Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America

PRODEMCA (Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America), was a United States non-profit organization founded in 1981 to support democratic movements in Central America. PRODEMCA projects focused primarily on Nicaragua, especially in the construction of anti-Sandinista media and public relations campaigns and in support for the political opposition inside Nicaragua.

Funding

PRODEMCA received $88,000 from Carl R. Channell, head of the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL), a major actor in Lt. Col Oliver North's private aid network for the Contras.

In 1986, the group used portions of the money from NEPL to pay for full-page advertisements promoting military aid to the Contras. At the same time, the group was receiving money from the congressionally-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to provide grants to Nicaragua's internal opposition. NED severed its relationship with PRODEMCA after a public and congressional outcry over the placement of the ads and questions about whether US government funds had been used to pay for them. PRODEMCA closed its own operations and merged with the NED-funded Freedom House in late 1988.

Some of the more prominent members included:

*Vladimir Bukovsky, former Soviet dissident.
*S. Harrison Dogole, head of a private detective agency (and member of Nixon's Enemies List).
*Orville Freeman, former Governor of Minnesota.
*J. Peter Grace.
*Theodore M. Hesburgh.
*Sidney Hook, philosopher.
*Samuel P. Huntington, historian.
*Clark Kerr.
*Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, then United States ambassador to the United Nations.
*Michael Novak, Catholic philosopher and commentator.
*Richard Ravitch.
*Bayard Rustin.
*William E. Simon, former United States Secretary of the Treasury.
*Max Singer.
*Elie Wiesel, famed Holocaust survivor and Jewish novelist.