[News] A Decision in the Posada Case

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/pertierra08282009.html
August 28-30, 2009


The Right to Make Money is More Important Than the Right to Know


A Decision in the Posada Case

By JOSÉ PERTIERRA

A federal district court in El Paso, Texas, 
accepted many of the Government’s arguments, not 
allowing certain evidence in the case of Luis 
Posada Carriles to be made public.  Posada is 
scheduled for trial on perjury charges in March of 2010.

The Judge imposed a protective order on part of 
the evidence that will be used at 
trial.  Specifically, Judge Kathleen Cardone 
ordered a protective seal around tapes and 
transcriptions that journalist Ann Louise Bardach 
made in the course of interviewing Posada 
Carriles in 1998 concerning terrorist actions 
that he masterminded the previous year.

The judge’s decision, is incredibly, and based on 
the journalist’s right to “sell her material and 
she is entitled to the proceeds of that 
sale.”  The Court concluded that “Ms. Bardach 
should not . . . lose control over that material.”

The economic interests of a journalist to sell 
her tape recordings, or a book based on those 
recordings, ought not take precedence over the 
public’s right to know, as well as the rights of 
the families affected by the terrorist acts to 
review the evidence.  This decision is a sad 
reflection of what is truly most important in 
this society:  business above all else.

Fabio DiCelmo, the young Italian that Posada 
brutally murdered in Havana on September 4, 1997, 
left behind a family that grieves his 
absence:  Giustino and Ora, his parents, as well 
as Livio his brother.  They, and also the public, 
ought not have to await the publication of a book 
that they would subsequently have to purchase in 
order to review the taped interviews of Posada Carriles.

During all of the legal vicissitudes that we will 
come across in the coming months relating to the 
trial of Posada Carriles in El Paso, we must not 
lose sight that the terrorist has 73 counts of 
first degree murder pending in Caracas in 
relation to the downing of a passenger plane.

The charges that are pending against Posada in 
Caracas are much more serious than those pending 
in El Paso.  Perjury is a poor substitute for 73 
counts of first degree murder, and a murder prosecution ought take precedence.

The Montreal Convention for the Suppression of 
Illicit Acts for the Protection of Civil 
Aviation, signed in Montreal in 1971, obligates 
Washington to try Posada in the United States for 
73 counts of first degree murder, if it decides not to extradite him.

Posada Carriles is an international fugitive from 
justice.  He fled from a Venezuelan prison to 
escape justice.  If it does not extradite him to 
Venezuela, the United States is legally obligated 
to prosecute him for the downing of the 
plane.  Why doesn’t Washington abide by its 
obligations under international law?  This is the heart of the matter.

José Pertierra represents the government of 
Venezuela in the extradition case against Luis Posada Carriles.




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