Venezuela demands prosecution of Cuban activist in the US

[Say_What]

According to a convention signed in 1971, the USSA is obligated to either extradite terrorist Posada or prosecute him for the bombing of the Cubana airliner in 1976.

<clips>

Venezuela demanded the United States to either prosecute Luis Posada Carriles -a Cuban anti-Fidel Castro activist- or extradite him to Venezuela to serve a prison term for his bomb attack against a Cuban airplane in 1976 that killed 73 people.

In a communiqué forwarded to Washington, the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that in Posada Carriles case the White House has two choices, namely prosecution or extradition, as provided for under article 7 of the Convention for the suppression of unlawful acts against the safety of civil aviation the United States signed in 1971.

"The Contracting State in the territory of which the alleged offender is found shall, if it does not extradite him, be obliged, without exception whatsoever and whether or not the offence was committed in its territory, to submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution," reads article 7 of such convention and quoted by the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On January 31st, the US "based on a technicality not to file charges against Luis Posada Carriles for what he really is, namely a murderer and terrorist," Venezuela added in the communiqué.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2007/02/06/en_pol_art_06A832393.shtml

[Big Pappa]

1. Why?

Is this really their concern? This should be between Cuba and th US.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. We go after terrorists and...

"Terrorists" anywhere we want. Why should Venezuela stay their hand, especially when we are harboring and protecting a guy who qualifies as one?

[Big Pappa]

3. Thats right

and we invade sovereign nations in doing so. But does that make it right? Just because "we" do it does not give this justification.

[Say_What]

4. Posada escaped prison in Venezuela... he is Cuban born naturalized Venezuelan citizen...

<clips>

...A Misinterpreted Legal History
The complexities of Venezuelan law have helped to confound press coverage of the Posada case for a number of years. While the majority of media accounts have reported that he was acquitted twice in Venezuelan courts, this version of events does not withstand scrutiny. The distinction is quite important, as the merits of Posada’s asylum request would be bolstered were he able to show the acquittals. Though the details of his court records do prove somewhat elusive, this much is known: Posada was first tried before a military tribunal, which acquitted him of the crime of treason. However, a higher military court found that the lower one lacked jurisdiction and annulled the entire case, which was then handed off to the civil courts. They would have prima facie jurisdiction over Posada, as he was at the time a citizen of Venezuela. Initially, the prosecutors in the civil case declined to try him; their replacements, however, saw fit to bring homicide charges against Posada, and it was during this period that he escaped from prison. Since Venezuela does not reach verdicts on defendants in absentia, the litigation was stalled, while a warrant was issued for his arrest.

To Posada’s potential benefit, many have interpreted this lack of a verdict to mean that two Venezuelan courts have found him innocent of terrorism. However, neither of the legal actions against him carried any precedential effect. The military tribunal annulment effectively wiped the slate clean, resetting the entire judicial process and leaving all parties situated as if no legal action had ever occurred. Nor did the initial prosecutors’ failure to act on the case in the civilian courts have any effect. There are several reasons that prosecutors may decline a case, including lack of evidence, bribery, insufficient resources and political motivation. In the final analysis, Posada was in the process of facing prosecution for a major crime at the time when he escaped from Venezuela. Venezuela now wants to exercise its sovereign right to try him, but first must overcome the bias introduced by the press, whose inaccurate reporting may have inadvertently lent Posada an ersatz veil of innocence.

http://www.coha.org/2005/08/11/unfinished-business-why-luis-posada-carriles-an-admitted-cuban-exile-terrorist-should-face-justice-in-venezuela/

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. We signed a treaty that specified that we would prosecute

terrorists that attack civil airliners. We ae obliged by that treaty. Failing to prosecute, we should turn him over to a co-signatory, in this case Venezuela, for prosecution.

That last line threw me, tho. We don't need to justify his indefinite detention? So we have him under arrest, but are not prosecuting him? Are we holding him just to keep him out of Cuba's hands?

Anybody know?

EDIT: Just read the above post - we're holding him to spite Venezuela. Sounds about right for Bushco.

[Big Pappa]

6. Sorry

I should have stated that I feel like this guy needs to be in jail. I am so sick of the US and every other country telling everyone what "they" should do. I am sure Chavez has more pressing matters.

[Say_What]

7. A lot has been written about this but the short answer is to pacify the MiamiGUSANOS

as Posada is another one of their heros. His pal (also Gusano hero) and accomplice in the Cubana bombing was Orlando Bosch Avila, was also imprisoned in Venezuela, came to the US without valid entry docs and was taken into custody and upon release was taken into INS custody. On leaving office in 1992, Old Bush pardoned this known terrorist who now walks the streets of Miami and is known to have been seated on stage when Shrub showed up to pander to the Gusanos.

<clips>

...In October, 1976, Bosch was arrested in Venezuela in connection with the October 6, 1976 in- flight bombing of a civilian Cuban airliner, which resulted in the deaths of 73 men, women, and children. Though detained in Venezuela for eleven years on charges arising from this incident, he was finally acquitted. At his trial, evidence was presented that the two men convicted of homicide in connection with the bombing were in contact with Bosch both before and after the bombing.

Despite being related to a number of United States citizens or permanent resident aliens who have sought to help him obtain lawful immigration status in this country, Bosch's applications for both immigrant and non-immigrant visas were denied in 1987 by the Department of State because of his criminal history and involvement in terrorism. Bosch, nevertheless, came to the
-------------------------
page 5

United States from Venezuela on February 18, 1988, without valid entry documents. Upon arrival, Bosch was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant for his 1974 parole violation, and he served an additional three months for his violation.

