Cuba Denounces Terrorist Impunity at UN
UNITED NATIONS, March 25, 2008. Cuba exhorted the UN Security Council on Wednesday to respond to the terrorist actions by individuals and organizations against this nation and on the protection and tolerance which the US government grants the perpetrators, reported Prensa Latina.
Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuba’s Ambassador to the UN, raised the issue during his presentation on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.
Malmierca noted that for numerous years the Cuban delegation has been regularly presenting the UN Security Council and its Committee Against Terrorism with detailed information on terrorist actions against Cuba committed by individuals and organizations.
Cuba has also offered details on the conspiratorial protection or tolerance granted by the US government to terrorists, without any action taken, not even to analyze the information presented. Malmierca cited the case of Luis Posada Carriles, credited with deadly plane and hotel bombings, as an example of the inaction.
In contrast to the freedom enjoyed by Posada Carriles and other confessed terrorists, the diplomat indicated that US authorities still maintain the Cuban Five, who strived to prevent terrorism, in maximum security prisons.
REPLY FROM US REPRESENTATIVE
UNITED NATIONS, March 25. Cuba criticized the veracity of statements by US Ambassador Jackie Wilcott justifying her country’s handling of the case of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, reported PL.
In her rebuttal to the denunciation by Cuban Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca on the case, Wilcott said her country had acted according to international law.
However, Fermin Quinones, first secretary of the Cuban UN mission, noted that if the US authorities had acted consistent with international law, Posada Carriles would have already been tried for terrorism in the United States or extradited to Venezuela.