HOME	Where the World's Views of America Come into Focus

By M. H. Lagarde

April 1, 2005

Original Article (English)

After a few months of  “missing” somewhere in Central-America, it seems that notorious terrorist ringleader, Posada Carriles, is to reside in the United States. In order to justify the bombing in 1976 of a Cubana jet in midfight, the bomber is to be provided with warm shelter on North-American soil. Miami media claim that the Bush Administration’s welcome to Posada is in payment for his service to the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

According to Santiago Alvarez Fernandez, the attorney who coordinated Posada Carriles’ defense in Panama shortly after Carriles had been accused of plotting to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, he is seeking an attorney to represent the said terrorist [to prevent his extradition to Venezuela] if he reaches the hands of U.S. immigration authorities.

In an interview with EFE, Alvarez explained that entry into the U.S. would be arranged,  “if he is here or he thinks to come based on the military record he’s got in this country."

Carriles serviced the U.S. Army’s 101 [Airborne] Division as a Lieutenant during the U.S. invasion of Viet-Nam." As a U.S. Army veteran, he has the right to citizenship in wartime. In addition, his attorney stressed that his wife, children and grandchildren are North-American residents.

In fact, the U.S. owes Carriles much more for things other than his services in Vietnam. His  “military record” dates back to 1963 at the time of receiving military training at Fort Benning, Georgia in order to crackdown the Cuban Revolution.

Reared and nurtured at the CIA's mercenary -producing laboratories, Posada was a key man in the Miami-based counter-revolutionary mafia. There he played a central role as part of the RECE terrorist group  (Cuban Representation in Exile), and later as militant of the terrorist umbrella group CORU (United Revolutionary Organization), aiming at undertaking terrorist actions to overturn Cuba’s  government.

Later, in 1967, Posada joined Venezuelan Department of Intelligence Security and Prevention (DISIP) as an advisor to several Latin-American dictatorships. Then, after being arrested along with Orlando Bosh for the bombing of Cubana flight that took the life of all the 73 people aboard, he managed, in 1985, to escape aided by his Miami comrades-in-arms. As a runaway convict, the notorious terrorist continued at the service of his masters to help unleash America’s war across Central America in the 1980s.

In the 1990s, he once again acted as mastermind of a number of deadly blasts in several Havana hotels, killing an Italian tourist.

In 2000 he was caught in Panama and charged for plotting to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro while attending the 10th Ibero-American Summit held in that nation.

In the plan to assassinate the statesman, Carriles, along with gang-members Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo, Guillermo Novo Sampoll, and Pedro Ramón, attempted to set off 9 kilos of C-4 explosives at the Panamanian University, Paraninfo, where Fidel was to give his speech.

Four years later, thanks to the manipulations of the U.S. government, former Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned Posada and his accomplices.

The acceptance of Posada in Miami is hardly surprising, given that murderers like Orlando Bosh enjoy respectability in that North American city, despite of the Bush Administration’s much trumpeted anti-terrorist campaign.