| WHITE BOOK 2006 >> FIRST PART >>CHAPTER 3 | ||
CHAPTER 3: THE SUPPORT AND/OR IMPUNITY EXTENDED BY SUCCESSIVE US ADMINISTRATIONS TO THE PERPETRATORS OF TERRORIST ACTS AGAINST CUBA. From the earliest days of the Revolution, sabotages and terrorism against Cuba have been part of the cruel policy hardheartedly plotted in Washington and Miami to put an end to the Cuban Revolution. Since then and for over four decades, the Cuban people has been the victim of innumerable terrorist actions and attacks planned, financed and supported by a foreign power —the United States in the overwhelming majority of cases. These have caused thousands of Cuban families, irreparable psychological and emotional harm. The economic damage suffered by Cuba as a result of successive acts of sabotage and even biological warfare has also been very serious. The aim of these actions has been to destroy the political, economic and social system adopted by the Cuban people —in the full exercise of its right to self-determination— through terror, instability and uncertainty. US soil has systematically and continuously been used to plan, finance, and support—and recruit and train people for— terrorist actions against the Cuban people. The many different forms of terrorism used against Cuba include: the destruction of economically important and civilian facilities; attacks on coastal facilities, merchant ships and fishing vessels; attempts on Cuban facilities, equipment and personnel abroad, including diplomatic bodies, airline offices and planes; attempts at assassinating main government leaders; the introduction of agricultural and animal germs and plagues and strains of human diseases, among others. More than 3,478 men, women and children have lost their lives and another 2,099 Cubans have been physically handicapped for life as a result of at least 681 proven and well-documented acts of terrorism and aggression against Cuba. It is worth mentioning that these actions have not stopped over time: 68 took place in the 1990s and another 39 in the last five years. Cuban citizens have not been the only victims of terrorist actions against Cuba. 190 terrorist actions against people and assets belonging to third countries have been carried out in the United States. Dozens of terrorist actions against the assets of foreign companies that maintain economic relations with Cuba, or against representatives of countries who maintain ties to the country, have also been organized and executed. Terrorist activity was significantly redoubled and came to play a systematic role in the policy of hostility and aggression towards the Cuban Revolution on 1961 with the adoption of the “Program for Covert Action against the Castro Regime” approved on 17 March 1960 by then US President D. Eisenhower, a plan later pursued by President J.F. Kennedy. This plan, known as “Operation Mongoose”, authorized the creation of a secret intelligence and action organization in Cuba and assigned funds to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) needed in this connection. On 18 January 1962, the plan known as “Project Cuba” was adopted; it contained 32 covert war operations that had to be executed by the departments and agencies involved in “Operation Mongoose”. In addition to the hundreds of terrorist actions planned and directly executed by the US government’s Special Services, a broad spectrum of other terrorist actions —some consummated, others neutralized in their preparatory phase— were also undertaken. Responsibility for these terrorist actions which, supposedly, were not directly sponsored by Washington authorities, fell upon US-based organizations made up of Cuban-born terrorists —many of them trained by the CIA and US Army units— who, to say the least, were inspired by the official policy of destroying the Cuban Revolution through any means and who have always enjoyed the complete impunity secured for them by successive US administrations. Many of these terrorists who had not operated officially for the US government were even protected by the Special Services and offered asylum in the United States or in US military bases in other countries. In 1960, numerous terrorist actions against public buildings such as cinemas, theaters, schools and shops were carried out to sow panic and terror among the population. The most criminal and bloodiest of these was the blowing up of the French steamship “La Coubre” in Havana’s port on 4 March of that year, while munitions bought for the Rebel Army in Belgium were being unloaded. This criminal act caused 101 deaths —those of a number of French people among these— more than 200 wounded and numerous disappearances. We could point out the attack of 18 February among the actions against economic targets carried out in 1960. That day, the plane bombing the “España” Sugar Mill was destroyed in mid air by one of its own bombs. US pilot Robert Ellis Frost was at the helm, accompanied by Onelio Santana Roque, ex-member of the Batista dictatorship’s repressive corps. The flight plan indicated the plane had taken off from Miami airport in Florida. Other