Posada Case Points up Dual Face of US
Havana, Jan 5, 2006. (Prensa Latina) If infamous international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is released by the US, as conjectured by US media, it will be a devastating blow to the already discredited US government´s anti-terrorism policy.
Posada, currently held under exceptional conditions of comfort in a prison in El Paso, Texas, would enjoy full freedom of movement and expression, despite the very serious charges filed against him.
Any analysis of this case must take into account that he was the mastermind behind the blowing up of a Cuban commercial plane in mid-air with 73 people onboard off the Barbados coast in 1976.
Along with his friend Orlando Bosch, currently moving freely in the streets of Miami, Posada planned the crime in collaboration with the US intelligence services for which they both worked, as proven by declassified documents.
This is only the tip of the iceberg of Posada and Bosch's criminal records, as both had previously occupied high-ranking posts in DISIP, a Venezuelan unit of repression, and gained notoriety for torturing politicians and revolutionary leaders in that South American country.
Simultaneously, and even after blowing up the Cuban plane, Posada continued working for the CIA and planned and executed other terrorist actions against Cuba, including planting bombs in Cuban business and tourism facilities abroad and in the islands.
Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo was killed in one of these terrorist bombings of a Havana hotel.
An assassination attempt against Cuban President Fidel Castro during the Ibero-American Summit in Panama added to the record and triggered an international movement demanding his punishment.
A Venezuelan request for his extradition remains unanswered by the US Justice Department.
Washington is striving to prevent justice for the terrorist, and ignores Venezuela's demands, as well as those of Cuba and other states denouncing proven White House complicity with Posada.
By trying to get him paroled, the Bush Administration seems ready to admit, without blushing, the ambivalence and double-standard of its proclaimed anti-terrorist campaign.