'The Last Narc' Episode 4: Who is Cuban CIA agent Max Gomez aka Felix Rodriguez, how did US govt kill Kiki?
When Mexican informants give Hector Berrellez a detailed groundbreaking account of the kidnapping, torture and murder of Enrique S 'Kiki' Camarena Salazar, they also revealed that not only Mexican government officials were present there but also a Cuban named Max Gomez. Recordings of the brutal interrogation of Kiki reveal a Cuban who repeatedly asks him questions about what he knows about Iran-Contra and other questions don't seem directly related to the Guadalajara Cartel's work.
Berrellez identifies the mysterious Cuban who interrogated Kiki as a veteran CIA operative whose real name is Felix Rodrigues. He interrogated Kiki and was present at the scene when he was killed. He happens to be a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal. When Kiki began investigations into the Guadalajara Cartel in the early 1980s, the CIA waged a secret war leading to the Iran-Contra scandal. The Communist regime in Nicaragua was under siege by the Contras, a guerrilla army, funded, armed and trained by the CIA.
A year before Kiki was murdered, the US Congress cut off funding to the Contras, passing a law banning the CIA from backing the anti-communist rebels. But the CIA was not one to back down. CIA and National Security Council officials, including George W Bush, the then-Vice President of the US, John Poindexter, National Security Advisor, and Lt Col Oliver North of National Security Council, and finally Felix Rodriguez aka Max Gomez, a CIA operative, came up with new covert ways to get money and guns to the Contras.
Media investigation and Senate hearings also allege that the CIA smuggled tonnes of cocaine into the US to fund the illegal war in Nicaragua. The final episode of 'The Last Narc' explores in detail how "the war on communism and the war on drugs collided to make a martyr of Kiki Camarena". After the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship was overthrown in Cuba, it became Felix's personal goal to free Cuba from communism. He participated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the execution of communist revolutionary Che Guevara and is also known for his close ties with George Bush.
And thus Berrellez cannot help but wonder what has this guy got to do with a DEA agent? Why was he interrogating Kiki? It is Jorge Godoy, one of Berrellez's informants who reveals Felix's involvement. Guadalajara Cartel's co-founder Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo had sent him along with some more people to the airport where they met Max Gomez, who delivered weapons to them. Godoy adds he also saw Max in safehouses taking money in bags. This is corroborated by Ramón Lira, who also recognizes him as a CIA guy who delivered a shipment of AK-47s and hand grenades to Fonseca in mid-1984.
Berrellez is stunned to find out that this is nowhere close to the case that he was set out to investigate. It turns out that the American government is involved, CIA and DFS (Direccion Federal de Seguridad) are involved. At another meeting with Felix, informants reveal Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, another co-founder of Guadalajara Cartel, Rafael Caro Quintero, Manuel Bartlett Diaz, Mexico Secretary of National Defense General Arevalo Gardoqui, General Vinivio Santoyo Feria, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were also present.
This meeting just the night before Kiki's abduction was no coincidence. When Berrellez was contacted by Guillermo Calderoni, a commander of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police, an informant, he found out about the corruption in the high ranks in Mexico.
After Berrellez helped him flee for exposing the corruption, Guillermo told him that his own government ordered to kill Kiki - that Kiki was picked up because they thought he was about to uncover the "nexus of the CIA, DFS together with the drug lords to fund a war, which has not been authorized in Nicaragua". Following this, he is warned to not take the investigation further and his reports disappeared. He was no longer authorized to go forward into looking into Felix, who was protected by his own government.
All episodes of 'The Last Narc' are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