documents recovered with the body of the pilot revealed he had participated in aerial bombings over Cuba on three previous occasions and that he was going to receive $ 1,500 for the bombing that day. It is significant that the majority of the most renowned chieftains of the cynically called “Cuban exile community” participated directly in and executed terrorist actions against Cuba in the 1960s. In fact, most of them remain conceptually involved. On 30 December 1960, a bomb factory was seized and 17 terrorists who, following instructions from the US Embassy in Havana, had been placing suitcases full of plastic explosives in shops, were detained. Two renowned representatives of the Cuban-born terrorist and annexationist mob, vested with the benevolent and fraudulent epithet of “peaceful anti-Castro political opponents” by the Western media, were among the terrorists arrested. One of them was none other than the “journalist” and “publicist” Carlos Alberto Montaner —chieftain of the anti-Cuban mob in Madrid— who was not convicted at the time because he was a minor. He left the country at a later date by requesting asylum from a Latin American embassy. The other terrorist, who would later become the “star” of Washington’s anti-Cuban campaign was the US “Human Rights Ambassador”, “His Excellency” Armando Valladares, phony writer and paraplegic, unmasked before public opinion when he stoop up from his wheelchair and walked nearly 400 meters to get into the plane which took him out of the country. In addition to these, the US government and terrorist organizations based in the United States and some Latin American countries had at their disposal a whole crop of murderers and torturers who had served Batista’s dictatorship and had fled on January 1959 to Northern climes in search of impunity for their crimes against the Cuban people. In the majority of cases, Cuba’s incipient revolutionary government requested the arrest and extradition of the criminal, requests ignored by US authorities. The year 1961 saw an increase in terrorist activity. This included the burning of sugar-cane fields during harvest, the sabotage of factories and attacks on farms, actions which resulted in the deaths of 281 citizens, mostly farmers, women, children and young militiamen and volunteers who were then participating in the Literacy Campaign that began that same year.79 On April of this same year, the Bay of Pigs military invasion also took place. The invasion was carried out by an army of approximately 1,500 mercenaries organized, trained, equipped, financed and transported by the US government. The plan, thwarted, envisaged the subsequent landing of US forces, who contemplated the defeat of the mercenaries from their vessels. Many of the mercenaries who participated in the invasion and in other terrorist actions in the dirty war against Cuba remain active in the rank and file of terrorist organizations which continue to operate against our country. Many others become salaried CIA agents and carried out covert operations in Latin American countries and other parts of the world, participating in political assassinations, weapons and drug trafficking, sabotage and dirty war campaigns like those waged against the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. Others —many of whom gravitated toward the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF)—were instructed to disguise themselves as a “peaceful political opposition in exile”. This group, publicly redeemed with respect to terrorist violence, however, never put aside what it really knows how to do and enjoys doing. It has continued to organize and finance terrorist actions like those carried out by Central American mercenaries against Cuban tourist facilities in the 1990s. Another form of terrorism perpetrated against Cuba was banditry, thus christened by the people because of the felonies and murders committed by the 299 terrorist bands which —armed, sustained and directed by the US government— were active throughout Cuba’s territory from 1959 to 1965. Banditry had its chief enclave in the Escambray Mountains, in the country’s central region. These bands murdered more than 500 people, mainly innocent farmers and agricultural workers. Recently declassified official US documents reveal that the United States’ government sponsored, supported and was directly linked to the bands that operated inside our country. In October 1961, CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick submitted a secret report referring to a covert action known as “Operation Silence”. Following instructions from the US government, the CIA carried out 12 separate operations to supply arms, munitions and explosives to the bands which operated in our country. In the same document, when referring to the enormous center established in Florida by the CIA to conduct covert activities against Cuba, Kirkpatrick acknowledged that “it had been expanded from 40 to a force of 588 between January 1960 and 16th April 1961, making it one of the largest of such centers operated by the secret services”. The hijacking of planes was