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From: Machetera <missmachetera@gmail.com><br><br>
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</font><font size=4><b><a name="1"></a>Waiting for Posada Carriles to die
<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Posted: 22 Jun 2010 02:30 AM PDT<br>
<b>Telesur (Caracas) ? José Perttierra: <i>“The United States would
prefer to see Posada Carriles dead rather than extradite him.”</i> –
</b><a href="http://ecaminos.org/leer.php/6550"><i>español<br><br>
</a></i>Translation: Machetera<br><br>
<i>José Pertierra, the lawyer representing Venezuela in the case of the
extradition petition for the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, says that
the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking a biological solution for the
case. The solution is to prolong the trial, because “the more time
that passes, the more probable it is that he’ll die and do away with the
extradition case.”<br><br>
</i>“That’s why, at every opportunity, the prosecution asks for a delay,
because the solution they’re seeking is a biological solution; they’d
rather see him dead than extradited. It’s not that they want to
kill him, but they know that he’s an elderly man and the more time that
passes, the more probable it is that he’ll die and do away with the
extradition case,” he said in an interview granted to teleSUR.<br><br>
He also said that the U.S. Government is legally obliged to extradite the
Cuban-Venezuelan terrorist, not to keep him in Miami where he takes part
in political demonstrations.<br><br>
Posada Carriles is responsible for the mid-air explosion of a <i>Cubana
de Aviacion</i> airliner with 76 people on board in 1976, that had taken
off from Venezuela for Cuba but after making a stop in Barbados was
targeted in the plot that led to the extradition request.<br><br>
The transcript of the <i>teleSUR</i> interview follows:<br><br>
<b>Does the President of the United States know that Luis Posada Carriles
is a fugitive from Venezuelan justice?<br><br>
</b>Yes, he knows, and he protects him anyway. I believe for
different reasons than those of Bush. Posada Carriles is a
terrorist of the Bush family. When the <i>Cubana </i>airliner blew
up in 1976, Posada worked for the CIA and the head of the CIA was Bush
Sr. When he escaped from prison in 1985 in San Juan de los Morros,
in the state of Guárico here in Venezuela, Bush Sr. was Vice-President of
the United States and coincidentally, Posada Carriles began to work for
the CIA just days after his escape, in an operation directed by Bush Sr.
that later was known as the Iran-Contra scandal.<br><br>
<b>Why can’t Barack Obama rid himself of this terrorist?<br><br>
</b>Power in the United States does not necessarily reside in the Oval
Office. The President has a certain amount of power, but there’s a
lot of power in the shadows and within these shadows are the Pentagon,
the CIA and people who have a lot to lose if Posada Carriles is
extradited to Venezuela and begins to sing like a canary.<br><br>
We’ve also seen on other occasions that every time Posada feels
threatened, he threatens to sing.<br><br>
<b>What could Posada Carriles say that might endanger the U.S.
establishment?<br><br>
</b>Posada’s not your run-of-the-mill terrorist, nor is he an ordinary
CIA operative. Posada is a highly placed man within the
CIA.<br><br>
Posada was the CIA’s man in Caracas during the 1970’s, when he exercised
his power as the head of special operations for the DISIP (Venezuelan
intelligence), capturing, torturing and killing many here in
Venezuela. He was also the CIA’s man in Central America, advising
death squads in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.<br><br>
He was also a man who on several occasions participated in terrorist
activities against Cuba, including the 1997 bombings, of which he himself
boasted being the intellectual author. And as Posada’s own attorney
says, everything he did during those years, he did in Washington’s
name.<br><br>
Therefore, if he talks, he’ll talk about who gave him orders.<br><br>
<b>What evidence is there that Luis Posada Carriles committed crimes in
Venezuela? Are there enough classified documents to inculpate
him?<br><br>
We presented more than 2,000 pages of documents in support of the
extradition request we made, which prove that Posada Carriles was the
intellectual author of the airliner explosion. Among these
documents is one that was given to the police chief in Trinidad just days
after the aircraft explosion by one of the material authors, Hernan
Ricardo, where Ricardo says that he placed the bomb on board. He
says that he was paid $25,000 to do it and that his boss was Posada
Carriles.<br><br>
</b>We also presented documentation showing telephone calls from Trinidad
to Caracas by the material authors, in which Ricardo is looking for
Posada Carriles to tell him that the bus ? as they referred to the plane
?– had blown up and that the dogs had died – code for the passengers –
and that he was in a huge mess in Trinidad.<br><br>
There’s an enormous amount of proof. When Posada Carriles’ offices
were raided here in Caracas in 1976, the flight itinerary for <i>Cubana
de Aviacion</i> was discovered and we continued from there.<br><br>
<b>The court in El Paso, Texas, has evidence of Posada Carriles’
participation in a chain of attacks in Cuba in 1997, so why is he being
tried as a liar and not as a terrorist?<br><br>
</b>Simply to delay the extradition request that Venezuela has
presented. The United States is obliged by international law and
the international conventions signed by the United States and Venezuela
to either extradite Posada or try him in U.S. territory for his
crimes.<br><br>
Since this legal obligation exists, the only way that the U.S. government
