GUATEMALA , April 18, 2007.- Guatemalan human rights defenders and other figures reject in this capital Wednesday the US intention of releasing terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, mastermind of the mid-air explosion of a Cuban airplane in 1976. "It would be a scandal for the international justice system and an insult for victims and their relatives if Posada Carriles is freed," Frank La Rue, Guatemala's Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights, told Prensa Latina. Posada Carriles is considered one of the most infamous criminals of the western hemisphere and, in addition of the bombing against the Cubana airplane, he is also responsible for the planning of a series of bomb attacks to Havana hotels in 1997, which killed an Italian tourist. He is also linked to CIA operations like the Iran-Contra scandal, advising Central American regimes in the 80s and the plan of organizing an assassination attempt against Cuban President Fidel Castro at the Panama University in 2000. Edda Gaviola, director of the Legal Action Center for Human rights, condemned Washington's double standard that, on one side, stand as the champion against terrorism and, on the other side, protect that man. Hector Nuila, general secretary of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, demanded the US fulfill its international obligations and try Posada Carriles or grant the extradition request from Venezuela. (Cubaminrex-PL)
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