|
Posada Case: the moment of truth has arrived
The international media has reported that on
January 11, 2007, the United States government,
which for more than 18 months has been
protecting international terrorist Luis Posada
Carriles, has been obliged to indict him on
charges of fraud and lying when applying for
U.S. citizenship.
The U.S. government has been forced to
acknowledge that our Comandante en Jefe
was right when he commented in April 2005 on the
information published by the Mexican newspaper
Por Esto, repeatedly charging that Posada
Carriles had been in U.S. territory with total
impunity for almost a month, having arrived
aboard the Santrina boat from Islas
Mujeres, where he had been picked up by Santiago
Alvarez Fernández-Magriñá and other terrorists
to be taken to the United States.
When the U.S. government was obliged to arrest
him on May 17, 2005, after being in U.S.
territory illegally for two months but left in
peace, the terrorist wove a web of lies by
saying he had entered U.S. territory via land,
coming from the Mexican city of Matamoros; that
he had not been in Cancún or on Islas Mujeres;
and that during his transit through Mexico, he
had never seen either the Santrina boat
or the other terrorists, who — as our president
exposed — accompanied him on his trip through
Mexico to the United States.
In announcing the indictment on January 11, the
U.S. government alleges that Posada engaged in
fraudulent behavior and lied, because “in fact,
he entered the United States by sea aboard the
motor vessel “Santrina”; that he traveled
to Cancún and Islas Mujeres; that he boarded the
Santrina in Mexico “and traveled thereon
to the United States”; and that Santiago
Alvarez, Osvaldo Mitat, Rubén López Castro and
José Pujol were with him aboard the Santrina
during “his passage aboard that motor vessel
from Mexico to the United States.”
The U.S. government often forgets that the truth
has always been an essential weapon of the Cuban
Revolution. Now, almost two years later, it has
had no choice but to acknowledge it.
For its part and in response to Cuba’s request
for an in-depth investigation of Posada
Carriles’ movement through that country, the
Vicente Fox government in Mexico officially
informed our government on May 25, 2005 that its
records did not show the terrorist’s entry into
Mexican territory. It also said that the
Santrina boat had arrived at Islas Mujeres
on March 14, 2005 and affirmed that, after
refueling, the boat had left that location with
the same crew as when it arrived, without Luis
Posada Carriles being among them.
In its January 11 indictment, the U.S.
government makes no reference to terrorism. The
U.S. government knows very well about and has
all the evidence of the countless act of
terrorism committed by Posada Carriles,
including the mid-flight sabotage of a Cubana
Aviation airliner in 1976 and the terrorist
attacks on Cuban hotels in 1997, one of which
killed Fabio Di Celmo, a young Italian tourist.
For the U.S. government, the only procedure in
line with international treaties on terrorism to
which it is party and what is established by its
own legislation, would have been to describe
Luis Posada Carriles from the start as a
terrorist and to indict him on charges of
terrorism, which would have avoided the long
immigration process in El Paso, whose only
objective was to protect him in order to prevent
him from speaking publicly about the many
secrets he knows regarding the empire’s covert
and illegal actions and its links with the
anti-Cuban mafia, particularly during the period
in which the father of the current U.S.
president was director of the CIA.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs trusts that this
indictment of the terrorist Posada Carriles for
minor immigration-related crimes does not become
a smokescreen for giving him impunity for the
serious crime of terrorism, or a pretext to
continue ignoring the application for Posada
Carriles’ extradition, presented on June 15,
2005 by the government of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela for his responsibility in
the destruction of a Cubana Aviation airliner,
and which has yet to receive a response.
The next test for the government of President
Bush will be on February 1. That day, it will
have to respond to an order by Judge Philip
Martínez to justify why Posada Carriles should
remain in prison, in line with Section 412 of
the U.S. Patriot Act, and to do so it will be
obliged to admit that his release is a threat to
U.S. security and to the security of the
community and any other person.” The moment of
truth has arrived. The victims’ families are
demanding justice. The Cuban people accompany
them in their pain and fully support them. We
will now see what action will be taken by the
president who named himself the “international
leader of the war on terror.”
Havana, January 15, 2007
Translated by Granma International |