another type of terrorist activity organized by the CIA as part of its plans to topple the Cuban Revolution. With these actions, the US government’s Central Intelligence Agency put into practice a heretofore unprecedented kind of terrorism. Between 1959 and 2001, 51 Cuban planes were hijacked. Almost without exception, all were rerouted to the United States and the vast majority of them were never returned. Pilots, guards and passengers were murdered or wounded by the hijackers. A number of planes were destroyed or seriously damaged in the hijacking attempts that were frustrated. Organizations such as Alpha 66 and the Coordinator of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), based in Florida and New Jersey, were responsible for a great many terrorist actions against the Cuban people —and against the interests of other nations that maintained trade and economic relations with Cuba— carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. Around this time, paramilitary actions against Cuban merchant and fishing vessels entered the scene of anti-Cuban terrorism. On 4 October 1973, Cuban fishing boats Cayo Largo 17 and 34 were attacked by two strikers crewed by terrorists; fisherman Roberto Torna Mirabal was killed and the rest of the crew was left on rubber rafts, without food or water, as a result of the attack. On 6 October 1976, the most monstrous and brutal terrorist action perpetrated during this period took place: the blowing up, mid flight, of a Cubana Airlines aircraft carrying 73 passengers: 57 Cubans, 11 young Guyanese (6 of whom had been selected to study medicine in Cuba) and 5 citizens of the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea. All of them were killed. The attack on Cuba’s commercial airplane was carried out by two Venezuelan mercenaries who had been hired by two of the most renowned Cuban-born terrorists: Orlando Bosch Avila — responsible for 321 terrorist actions and, the Department of Justice’s statements notwithstanding, residing in Miami since 1990 after receiving special authorization from President Bush (senior) to live in the United States— and Luis Posada Carriles, shamelessly indicted by ex Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, whose long history of terrorism will be described in greater detail later. These Cuban-born terrorists had been recruited by the CIA in 1960 and had been trained in sophisticated sabotage techniques with every means at the Company’s disposal. Both were members of CORU at the time, created in 1976 by Orlando Bosch himself by bringing various terrorist organizations together. CORU considerably stepped up its terrorist actions not only against Cuba but also against 24 other countries in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. While terrorist actions continued to be carried out in Cuba, the United States became the scene of several attacks on the facilities belonging to countries which maintained relations and trade with Cuba, Cuban diplomatic officers to the UN, private US institutions, Cuban emigrants who did not agree with the anti-Cuban mob’s terrorist policies and even on high officials of foreign governments, as exemplified by the case of Orlando Letelier —Foreign Secretary of Chilean President Salvador Allende’s government—assassinated in Washington by Cuban-born terrorists working for the repressive apparatus of General August Pinochet’s dictatorship. The US people had a horrifying glimpse, at home, of the terror their government had unleashed against a small neighboring country in 1959. On this occasion, Washington authorities reacted by arresting a number of terrorists and attempting to dismantle some groups that were self-financed and operated independently. To evade authorities, many groups publicly dissolved themselves, changed their names, temporarily suspended their activities and even moved their base of operations to other states. Terrorist groups which toed the line with respect to US public conduct norms and continued to carry out terrorist actions exclusively against Cuba were tolerated. Some terrorist actions against Cuba perpetrated on US soil include: - 5 June 1976: the Cuban Mission to the UN is the target of an attack with explosives which resulted in serious material damage; The most reactionary and aggressive sectors of the Cuban exile community in the United States —particularly those in Florida— once again promoted the use of terrorism in their war on Cuba during the final period of the Bush (senior) administration. This led to a virulent wave of new forms of terrorist actions, perpetrated during President William Clinton’s two terms in office. The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) —which makes generous contributions to the political campaigns of various US legislators and presidents— took over the organization and financing of terrorist actions against Cuba in 1992. Under instructions and with money from CANF, several terrorists recruited in Central America placed bombs in Cuban tourist facilities in exchange for monetary rewards. In 1997, they set off seven bombs in different hotels