can delay is to try him for something else and drag out the decision on
his extradition, and that’s what they’re doing with this case.<br><br>
That’s why the prosecutor asks for an extension at every opportunity,
because the solution that they’re seeking is a biological solution;
they’d prefer to see him dead rather than extradited.<br><br>
It’s not that they want to kill him, but they know that he’s an elderly
man and the more time that passes, the more probable it is that he’ll die
and do away with the extradition case.<br><br>
If they extradite him, the fear is that he’ll sing.<br><br>
<b>The prosecutor even went to Cuba to obtain evidence from the 1997
string of bombings on the island.<br><br>
</b>At the end of January, the prosecutor went to Havana to look for the
evidence about Posada Carriles’ links with the material authors of the
bombings. There are two individuals in prison in Cuba who gave
information to the prosecutor and there are documents from forensic
specialists that show the kinds of bombs used by these individuals to
kill Fabio diCelmo, an Italian, and injure eleven people.<br><br>
Moreover, Posada Carriles boasted in an interview with the <i>New York
Times </i>of being the intellectual author.<br><br>
The curious thing is that, let’s suppose that he goes to trial and it is
proven that he committed perjury when he denied knowing the material
author René Cruz León, from the bombing that killed Fabio diCelmo, let’s
go ahead and suppose that. If that happens, the next question is,
why is he not being tried for the murder of Fabio diCelmo, through the
terrorism that was committed using funds that came from Miami and New
York to carry out the conspiracy to commit cold-blooded murder against
people in Cuba?<br><br>
<b>Posada Carriles has said that he lied because the CIA taught him
exactly how to lie, and that he was confused when he was interviewed in
El Paso?<br><br>
</b>Yes, that’s what it says in the documents that Posada’s attorney
presented in federal court; that he really ought not to be tried as a
liar because the Americans themselves taught him to lie when the CIA
trained him. It’s a very curious argument ? I don ?t believe it’ll
succeed, but it’s very interesting.<br><br>
<b>It’s notable that the United States is fighting a war on two fronts
worldwide, in its supposed struggle against terrorism, however, Posada
Carriles is free in the streets of Miami. How can this be
understood?<br><br>
</b>They are at a crossroads, feeling that if he’s extradited, he’ll
sing, so they want to protect him, but this is extremely damaging,
because it exposes the double standard of U.S. policy in this struggle
against terrorism.<br><br>
You can’t have a terrorist the likes of Luis Posada Carriles protected in
U.S. territory and stand before the United Nations and say that you’re
the great defender of liberty and that you oppose terrorism. You’re
violating a mountain of international agreements, including U.N. Security
Council Resolution 1373, approved at the urging of the U.S. government
shortly after 9/11, which says that no U.N. member nation may protect a
terrorist in its territory.<br><br>
<b>Yet while the United States continues to delay the case of Luis Posada
Carriles, five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters remain incarcerated in U.S.
prisons. How can this be understood?<br><br>
</b>The double moral standard of the United States is a distortion of
reality and justice. Five individuals sent by Cuba to Miami to
fight terrorism. Their raison d’etre was to fight against
terrorists such as Posada Carriles, because they went to defend Cuba from
the terrorism that Posada Carriles was causing in Havana.<br><br>
It was the 1990’s; bombs were going off at the Tropicana, at the Hotel
Melía, at the Hotel Nacional, at the Bodeguita del Medio, and all of it
was organized by Posada Carriles.<br><br>
The Cubans penetrated the terrorist organizations in Miami that were
financing that campaign, Cuba handed the evidence of their participation
to the FBI and the FBI, instead of arresting the terrorists, arrested the
individuals who penetrated the organization in order to collect the
evidence, and they are still imprisoned.<br><br>
They have been incarcerated for more than twelve years in the United
States and Posada Carriles, who is the Osama Bin Laden of Latin America,
remains unleashed and unvaccinated on the streets of Miami.<br><br>
<b>Just a couple of months ago we saw Posada Carriles in the streets of
Miami at a demonstration in favor of the so-called Cuban <i>Ladies in
White</i>. What links exist between Posada and this group of people
in Cuba?<br><br>
</b>There’s a strong link between the <i>Ladies in White</i> and Posada
Carriles. That link is a man called Santiago Álvarez Fernández
Magriña, who is the financial godfather of Posada Carriles.<br><br>
This is the individual who has always paid Posada’s expenses and even
went to pick him up in Mexico in 2005 with his yacht, the Santrina, in
order to bring him illegally into the United States.<br><br>
This same Santiago Álvarez has sent money to the <i>Ladies in White</i>,
through the U.S. diplomatic pouch and the head of the U.S. Interests
Section in Cuba; it is on film and has been publicly presented ? I’m not
saying anything new ? it’s well known.? What happens is that we
often suffer from historical amnesia and forget things that happened just
last week; but this came out recently on television, internationally, so
I’m not surprised when Posada Carriles comes out on the streets of Miami
in favor of the <i>Ladies in White</i>.<br><br>
What’s worrisome is that this kind of terrorist is able to participate
freely in political actions. Can you imagine the scandal if Osama
Bin Laden were to come out to the streets of Pakistan, marching in favor
