Statement from the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba

The secrets that Posada Carriles knows will come to light sooner or later.

Our people have learned with indignation that on the afternoon of May 8, Judge Kathleen Cardone ordered the definitive release of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and dismissed all of the charges that the United States government had brought against him last January 11 for fraud and for lying in interviews with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities in order to obtain his naturalization in that country.

At this time, Cuba reaffirms, even more strongly, our peoples condemnation of this maneuver, which, as the April 19, 2007 statement by our revolutionary government said, "is an insult to the Cuban people and to the peoples that lost 73 of their sons and daughters when a Cubana de Aviacion passenger plane was brought down off the coast of Barbados."

Statement

In a statement issued on January 15, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it hoped that "these charges brought against terrorist Posada Carriles for minor immigration crimes would not become a smokescreen for granting impunity to him for the serious crime of terrorism, in a pretext to continue ignoring the application presented on June 15, 2005 by the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, for Posada Carriles extradition for his responsibility in the bombing of the Cubana de Aviacion airliner, and to which no response has yet been made."

The series of events from the moment Posada Carriles entered U.S. territory aboard the boat Santrina as our President opportunely denounced? shows clearly that every action taken by the U.S. government from that moment responded to a plan approved by President Bush and designed to create, precisely, a "smokescreen" that would prevent the prosecution of Luis Posada Carriles for what he actually is: a terrorist.

It would have sufficed for the U.S. government to apply its own Patriot Act, and acknowledge that the release of the terrorist "threatens the national security of the United States or the security of the community or of any person" to prevent his release.

It would have sufficed for its Immigration and Customs authorities to decree that the release of Posada Carriles would constitute a threat to the community and create the risk that he would flee, as was clearly stated by our revolutionary government this past April 19.

The U.S. government possesses all of the evidence deriving from its longstanding relationship with the terrorist, along with that provided by Cuba in 1998 and more recently.

Charges

The manipulation that has led to this outcome, the protection that the terrorist received as soon as he entered U.S. territory, the charges for minor crimes brought against him, the back-and-forth of the terrorist's custody from one federal agency to another and from one court to another, and finally, the ruling by Judge Cardone on May 8, demonstrate that Washington's plan was, precisely, to prevent him from speaking about the destructive actions he committed against the Cuban and Venezuelan people and against other nations of Our America, acting under the orders of the CIA and, particularly, of the father of the current president of the United States, who headed that U.S. government agency of espionage and subversion in 1975 and 1976, the period when terrorist actions against Cuba were at their most violent and ruthless, as well as when he was vice president of the United States in the 1980s, the period in which a dirty war was waged against the Nicaraguan people.

However, perhaps the fact that most illustrates how that plan was being implemented was the petition to the court by the U.S. government this past April 27 to disallow any evidence, testimony or other proof linking Posada Carriles to the Central Intelligence Agency, and the terrorists response, arguing that he had acted under CIA orders for more than 25 years, which is confirmed by the role he played as a CIA agent in U.S. government actions against Nicaragua during the 1980s.

With its decision to not classify Posada Carriles as a terrorist, the U.S. government has not only violated its own laws and its alleged commitment to its self-proclaimed "war on terrorism;" it has also violated its international obligations.

Unstoppable

The clamor of the peoples against this decision will be unstoppable. The secrets that Posada Carriles knows will come to light sooner or later, and the U.S. government will have to respond for its double standard and its lack of political will to seriously fight against terrorism.

It remains to be seen now what the White House will do; it still has the option, in compliance with its international obligations, to stop Luis Posada Carriles and extradite him to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to respond for his crimes.

Havana, May 9th , 2007