and tourist facilities in Cuba. In one of these attacks, the young Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo was killed. The aim was clear: to ruin Cuba’s tourist industry, which was already its most important economic sector. Terrorist actions against Cuba have not let up during George W. Bush administration. Suffice it to point out that, between 6 August 2002 and 10 April 2003, another 11 terrorist actions took place, mostly the hijacking of planes and ships and their rerouting to the United States. During these violent actions, sharp instruments and even firearms were used to threaten and coerce the crew and passengers. Terrorists tried in Cuba have been meted out harsh sentences; with some exceptions, this has not been the case with Cuban-born terrorists tried in the United States. Posada Carriles: The story of an announced impunity. Early in January 2006, newspapers started to speak about the possibility that the most dangerous terrorist of the Western Hemisphere, Luis Posada Carriles, could be set free by US government’s decision. Such rumors grew stronger with the decision by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) notified the terrorist’s legal representatives that his legal status would be reviewed January 24th. According to US media, this notification pointed out that the review would take into account whether Posada can represent a danger for the community and if in the future he would be willing to periodically report to the relevant authorities. Months earlier, on 26th of September 2005, immigration attorney William L. Abbott had made his expedite ruling to deport Posada to any country but Cuba or Venezuela, explaining the dangers of torture for the detainee in both countries, based on the manipulation of the exemptions stated in the International Covenant against Torture. This, obviously overlooking the fact that none of the two countries practice torture and that, on the contrary, it was Posada himself who “stood out” as torturer while working as DISIP officer in Venezuela early in the 70s. The US law demands that all deportation order against an undocumented individual be carried out within 90 days while prohibits the indefinite detention of those who the government cannot deport. In this case, the 90 day term started counting a month after Judge Abott’s ruling was issued, which was not appealed by the government. That is, on the 26th of October 2005. Once he served his time in prison, where he enjoyed amenities and privileges, the liberation of the criminal deemed imminent. Just recently the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement notified that the possibility of sending the terrorist to a third country is under study and added that while this possibility is under consideration, the legal process is still being reviewed. Impunity was being in the offing ever since the El Paso sham, in Texa, when Posada was detained as a common undocumented and not as the criminal terrorist he really is. Quoting the renowned Cuban-American attorney José Pertierra, legal representative of the Venezuelan government for the Luis Posada extradition, “everything has been under a well-rehearsed script to add hues of legitimacy to an action that is meant otherwise”. Hence, what has been christened: “Chronicle of Announced Impunity” started to shape up. As may be recalled, under the growing international pressure generated with the Cuban denouncement, and after two months of accomplice silence on the presence of the terrorist in US territory, the US immigration authorities detained Posada Carriles on the 17th of May, 2005. Since then and though being an internationally wanted dangerous terrorist, he is under process only for illegal entry into the country, and the President Bush’s government has failed to seriously comply with the legal obligation of taking legal action against him for his crimes, or otherwise extradite him to a competent country. Among his crimes, Posada Carriles arranged and led the blowing in mid flight of Cuba Aircraft where all its 73 passengers died, he has arranged and coordinated numberless acts of sabotage and terrorism against Cuba and countries of the region; and masterminded the set of acts against Cuban tourist facilities in 1997, in which the young Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo was killed. A CIA-trained, he always kept close links with US intelligence bodies and was financed by agents of that government. He was also hired by the so-called Cuban American National Foundation for four decades to try to assassinate the Cuban Head of State. Luis Posada Carriles was apprehended in Panamá while plotting an attempt against the President of the Republic of Cuba on the occasion of the X Ibero-American Summit, held in that country. Posada and partners-in-crime’s plans consisted in planting a powerful C-4 charge at the Auditorium of the University of Panama, when President Fidel Castro would meet with hundreds of Panamanian students and professors. The legal process still in progress, and despite the sentence of the Panamanian court, he was set free