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Venezuela Extradites Terrorist Chavez Abarca to Cuba

VENEZUELA, July 7, 2010.- Venezuela´s President Hugo Chavez announced on Tuesday that Salvadorian terrorist Francisco Chavez Abarca will be extradited to Cuba over the next few hours. The island is requesting his extradition under Red Code for his responsibility in the execution of terrorist attacks in Havana.

“Over the next few hours he (Chavez Abarca) will be sent to Cuba by means of Interpol,” said Chavez during the 8 th Venezuela-Ecuador Presidential Meeting, la radio del Sur webpage reported.

Chavez Abarca was imprisoned in El Salvador for two years for his leadership of a gang dedicated to stealing cars, but the Salvadorian justice did not judge him for other international crimes.

Abarca and 21 members of his gang were arrested for charges of criminal deception and theft of vehicles. Authorities assured that the gang was one of the main structures of organized crime dedicated to stealing vehicles at national level and in Central America.

But a judge released Chavez Abarca on October 28, 2007 despite his crimes. However, Abarca did not have to respond for his role as main accomplice of Luis Posada Carriles in a campaign against Cuba, which was not referred to at the Salvadorian court of justice despite repeated denunciations in that respect.

In the 1990s, Chavez Abarca was accused of drug trafficking, and of selling fire weapons and fake money in Guatemala. He used false names such as Manuel Gonzalez, Roberto Solorzano and William Gonzalez, and he made three brief trips to Cuba in April and May of 1997 to carry out terrorist attacks.

In 1997, the terrorist planted and activated a 600-gram C-4 bomb that damaged the restrooms of the Ache disco at the Melia Cohiba Hotel, in Havana, Cuba on April 12 that year. On April 30th a 401-gram C-4 bomb was deactivated after the Salvadorian terrorist had planted it in a flower pot on the 15th floor of the Melia Cohiba Hotel.

On May 24, while Chavez Abarca was staying in Mexico, another bomb blast occurred at the entrance of the office of Cuba´s Cubanacan Corporation in that country. Also in 1997, under the indications of Posada Carriles, Francisco Chavez Abarca hired mercenary Rene Cruz Leon and gave him the mission of carrying out terrorist actions in Cuba. Later, Cruz Leon made two trips to Cuba and activated bombs in Cuban hotels; one of those bombs killed young Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo on September 4, 1997.

International and confessed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, accused of having masterminded the bombing of a Cuban airplane in mid air, which killed all 73 people on board in 1976, enjoys freedom in Miami, the United States, despite the fact that Venezuela has requested his extradition in several occasions.

Hugo Chavez also confirmed the arrest in Caracas of Colombian drug capo Carlos Renteria, who will be extradited to the United States. “He is Colombian but the United States wants it,” said Chavez in a brief comment on the case. The US State Department was offering a 5-million-dollar reward for Carlos Alberto Renteria. (Cubaminrex – ACN)