Chapter Thirteen - The Sandinista Shuffle

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Sandinista Shuffle

ON THE SURFACE, Reagan was all about law and order.
But beneath the surface?

Guns, drugs, death squads, and lies so big they needed their own decoder ring.

Iran-Contra wasn’t a scandal.
It was a shadow government with better PR.

The Sandinistas had taken power of Nicaragua in 1979. They were leftist, anti-imperialist, and worst of all, not aligned with the United States.

Reagan saw them not as a sovereign government, but as a virus.

So he armed the Contras, a right-wing rebel group known for torture, assassinations, and civilian massacres.

But Congress banned funding them.
So Reagan’s team went off-book.

Here’s how the loop worked:

1. Sell weapons to Iran, a country Reagan swore was evil.
2. Use that money to fund the Contras, illegally.
3. Lie about it to the American people.
4. Shred the evidence.

It sounds like conspiracy fiction.
But it happened.
At the highest levels.

And when it started to unravel?

They called it a mistake.

Oliver North.
John Poindexter.
The secret memos.
The shredded documents.

Reagan said he couldn’t recall.
Said he didn’t know.
Said he might’ve approved it, but maybe not.

Congress held hearings.
Nobody went to prison for long.
Some were pardoned.
And the president’s approval rating?
It barely dipped.

Because the machine protects its face.

They sold the Contras as “freedom fighters.”
They painted the scandal as a blip, not treason.

And Reagan, somehow, walked away clean.
Too old. Too folksy. Too distant to be guilty.

Or maybe just too important to fall.