Fernando "El Negro" Chamorro

Fernando Chamorro Rappaccioli (1933 – September 6, 1994), known as "El Negro" ("Blackie") for his dark complexion, was a longtime Nicaraguan rebel fighting both the Somoza and Sandinista regimes. Efforts to build a Contra Southern Front around him played a part in the Iran-Contra Affair.

Chamorro, a descendant of Nicaragua's pre-eminent Conservative Party family, inherited a tradition of opposition to Somoza's Liberal-based regime. Beginning in the 1950s, he and his brother Edmundo waged sporadic actions against Somoza. Fernando participated in the April Rebellion of 1954 and the Olama y Mollejones invasion of 1959. The highlight of these early battles came with the seizure of the Diriamba and Jinotepe barracks on November 11, 1960.

In 1977, after his friend Edén Pastora rejoined the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), Chamorro met with Sandinista strategist Humberto Ortega and agreed to cooperate in the fight against Somoza. On July 20, 1978, Chamorro fired two rockets at Somoza's bunker from the InterContinental Hotel. Captured by the National Guard, he was among around fifty prisoners exchanged for hostages a month later, after Pastora seized the National Palace. During the civil war, Chamorro served with Pastora's southern front forces.

After the revolution, El Negro worked as a car salesman and affiliated with the new Social Democratic Party, before going into exile in July 1981. His brother Edmundo had already become a key figure in the military wing of the exile Nicaraguan Democratic Union (UDN), the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Armed Forces. Virulently opposed to the UDN's decision in August 1981 to merge with the former National Guardsmen of the 15th of September Legion into the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, they formed a breakaway that retained the UDN-FARN name.

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