to an NDA that was still held by the CIA.
DeleteWhile Reagan's administration did act in illegal and dishonest ways, they had little else to do, as the Ayatollah ruled Iran had basically denounced America and cut off a lot of the oil supply. I felt that even if they didn't have the approval of Congress, the Reagan administration had its act or else the situation would have turned for the worse. But in the end, this situation also shows that Reagan knew how to keep in favor with the American people, unlike Nixon, as Reagan was successfully able to get out of the public blaming him because of his quick wit and charisma.
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