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<font size=4><b><a name="1"></a>Luis Posada Carriles’ right hand man,
Francisco Chávez Abarca, nabbed in Venezuela <br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Posted: 02 Jul 2010 05:15 PM PDT<br><br>
<b>Francisco Chávez Abarca, Posada Carriles’ Right Hand Man, Captured in
Venezuela </b><i>-
<a href="http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2010/07/02/capturan-en-venezuela-a-francisco-chavez-abarca-mano-derecha-de-posada-carriles/">
español<br><br>
</a></i>Translation: Machetera for <i>Tlaxcala<br><br>
</i>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
“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.<br><br>
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.”<br><br>
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.”<br><br>
“Posada Carriles ought to be really nervous because we’ve caught one of
his people,” he added.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.”<br><br>
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.<br><br>
In the 1990s, there were indications that he had dedicated himself to
drug trafficking as well as arms sales and currency counterfeiting in
Guatemala.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Furthermore, on May 24th, while Chávez Abarca was in México, a bomb
exploded in the offices of the Cubanacán corporation in the
capital.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>It was Posada Carriles’ recruit who planted the bomb that killed Fabio
di Celmo.<br><br>
</b>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>(With reporting from Telesur)<br><br>
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 source and translator are cited.<br><br>
<br><br>
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