[News] Luis Posada Carriles’ right hand man nabbed in Venezuela

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Luis Posada Carriles’ right hand man, Francisco 
Chávez Abarca, nabbed in Venezuela

Posted: 02 Jul 2010 05:15 PM PDT

Francisco Chávez Abarca, Posada Carriles’ Right 
Hand Man, Captured in Venezuela - 
<http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2010/07/02/capturan-en-venezuela-a-francisco-chavez-abarca-mano-derecha-de-posada-carriles/>español

Translation: Machetera for Tlaxcala

Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president, reported 
today that the Salvadoran Francisco Chávez 
Abarca, accused of being Luis Posada Carriles’ 
right hand man, and the author of various 
explosive attacks in Cuba, was arrested in a 
nighttime intelligence operation on Thursday when he tried to enter Venezuela.

In an address from Miraflores Palace (the 
government headquarters), the Venezuelan leader 
explained that Abarca was arrested in the airport 
at Maiquetía (in the north) and was transferred 
to the headquarters of the Bolivarian 
Intelligence Service (SEBIN) for interrogation.

Nicknamed “Potbelly,” Chávez Abarca is on 
Interpol’s Most Wanted list due to his 
implication in various attacks with explosives in Cuba in the 1990’s.

In the wake of the capture, the Venezuelan 
president asked what might have been the 
Salvadoran’s intention in trying to enter the 
country and ordered verification of the person(s) awaiting him.

“Who wanted Chávez Abarca in Venezuela?  Who was 
awaiting him?” the Venezuelan leader asked, 
before reporting that Chávez Abarca will be 
delivered to Interpol so that he can be sent to 
Cuba, the country that requested his capture.

He said that “this gentleman came here to kill me 
- that’s what my heart says,” and he asked for 
collaboration to clarify the “special mission 
that he came to complete in Venezuela.”

Chávez said that midway through the advance of 
the revolution and close to the parliamentary 
elections in September “it is very strange that a 
terrorist of this caliber should come.”

“Posada Carriles ought to be really nervous 
because we’ve caught one of his people,” he added.

Chávez Abarca was under arrest in El Salvador for 
two years for being the leader of a gang 
dedicated to vehicle theft in that country, but 
sidestepped sentencing for other international crimes of which he was accused.

Chávez Abarca and 21 members of his gang were 
arrested under charges of automobile theft and 
swindling.  Authorities assured at the time that 
they were dealing with “one of the main 
structures of organized crime dedicated to 
vehicle theft on a national and Central American level.”

On October 28, 2007, a complacent judge freed 
Chávez Abarca from his criminal 
charges.  However, he never had to answer for his 
role as the principal accomplice of Luis Posada 
Carriles.  The campaign for his arrest was never 
mentioned before Salvadoran courts, despite repeated complaints.

In the 1990s, there were indications that he had 
dedicated himself to drug trafficking as well as 
arms sales and currency counterfeiting in Guatemala.

He used the aliases Manuel González, Roberto 
Solórzano and William González, and went on three 
short trips to Cuba in April and May of 1997 to 
engage in various attacks there.

In 1997 he detonated a bomb with 600 grams of C-4 
that caused structural damage in the bathrooms of 
the Aché discotheque in the Hotel Melia Cohiba, on April 12, 1997.

On the 30th of the same month, an explosive 
device with 401 grams of C-4 that the Salvadoran 
had put in an ornamental planter on the 15th 
floor of the same hotel was defused.

Furthermore, on May 24th, while Chávez Abarca was 
in México, a bomb exploded in the offices of the 
Cubanacán corporation in the capital.

President Chávez recalled that it has been five 
years since his government made a formal petition 
to Washington for the extradition of Posada 
Carriles, an ex-agent of the Central Intelligence 
Agency (CIA).  Posada Carriles is 82 years old 
and is responsible for, among other crimes, the 
explosive attack in October 6, 1976 against 
Cubana de Aviación Flight 455, where all 73 people on board were killed.

Posada Carriles is free in the United States and 
only accused of violating immigration laws.  The 
United States has not answered Venezuela’s extradition request.

It was Posada Carriles’ recruit who planted the 
bomb that killed Fabio di Celmo.

In 1997, following instructions from Posada 
Carriles, “Potbelly” Chávez Abarca was the person 
who contracted with the mercenary Ernesto Cruz 
León and charged him with carrying out terrorist 
missions in Cuba, telling him that he himself had 
done it, and shortly thereafter he trained his 
recruit in the preparation of explosive devices.

This was how Cruz León came to make two trips to 
Cuba during which he planted bombs in Havana 
hotels, one of which killed the young Italian 
tourist Fabio de Celmo, on September 4, 1997.  It 
was the most tragic moment in the criminal terror 
campaign unleashed by Posada on behalf of the 
Cuban American National Foundation, created by the CIA.

(With reporting from Telesur)

Machetera is a member of 
<http://www.tlaxcala.es/>Tlaxcala, the 
international network of translators for 
linguistic diversity. This translation may be 
reprinted as long as the content remains 
unaltered, and the source and translator are cited.




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