[News] Fidel leads march against terrorism, Posada mocks US Govt

[News at freedomarchives.org]

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/mayo/mar17/21palabras.html
Havana. May 17, 2005

Key address by Fidel Castro Ruz, president of the Republic of Cuba, at the 
opening of the great combative people’s march to oppose terrorism. May 17, 2005

Fellow Cubans:

For 137 years, from October 10, 1868 until today, the Cuban people has been 
fighting for its independence, first against Spanish colonialism and then 
against the imperialist, expansionist policies of US governments.

During that period, we achieved full political sovereignty for the first 
time on January 1, 1959 when, after sweeping away the bloody tyranny 
imposed from abroad, the Cuban people began governing the nation. Since 
then, this noble and heroic people have not failed one single day to defend 
its right to development, justice, peace and liberty.

Because of this fair and unremitting aspiration, our people have been 
subject to the longest economic war in history and to a pervasive, 
ferocious campaign of terrorism which has lasted more than 45 years.

One of the first and bloodiest of such acts was the bombing of the ship La 
Coubre in the Havana harbor killing 101 people and wounding hundreds more.

The April 17, 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion by a military force, organized, 
trained and equipped by the US government, was preceded by a surprise, 
treacherous air strike dealt by US bombers, with the Cuban air force 
insignia painted on them. The invading troops were brought to Cuba 
escorted, guarded and accompanied by US naval and air units and troops, 
which would wait for the mercenaries to establish a beachhead and then, 
with the complicity of the OAS, support a provisional government that did 
not even have the time to take off from a Florida airport.

Similarly, from the very first years of our triumph, armed groups were 
spread throughout the length and breadth of our land killing farmers, 
workers, teachers and literacy teachers, burning houses and destroying 
agricultural and industrial facilities. Acts of sabotage with white 
phosphorous and explosives were carried out against our country’s 
population and economy. Our ports, merchant and fishing ships were subject 
to constant attacks. Diplomatic legations and personnel abroad were the 
targets of attacks with explosives and firearms.

Diplomats were killed, vanished or maimed. Passenger planes were blown up 
before they took off or in midair like the Barbados airliner on October 6, 
1976, full of passengers whose remains lie beyond recovery on the bottom of 
the sea, hundreds of meters deep.

More than once, diseases affecting the life of human beings or that of 
domestic animals and plants necessary to provide food for the people were 
introduced into our country.

These acts were devised by US governments and their special services, and 
perpetrated by individuals trained by these.

The most up-to-date and dramatic conception of terrorism involving 
sophisticated techniques and high-powered explosives was created and 
developed by US governments to destroy our revolution. Such terrorism has 
continued relentlessly, both inside and outside Cuba, for more than four 
decades.

Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles, the most bloodthirsty exponents of the 
imperialists terrorism against our country, committed dozens of atrocious 
acts in numerous countries of this hemisphere, including the territory of 
the United States. Thousands of Cubans either lost their lives or were 
maimed as a result of these cowardly, loathsome acts.

The same US agencies and services which trained Cuban-born terrorists also 
carefully trained, as is common knowledge, those who organized the brutal 
attack on New York’s Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 in which some 
thousands of Americans lost their lives.

Posada Carriles, together with Orlando Bosch, ­who was then the boss of the 
CORU, a CIA-created organization­ was not only involved in destroying the 
Cubana airliner but for many years since then has organized dozens of 
attempts to assassinate the Cuban Revolution’s top leadership and was 
behind the numerous bombs that exploded in Cuban tourist hotels.

Meanwhile, Orlando Bosch, apparently a fugitive from US authorities, worked 
in conjunction with Augusto Pinochet's repressive forces to kidnap and 
murder well-known Chileans like Carlos Prats and Orlando Letelier, and to 
arrange the disappearance of numerous anti-fascist fighters in Chile as 
well as the kidnapping and death of Cuban diplomats. From his prison in 
Venezuela, he ordered his hired assassins to execute terrorist plans.

Such sinister characters always took orders from US governments and their 
special services; however, they have been illegally relieved of all charges 
and punishment. That is the case of the pardon granted to Orlando Bosch by 
President George Bush, sr. Likewise, the current US President has tolerated 
the presence of Posada Carriles on US soil for weeks in what constitutes a 
flagrant violation of that country’s own laws by those with the highest 
responsibility for protecting the US people from terrorist attacks.

All of Posada Carriles terrorist activities, including the bombs in Havana 
hotels and the assassination plans, were financed by US governments through 
the notoriously famous Cuban American National Foundation, from the time of 
its inception by Reagan and Bush in 1981. Never have people behaved with so 
much dishonesty and hypocrisy.

This is not a march against the people of the United States. As we have 
said before, and we insist here today, this is a march against terrorism 
and in favor of our people’s life and peace as well as that of our American 
brothers and sisters in whose ethical values we trust.

Down with terrorism!

Down with Nazi doctrines and methods!

Down with genocide!

Long live solidarity, fraternity and peace among the peoples!

Long live the truth!

Let’s go forward, brave defenders of noble ideas, despising fear and the 
enormous power of the adversary, despising dangers; humanity yearns for 
justice!

Translated by ESTI


Posada confirms his presence in Miami and mocks the US government
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/mayo/mar17/21burla.html
TERRORIST Luis Posada Carriles virtually challenged and mocked the 
government of George Bush II by stating to El Nuevo Herald in Miami: "At 
first I hid out a lot. I thought that the US government was looking for me.

"Now, I’m hiding out much less. People have recognized me in supermarkets, 
at medical facilities, mostly elderly people." Government spokesmen have 
repeated time and time again that they do not know whether Posada is in the 
United States, as President Fidel Castro exposed a number of weeks ago.

In an interview published this Tuesday, May 17 by the newspaper of the 
extreme Cuban-American right in Miami and given "one afternoon recently, 
the individual accused of terrorism is peacefully sipping apricot juice, 
reading Confucius and admiring the silhouettes of Miami skyscrapers from 
the balcony of a building in Brickell Key."

The daily recounts that the meeting took place in a luxury condo just a few 
blocks from the Offices of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for 
his first interview since he furtively entered the country in March.

Cuba and Venezuela are demanding that the US authorities arrest Posada for 
his terrorist activities and are charging the US government with hypocrisy 
on account of pursuing terrorism overseas, but not Posada, who has applied 
for asylum.

Posada declined to confirm or deny his participation in a series of bomb 
attacks on Cuban tourist installations in 1997, despite having previously 
admitted his involvement. "Let’s leave that to history," he said.

El Herald noted that Posada’s application for asylum will depend "on 
whether the immigration judge believes that he was involved in acts of 
terrorism.

The immigration laws prohibit the granting of asylum to any foreigner if it 
is believed that he or she has committed a serious crime.

Posada’s connection with around one dozen explosions in Cuban tourist sites 
in 1997 in which six people were injured and an Italian citizen died, is 
therefore relevant.

In a rare interview given in July 1998, Posada told The New York Times that 
he had "organized a wave of bombings the previous year in Cuban hotels, 
restaurants and discotheques," and that his main aid came from the leaders 
of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), including its founder 
Jorge Mas Canosa, who died in 1997.

DHS officials state that they are not actively seeking Posada because there 
are no orders for his arrest in the United States, according to El Nuevo 
Herald.



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