Free the Cuban Five/Extradite Posada Carriles
February 8, 2010
By Jenifer Smith
Luis Posada Carriles is scheduled to appear in federal court in El Paso, Texas, on March 1, 2010. He will be tried on perjury charges that result from an immigration matter that occurred in 2005, at which time, he provided false testimony about his role in orchestrating and participating in a multitude of terrorist activities directed against Cuba, in particular. Although Posada Carriles had previously claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Hotel Copacabana that caused the death of Italian tourist Fabio DeCelma, and wounding many others to the New York Times in 1998, when he was interviewed by immigration officials in relation to these self proclamations, he denied that they were true. He is also known (again, by his own admission) to have been a principal organizer for a number of other hotel and restaurant bombings that took place in Havana throughout 1997.
In addition to the above-mentioned series of planned attacks against the nation of Cuba, there exists an insurmountable amount of evidence that proves Posada Carriles, along with his cohort, Orlando Bosch, who is also a long-time CIA operative, were the responsible agents in planning the bombing of a commercial Cuban airline in 1976. An explosion occurred in mid-air which caused the innocent deaths of all persons on-board the flight that fateful day in October of 1976.
Venezuela made a formal request to the United States government for the extradition of Posada Carriles on June 15, 2005; however, this petition has remained unanswered up to this time. Posada Carriles is eligible for extradition to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under international law because he escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985, where he was being held after being convicted for committing serious acts of felony crimes, including the downing of the Cuban airline flight 455.
A demonstration is planned to occur on the date of Posada Carriles’ appearance in court as follows:
DATE: Monday, March 1, 2010
TIME: 8:00 AM
PLACE: United States Federal Courthouse, El Paso 511 East San Antonio Avenue, El Paso, Texas
Protesters will convene to voice their demand for the immediate extradition of Posada Carriles to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This demonstration will include a demand for the immediate freedom of the Cuban Five, political prisoners who were unjustly tried and convicted in the U.S. for attempting to monitor and subvert dangerous terrorist activities like those perpetrated by the likes of entities such as Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch.
There are hundreds of organizing committees all over the world enjoined in campaign efforts to fight for justice and the release from prison on behalf of these five Cuban heroes.
The U.S. base of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five has just launched a new postcard campaign addressed and directed to President Obama. This new campaign effort was initiated in direct response to an overwhelming number of requests made by members of the international community to this Committee and, especially the ten Nobel Laureates, whose names appear on the face of the card. The message calls on Barack Obama, a fellow Nobel Laureate, to enlist in this call for justice; which in his case, can be achieved and executed by the simple stroke of a pen. To learn more about the Cuban Five visit: www.thecuban5.org, www.freethefive.org, or, www.antiterroristas.cu.
While the anti-terrorists, the Cuban Five, continue to serve unjustly imposed sentences in U.S. federal prisons (they will soon have completed 12 years in detention), the real terrorists are walking freely and gleefully about the streets of Miami. Posada Carriles returned to a hero’s welcome in Miami when the aforementioned charges against him were dismissed by this same federal Court in El Paso, and he was released in May 2007.
In spite of the fact that a federal grand jury issued a superseding Indictment against Posada Carriles on April 8, 2009, that officially acknowledges an established link between him to the 1997 bombing in Cuba, this criminal master-mind will only be appearing on perjury charges before this Court on the first while the acts of murder to which he is a known and named party will remain unanswered. Justice has yet to be served in the case of Luis Posada Carriles. If the United States refuses to charge and try Posada Carriles for the murders he is guilty of, by all rights, he should be remanded to the courts of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, where he will be judiciously tried. Extradite Posada Carriles/Free the Cuban Five — now!
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