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The
U.S. government has become increasingly
isolated internationally for the way that it has handled the Luis
Posada Carriles case, applying a double
standard in its so-called war on terrorism. Left with little room for
political maneuver, it got a momentary reprieve on June 24 in an El Paso, Texas, federal court, where U.S.
Immigration Judge William Lee Abbott agreed to attorney Eduardo Soto’s
request to postpone Posada’s bail hearing for
30 days.
Posada,
who admitted in a 1998 New York Times interview having received CIA
training in explosives, sabotage, killing, and bomb making, has
dedicated over 40 years planning and executing hundreds of terrorist acts
throughout Cuba, Latin America, and the U.S. In the same Times
interview he boasted about his role in a series of 1997 hotel bombings
in Cuba, one of which killed an
Italian tourist and injured eleven others.
Posada
is most notorious for the planning and funding of the Oct. 6, 1976, bombing of a Cubana Airlines plane, which killed 73 people when
it exploded in mid-air over the island of Barbados.
Posada
took refuge in Florida for at least one month
before the U.S. took action, buckling under
pressure generated, in part, by exposes in important mainstream press
throughout the world. The Department of Homeland Security arrested
Posada on May 17, following a press conference that day when he
announced that he would seek asylum in the U.S. He was charged with
illegally entering the country, a minor felony.
A
June 13 hearing in El Paso set June 24 and Aug. 29 as
the dates for hearings regarding bail and immigration violations,
respectively. June 13 also marked a day of nationwide protests in over
20 cities, including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The central demand was to
extradite Posada to Venezuela, where he is a citizen.
Soto
made the postponement request claiming that he needs time to review
newly submitted documents from Venezuela and previous documents from
Cuba, both highlighting Posada’s involvement in terrorist acts.
The
June 24 Agencia Cubana
de Noticias reported that "according to
Miami-based media outlets Soto seeks to exclude from the case the
documents proving that Posada Carriles is
guilty of terrorist acts, delivered by the Cuban government to the FBI
during a meeting in Havana on June 16-17, 1998."
Admissibility
of these documents, many of which are recently declassified FBI and CIA
records, is key to the case, especially in
relation to the Aug. 29 immigration hearing. Jose Petierra,
lead prosecuting attorney working on Venezuela’s behalf, said in a June 22
Radio Progreso interview
that based on a 1922 extradition treaty between the U.S. and Venezuela, "immigration hearings
should be suspended for extradition hearings."
Petierra has also explained that
Venezuela met the three standards for their extradition request
(officially submitted to the U.S. on June 15) to take effect, as
outlined in the 1922 treaty: 1) There is a warrant for Posada’s arrest in Venezuela; 2) The crime for
which he is accused is contained in the Venezuela penal code; 3) United
States law contains a mirror image of the statute that Venezuela
accuses Posada of violating, in this case, the law against homicide.
Homicide is the number-one extraditable offense listed in the 1922
treaty.
Thus,
to deliberate anything other than Posada’s
extradition during the Aug. 29 hearings would be a blatant abrogation
of the 1922 treaty, and the U.S. would face legal
repercussions, not to mention serious political repercussions.
In
relation to Cuba and Venezuela, the U.S. government seems to be
measuring what political blows they can give and take around the Posada
case. It’s clear that their creditability in the war on terror has
suffered. Consequently, they had to pull a punch in regard to a change
of venue to Miami.
Marking
a significant victory for Cuba and Venezuela, on June 16, Judge Abbott
denied Posada’s request to move the trial to Miami, where he would have
received even more favorable treatment than he has enjoyed thus far.
Miami is the historic base for right-wing
Cuban-exile groups who have dedicated the past 30 years to launching
attacks against Cuba and are sympathetic to
Posada, among other notable terrorists. Orlando Bosch, arrested by the U.S. in 1968 for terrorism (he
was pardoned in 1990 by then president Bush Sr.), has a street named
after him in Miami.
Drawing
on the outcry generated by Washington’s soft handling of Posada’s case, Cuba convened
"International Encounter against Terrorism, for Truth and
Justice," a conference in Havana, June 2-4. Organized in less than a week’s time,
the conference drew 1500 participants from over 60 countries to build
support from around the world to fight against U.S. sponsored terror.
Cuba and Venezuela will continue focusing
international scrutiny on the United States government, which has been
backed into a corner alongside its long-time ally, Posada. The example
of both countries continues to garner support among a growing layer of
society that is standing up against U.S. efforts to police the world
using terror and violence.
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