Upon release from criminal incarceration on May 17, 1988, Bosch was taken into custody by INS. At that time, the INS District Director in Miami served Bosch with a notice of temporary exclusion, alleging that he was excludable from the United States because:

more...

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_051-075/doc0054.html

[Say_What]

8. Lugo admits that Posada Carriles recruited him to place bomb

<clips>

FREDDY Lugo, one of the two individuals hired by Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch to destroy a Cubana Aviation airliner in mid-flight on October 6, 1976, and claims that he was just a pawn in the machinations of Cuban exiles, according to an article published on February 3 in The New York Times.

The article, signed by Simon Romero, the paper’s correspondent in Caracas, notes that 65-year-old Lugo has freely walked the streets of the Venezuelan capital since 1993, after serving 17 years of a 20-year prison sentence, and works as a taxi driver.

Posada is "an adventurer, capable of anything," Lugo affirmed, commenting that if he had never met one of Posada’s employees — Hernán Ricardo Lozano — a few days before the crime, he would have had a normal life.

"My life would have taken a completely different path," he said, adding that it was Lozano who recruited him for the conspiracy hatched up by Posada and Bosch.

At the time, Ricardo was working for a detective agency created by Posada under CIA direction, and carried out surveillance and photography work. That was how he met Lugo, who was a news photographer for local publications.

Ricardo was paid $16,000 to place a bomb on Cubana Aviation Flight 455, while Lugo was paid $8,000. The C-4 was hidden in a tube of Colgate toothpaste and was carried, along with the other components of the device, in a camera bag to be left on the plane, according to the Times article, which goes over several of the well-known aspects of what is known as the Barbados Crime, which killed 73 people.

Lugo said he did not know where Ricardo was, but believes he left Venezuela.

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/febrero/mar6/6lugo-i.html

[Say_What]

9. Bomb Resonates With Diplomats, Not With the Bomber (“Terrorist of the Bush Family,”)

NY Times article referred to by Cuba's Granma article. Check that book “Terrorist of the Bush Family,”. That'll be a must read.

<clips>

THERE are not many places where a man convicted in the bombing of a commercial airliner that killed 73 people can be found roaming the streets. This city, home to Freddy Lugo, is one of them.

Mr. Lugo, like an uneasy memory from the cold war, is tucked away here, obscure to most of his countrymen but not completely forgotten. He was one of two men sentenced to 20 years in prison for placing explosives on a DC-8 jetliner flown by Cubana Airlines in 1976.

The plane blew up in the sky above Barbados, killing everyone on board, including two dozen members of Cuba’s national fencing team and a 9-year-old Guyanese girl. That explosion, considered the first act of midair terrorism in the Americas, poisons relations between Havana and Washington to this day.

Mr. Lugo, 65, who was released in 1993 after 17 years in prison, has tried to put the past behind him. “I have a tranquil life now,” he said in a rare 90-minute interview, his eyes darting around him, at a bakery cafe near his home. “I have a clean conscience.”

But the past has a way of catching up with him. There is the occasional journalist to contend with, and glimmers of recognition from among the many Cubans who live here. As many Americans would recognize Mohamed Atta if he were alive and walking the streets of New York, to Venezuelans, Mr. Lugo’s face is haunting.

A new book on the Cubana bombing, called “Terrorist of the Bush Family,” by two Venezuelan journalists, Alexis Rosas and Ernesto Villegas, has not helped either. The book has become a best seller since its release here last November. It has focused new attention on the bombing and the request by Venezuela for Washington to extradite the Cuban exile accused of masterminding the bombing, Luis Posada Carriles, to face terrorism charges here.

So far the Bush administration has refused, and Mr. Posada Carriles, 78, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen who sneaked into the United States in 2005, currently sits in a jail in southern New Mexico on immigration charges.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/world/americas/03lugo.html?em&ex=1170651600&en=06974eb9d9fa1329&ei=5087%0A

[Judi Lynn]

13. Last line of this article introduces something many people don't know:

"Could it be that nobody in the United States is interested in the truth about that massacre, carried out while George Bush Sr., the great patron of the Cuban-American mafia, was head of the CIA?"

People also don't know his ties to these worms goes back to times PRIOR to the Bay of Pigs invasion, to which he contributed two of his own boats.

[IndianaGreen]

10. Posada Carriles is as much of an "activist" as Osama bin Laden

Posada and bin Laden share a passion about killing people on passenger jets.

[Judi Lynn]

14. If every "activist" was responsible for the deaths of many people,

including children, slaughtered outright when they least expected it, travelling in an airliner, there'd be a lot fewer people around by now. It's quite a leap from "activist" to the accurate "bomber" and "mass murderer."

It's AMAZING how much liberty propagandists can take with words to avoid admitting responsibility for their side.

[Taoschick]

11. From the BBC:

No deportation for Cuban militant

Luis Posada Carriles denies any involvement in the bombing
A Cuban militant cannot be deported to Venezuela, a US judge has ruled.

The judge said Luis Posada Carriles - wanted by Caracas over a 1976 plane bombing which killed 73 people - faced the threat of torture in Venezuela.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4289136.stm

The torture part is laughable. I'm sure the government is probably worried about his former CIA ties. If he's here, he can't talk.

[Say_What]

12. The BBC article illustrates what he COHA analysis points out in Post 4...

I wouldn't be surprised if Posada eventually walks, but Cuba and Venezuela are both spot lighting this case every chance they get, as well they should. It's a real sticky issue for the Bushistas no matter how hypocritical it is... and if they ignore a signed convention from 1971, that will make it even worse for them.


:mad:

[Vidar]

15. Thanks for the info on the real Cuban terroists, Say_What.