MEXICO CITY — Adolfo Calero, a leader of the American-backed contra rebels who fought Nicaragua’s revolutionary Sandinista government and eventually achieved its ouster through democratic elections, died on Saturday in Managua. He was 80....

Mr. Calero played a major role in the Iran-contra scandal, lobbying in Washington for aid for his anti-Communist forces and testifying before Congress when it began investigating the Reagan administration’s efforts to funnel money to the contras despite a Congressional ban on such aid.

The contra rebels’ fight against the Sandinistas was a centerpiece of President Ronald Reagan’s anti-Communist efforts in the 1980s. But although he called the contra leaders “the moral equivalent of our founding fathers,” Congress cut off financing for the contra war in 1984....