After a brief period of sanctions, Nicaragua was faced with a collapsing economy (see: Economy of Nicaragua). The U.S. trained and illegally financed the Contras, which were a counter-revolutionary group, in neighboring Honduras to impose an American-friendly government and militarily oppose the current government and the Nicaraguan army. The Contras, groups of Somoza's National Guard who had fled to Honduras, were organized, trained and funded by CIA elements involved in cocaine trafficking in Central America. The Contra chain of command included some ex-National Guardsmen, including Contra founder and commander Enrique Bermúdez and others. One prominent Contra commander, however, was ex-Sandinista hero Edén Pastora, aka "Commadante Zero," who rejected the Leninist orientation of his fellow comandantes. The Contras operated out of camps in the neighboring countries of Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. They engaged in a systematic campaign of terror amongst the rural Nicaraguan population in order to disrupt the social reform projects of the Sandinistas. Several Historians have criticized the contra campaign and the Reagan Administration's support for it, citing the brutality and numerous human rights violations of the Contras. LaRamee and Polakoff, for example, describe the destruction of health centers, schools and cooperatives at the hands of the rebels. Others have contended that large scale murder, rape and torture also occurred in Contra dominated areas. The US also sought to place economic pressure on the Sandinistas, and the Reagan administration imposed a full trade embargo.