of so and so’s widow? The United States would be capable of
launching an atomic bomb, but in Miami such a thing happens with
impunity.<br><br>
<b>Representatives of the U.S. National Lawyers Guild have denounced that
the government even went so far as to pay journalists to create this
adverse climate against the Cuban Five in Miami.<br><br>
</b>I don’t think they’d have to pay journalists in Miami to disparage
Cuba, I think that in Miami that’s like breathing, the atmosphere in
Miami is soaked with prejudice against Cuba, it’s impossible to hold a
fair and objective trial in Miami.<br><br>
That’s why the most glaring error committed by the judge in the case of
the Five was to refuse to change the venue for the case. If I had
been aired in another part of the United States, there’s no way these
five would have been found guilty. None of them had classified
documents, none of them tried to penetrate any U.S. government agency,
totally to the contrary ? they were penetrating Cuban American terrorrist
organizations in Miami. And only in Miami is it possible that a
jury, called by the court, could unanimously condemn these
individuals. It’s a huge injustice. I don’t believe any
journalist needed to be paid.<br><br>
<b>This June 14<sup>th</sup>, a Habeas Corpus petition was presented on
behalf of Gerardo Hernández, one of the five Cubans who is imprisoned in
the United States. What are the prospects for an initiative like
this in the U.S. justice system?<br><br>
</b>It’s the last legal recourse remaining to Gerardo, who was sentenced
to two life sentences plus 15 years. The Supreme Court refused to
hear his case. Habeas Corpus is the only recourse that
remains. There’s a huge injustice in his case, which was not
changing the venue for the trial and the errors committed by the
prosecutor in which the jury was prejudiced against Gerardo.<br><br>
It’s possible, although very difficult. I believe that the
solution, not just for Gerardo but for the Five in general, is a
political solution. I think Gerardo himself has said so, that the
millions of citizens who are indignant about what has happened with them
are the ones who have the keys to the jail cell in their hands, in order
to make the President of the United States extend executive clemency,
reducing these excessive sentences and setting them free.<br><br>
Obama doesn’t even have to pardon them, all he has to do is reduce their
sentences and they can go free just like the Puerto Rican independence
fighters Lolita Lebron, Cancel Miranda, who were freed by President Jimmy
Carter after their sentences were reduced. Carter did this for his
own reasons, that were followed by reciprocal gestures afterwards.
The same could happen here.<br><br>
There are also people imprisoned in Cuba in which the United States might
be interested. I’m sure, if the U.S. Government were to make a
humanitarian gesture toward the Five, Cuba would do the same with people
imprisoned in Cuba; Raúl Castro himself has said so.<br><br>
<b>This is a reference to the supposed contractor who went to Cuba with
the express strategy of subverting order on the island?<br><br>
</b>He is one of the prisoners in Cuba, it should be mentioned that this
gentleman is in prison for participating in a program whose purpose is
subversion in Cuba, and the United States has expressed interest in his
liberation.<br><br>
Hopefully, he won’t spend a lot of time imprisoned in Cuba and Cuba will
release him, but hopefully President Obama will release the Five.
Do you understand me? There ought to be some reciprocity.<br><br>
I’m sure that Mr. Alan Gross has family in the United States who miss him
and want to be with him, just like Gerardo has his wife Adriana, who he
hasn’t seen in twelve years and who wants Gerardo to return.<br><br>
I believe we have to get beyond the Cold War. I believe that we
have to arrive at a moment where we might have prisoners in our prisons
who might be considered political prisoners by both governments, that
this should be past history.<br><br>
<b>Beyond desires to overcome the Cold War, it’s an undeniable fact that
just a few days ago the U.S. Government released millions of dollars to
undermine order in Cuba.<br><br>
</b>It surprised me that they’d liberated that amount of money while the
contractor (Gross) remains a prisoner, because I asked myself, “How can
they ask for the liberation of this gentleman if they are continuing with
their program to send even more contractors?” I don’t understand it
but that’s something that President Obama has to evaluate.<br><br>
President Obama has to understand that you don’t get to the White House
to be something, but to do something, and if not, why did he want to be
President of the United States? Until now he’s shown himself to be
very interested in making deals with the extreme rightwing, rather than
confronting them and doing the right thing, in pursuing a different
policy toward Latin America.<br><br>
What he did in Honduras was very disappointing, but he still has time
left in his presidency to change things, he still has time to eliminate
the blockade, to free the Five, to extradite Posada. If the extreme
rightwing doesn’t like it, too bad, but Obama’s the president, not the
extreme rightwing.<br><br>
Sometimes I ask myself if Obama had been president during the era of
Abraham Lincoln, would he have had the courage to go to war with the
southern states, or would he have reached some kind of negotiated
agreement with them?<br><br>
<b>Machetera is a member of
<a href="http://www.tlaxcala.es/">Tlaxcala</a>, the international network
of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be
reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the author,
source and translator are cited.<br><br>
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