thanks to the current US President’s mediation, through a pardon signed by the then Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, on the 26th of August, 2004, together with his partners –the Cuban-born terrorists Pedro Remón Rodríguez, Guillermo Novo Samploll and Gasper Eugenio Jiménez Escobedo- who after being released, went to the United States where they were welcomed as heroes and where they have freely walked their streets with no interference from the authorities whatsoever, even when they are knowledgeable of his extensive criminal record. According to “La Estrella de Panamá”, the then Secretary of State Collin Powell and Otto Reich, then head of the Western Hemisphere Affaire in President George W. Bush’s Nacional Scurity Council, requested President Mireya Moscoso the release of the terrorists during visits they paid to Panama. It was former-US Ambassador to Panamá, Simón Ferro –with long-standing links with the terrorist CANF- who coordinated with the Panamanian Government the release of these individuals. This was corroborated thanks to former President Moscoso’s call to Ferro, right after granting pardon to the four outlaw in Panamá. In that call, the Panamanian President notified to the former Ambassador that she had completed her task. After acquittal, and after moving around Honduras and other Centro American countries with forged IDs, Posada was illegally admitted into US territory, between 18 and 20 of March, 2005, on board of the “Santrina” yatch, manned by the ill-known terrorist Santiago Álvarez, currently under custody on charges of arms trafficking and serious violations of the US security law. From the very start, George W. Bush’s administration has meant to protect the terrorist and keep him away from a lawuit. The protective attitude of the US government at every moment from his detention in Panama to date goes against the spitefulness against the Five80 Cuban Heroes of the fight against terrorism, who remain abducted in US prisons. Impunity granted to Posada Carriles, would seem to be the payment of the US authorities for his long record of service rendered to the Empire, not only in his aggressions against Cuba but also in the implementation of other dirty war plans in Central America and other Latin-American countries . President Bush ha been more concerned about not to infuriate the Miami extreme right-wingers and keep Posada Carriles’ secrets in silence, than in making justice prevail and avoid impunity. A. An evident case of illegality and double standard. Not only is the impunity of the US government for terrorist Luis Posada Carriles immoral and politically questionable but also, and above all, illegal. Releasing Posada Carriles would constitute a violation of both the US law and the international law. The United States must take legal action or extradite him to Venezuela, a country that has formally requested his extradition and in which the terrorist has his share of debt with justice81. Among other legal provisions of the American law that could be worth mentioning, the so-called “Patriotic Act” authorizes the detention of an individual who has not been deported, should the i ndividual poses a danger for the national security of the country or has been involved in terrorist activities”. In the case of Posada Carriles, there is no need for further investigation to conclude that he is the most dangerous and violent terrorist of the Western Hemisphere. He has admitted himself in his book “The Roads of the Warrior”, as well as in a number of interviews in which he has publicly advocated for violence as a means to put an end to the economic, social and political system that the Cuban freely chose. He has admitted his involvement in a number of acts of sabotage and terrorism against Cuba, including the Barbados bombing of an aircraft. Thus, releasing Posada Carriles in the United States would be illegal to the effects of the US law. On the other hand, the International Law is adamant as to the US obligations to take legal actions or extradite Posada Carriles. Among other instruments, it is worth mentioning that the resolutions adopted by the Security Council, of mandatory compliance for all States without exception, confirm the obligation of taking to court or extradite, applicable in this case. Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council decided in its Resolution 1373 (2001) among other things, the following: It called upon all States to Calls upon States to cooperate fully in the fight against terrorism, especially with those States where or against whose citizens terrorist acts are committed, in accordance with their obligations under international law, in order to find, deny safe haven and bring to justice, on the basis of the principle to extradite or prosecute, any person who supports, facilitates, participates or attempts to participate in the financing, planning, preparation or commission of terrorist acts. Likewise, the Montreal Convention for the Repression of Illicit Acts against Civil Aviation Security, in its Article 7, states that “The Contracting State in whose