
Federico Vaughan was a top aide to Tomas Borge, one of the nine comandantes who ruled Nicaragua under the Sandinistas. In 1985, Colonel Oliver North presented President Ronald Reagan with a picture showing him assisting in narcotics smuggling into the United States, painting the Sandinista communists as supporters of the drug trade; this led to the murder of the photographer, Barry Seal, by the Medellin Cartel for selling them out.