A press conference had been arranged in the guerrilla outpost of La Penca by Edén Pastora, a former Sandinista military commander who had switched allegiance to the Contras. The press conference took place in an enclosed hut on stilts, on the northern bank of the San Juan River that separates Costa Rica from Nicaragua. The event had been convened by Contra officials in the Costa Rican capital of San José. The journalists arrived at La Penca past nightfall, after traveling all day over land and by canoe from San José. Because of the late hour, Pastora initially asked that the press conference start on the following morning, but as the reporters began peppering the guerrilla leader with questions, an impromptu conference began and the reporters and television news crews gathered with Pastora around a chest-high table in the main room of the hut.