territory the alleged criminal is found, should it fail to extradite the individual, it shall submit the case to its relevant authorities for prosecution with no exception regardless of the fact that the crime has been committed or not in its territory”. Other instruments are not mentioned in which the internationally recognized principle of “prosecute or extradite”, such as the various resolutions adopted by the General Assembly on the issue: “Measures to eradicate international terrorism”, over the years, Accordingly, failing to prosecute Posada Carriles for his terrorist actions and not extradite him to Venezuela, qualifies as a violation of International Law by President Bush’s government. Though the US law and the international law are unambiguous as to the United States’ obligations in this case, the Government of this country is lacking political will to meet its terms. The international community must stay alert and watchful to prevent that what happened to Orlando Bosch Ávila and other confessed Cuban-born terrorists, can happen now to Posada Carriles. They are to blame for the mourning on tens of Cuban families. These terrorists live on the rampage in the United States walking the streets of Miami. As to Orlando Bosch, it is worth recalling that it was former President’s Bush’s father, former President George Herbert Walker Bush, who granted him a presidential pardon on July 19,1990, even against FBI’s recommendations and a previous ruling of the Justice Department, knowledgeable of his terrorist record. It would be extremely serious, both for actions against terrorism undertaken at the United Nations, and the credibility of the US government in its self-proclaimed “war against terrorism”, that Washington chose to welcome Posada Carriles or to use legal sophistry to allow his stay in the United States. Complicity of double standards and hypocrisy of the Government, self-proclaimed champion of the antiterrorist campaign is evident. In the name of the “war against terrorism”, the US government has unleashed unilateral wars of aggression in blatant violation of the UN Charter and the principles of International Law, in which thousands have died, and still die, including over 2000 US young men. The US President stated in August 26th 2003 that “if someone protects a terrorist, if someone protects a terrorist, if someone feeds a terrorist, then that person is just as guilty as the terrorists”. Obviously, this maxim does not apply when it comes to the terrorism that tears apart Cuban lives. Rewarding Posada Carriles with impunity, while Five Cuban Young men, fighters against terrorism, are given long and unjust sentences is an immoral and irresponsible act. It is an humiliation to all the victims of terrorism worldwide and their relatives. Cuba has made it clear on several occasions its willingness to cooperate with the serving of justice by sending all available data on this terrorist and has urged the international community to demand the US Government compliance with its obligation of ensuring the prosecution of this terrorist, in this case, by extraditing him to Venezuela, where he has been fugitive of justice since 1985, when he escaped while on trial for the blowing up of the Cuban aircraft in Barbados. The President of the Republic of Cuba has issued serious warnings on the legal responsibilities the US President would bring upon himself, who because of his investiture, is obliged to take action in cases like this one and to maintain the US people informed. Impunity must end. Cease illegality and hypocrisy. Brief summary of the curricula vitae of the Cuban-born terrorist Luis Faustino Clemente Posada Carriles. Luis Faustino Clemente Posada Carriles Some of the alias he most often uses are: Ramón Medina, Ignacio Medina, Juan Ramón Medina, Ramón Medina Rodríguez, José Ramón Medina, Rivas López, Juan José Rivas, Juan José Rivas López, Julio César Dumas, Franco Rodríguez Mena. He left Cuba on 25 February 1961 after having taken refuge in the Argentinean Embassy in 1960. Joined the US army where he received military training. By 1963 he was already an established CIA agent and trained others for sea-borne missions. He settled near Tampa in 1964 and was in charge of a camp run by the Revolutionary Junta (JURE); Cuban born terrorists were trained there. While there he was taught about explosives and demolition by CIA experts. Around this time he led a CIA infiltration team which undertook various actions against Cuba. During the 60s he established connections with members of such terrorist organizations as Alpha 66, Commandos L and the 30 November Movement (Movimiento 30 Noviembre) Towards the end of the 60s he moved to Venezuela where, in 1967, he joined the Intelligence and Prevention Service Branch (DISIP) with the position of Head of Operations and worked as liaison with the CIA. Later on he set up the Detective, Commercial and Industrial Investigations Agency which was closed down after it was proved he was one of the two people behind the sabotage of the Cubana de Aviación plane in Barbados in 1976 which killed 73 people and for which he was tried and jailed. He was held in various Venezuelan jails from 1976 until 18 August 1985 when he escaped with the help of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) and the complicity of corrupt prison authorities. He then moved to El Salvador where he worked for about two years at the Ilopango military base as an advisor to the Nicaraguan Contra. He was seriously wounded in Guatemala in February 1990. He had been working there for Teléfonos de Guatemala (GUATEL) as an advisor on security matters. Because of the attack on him, he received economic support from Alberto Hernández, director of the CANF, who paid some of his hospital fees. After he recovered, he was taken to San Pedro Sula in Honduras where he was put up in a hotel by his friend, the Cuban-born businessman Rafael Hernández Nodarse. In the 90s he was in frequent contact with Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, known as Gasparito, and with other terrorists; he helped organize several attempts on President Fidel Castro’s life. He helped Miami based organizations to buy arms in Central America which they used to carry out terrorists acts against Cuba. During this period he often traveled through Central American countries, especially Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and El Salvador. He is on very good terms with military men and businesspersons in those countries who support him. He also went to Miami, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Aruba. In January 1994 he helped to plot an attempt on President Fidel Castro’s life which was financed by the Cuban American National Foundation. It was to be carried out in Honduras if the Cuban Head of State attended President Carlos Roberto Reina’s assumption of office. In June he went to Colombia with Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo on similar business. In June 1995 he went to Costa Rica to blow up a Cuban ship and in December of that year he and Ramón Orozco Crespo organized a dynamite attack on a Cuban target. In 1995 Posada Carriles, in collusion with some Honduran soldiers placed 41 bombs in Honduras according to a denouncement made in 1997 by Dr. Ramón Custodio, president of the Honduran Human Rights Committee. In 1997, working with the Cuban American National Foundation’s top brass he created the terrorist network in Central America by recruiting mercenaries in that region, the aim being to carry out terrorist type operations against Cuba. He publicly acknowledged this to be the case in mid 1998. He and CANF board member Arnaldo Monzón Plascencia were also involved in 1997 in planning an attempt on President Fidel Castro’s life to be implemented during the 7th Ibero-American Summit on Margarita Island, Venezuela. He collaborated with counterrevolutionaries Nelly Rojas, Pedro Morales and Francisco Pimentel and others on his projects. They apparently offered him support. He was the direct organizer of several terrorist bomb attacks in Cuba. The first of these was in April 1997 and was carried out by Chávez Abarca and Otto René Rodríguez Llerena, mercenaries recruited by him. Fourteen bombs were made eight of which exploded, 4 were deactivated before they could explode and 2 were seized when they were trying to bring them into Cuba. These bombs killed one person, injured several and caused costly material damage. The offices of Cuban companies Havanatur in the Bahamas and Cubanchan in Mexico were also attacked. He was directly involved in a plan to try and assassinate president Fidel Castro during his visit to the Dominican Republic in August 1998. Other terrorists living in Miami were also involved. That same year he planned to blow up a Cubana de Aviación plane en routed from Havana to Central America. During 1999 and 2000 Posada Carriles continued to plan similar terrorist operations the aim of which was to damage the Cuban economy and Cuban property and interests abroad; he purchased explosive and other materiel for this purpose. The 10th Ibero-American Summit assassination attempt was organized directly by Francisco “Pepe” Hernández and Alberto Hernández in meetings with Posada Carriles in Central American countries. He had several meetings with Gaspar Jiménez and Antonio Iglesias and others to go over the details of this attempt. The money he gave them to buy arms and explosives was provided by the Cuban American National Foundation. Between August and October of the previous year, Posada Carriles made several trips to Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama to organize the attempt. He received money and other help in Costa Rica to enable him to smuggle the arms he had bought overland into Panama. In Panama he carried out the reconnoitering he needed to do to implement his plan. During the 10th Ibero-American Summit in Panama in November 2000 he and Gaspar Eugenio Jiménez Escobedo, Guillermo Novo Sampoll and Pedro Remón Rodríguez were arrested by Panamanian authorities for their involvement in a plot to assassinate the president of the Republic of Cuba.
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