Cuba hands over accused pedophile to U.S.

[Judi Lynn]

Source: AFP

Cuba hands over accused pedophile to U.S.
AFP
Published: Friday, June 13, 2008

HAVANA - Cuba announced Friday it had handed an American accused of travelling abroad to have sex with children over to the United States in a rare sign of judicial cooperation between the two countries.

The Cuban foreign ministry said it had deported to the United States Leonard Auerbach, a California mortgage banker who was pursued by U.S. authorities on charges of repeatedly going to Costa Rica to have sex with minors, and possession of child pornography.

The ministry said Auerbach, 61, arrived in Cuba on April 8 from Mexico "in order to escape U.S. justice."

It said that based on information submitted by U.S. authorities, he was detained in Cuba on May 7, and then handed over due to the "serious" charges against him.





Read more: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=8fade34c-c600-43b7-abe3-b9f8453636bd

[Judi Lynn]

1. Cuba deports American fugitive

Cuba deports American fugitive
Posted 22m ago

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba proved to be no refuge for an American fugitive who was deported Friday to face federal charges in California of sexually abusing a Costa Rican girl and possessing child pornography.

Leonard B. Auerbach, 61, evidently thought he was beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement in Cuba, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. He sent e-mails to friends last month boasting of how he escaped arrest, said Rob Chrisman, an acquaintance of Auerbach's in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"I am in some kind of Paradise here and I'm so safe, it's laughable," Chrisman said Auerbach wrote in one email from Cuba, where he fled after he was put on a federal "most wanted" list.

It wasn't immediately clear how U.S. officials tracked him down, but they evidently alerted Cuban authorities to his presence on the island and he was arrested on May 7, about a month after his arrival.

More:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-13-USfugitive_N.htm

[ingac70]

2. If a wanted pedophile from Cuba was here...

the US would let him walk the streets of Florida to spare him the tyranny of communism.

[40ozDonkey]

4. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen & Balart Bros. would hide him in a closet. nt

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. Another heterosexual pedophile caught n/t

[Carnea]

6. I'm not sure what sexual orientation has do do with this. Oh by the way article inaccurate.

He wasn't a pedophile. Nice try though linking heterosexuals to pedophilia. It will be a nice day when people aren't attacked just because the like the opposite sex.




:sarcasm: on the hetero rant and :thumbsdown: on the mislabeled pedophilia both you and the headline writer.

[Cronus Protagonist]

8. haha, you know, as soon as some guy diddles his nephew...

The headlines scream "HOMOSEXUAL PEDOPHILE CAUGHT", but most child rape occurs between family members and the gender of the child is not relevant.... unless of course there's a chance to slur homosexuals.

I'm just evening the score a little.

[Carnea]

5. Well its a start. Going across borders to have sex with a teenager is wrong.

Here is one they should also include from article

"Among the U.S. fugitives Cuba has refused to hand over is former Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur — also known as Joanne Chesimard — convicted in the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper"

[heliarc]

7. If you want to include Assata Shakur...

then you should also include information on Luis Posada who is implicated in the bombing of tourists in 1997 which killed Fabio di Celmo and wounded 11 others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles

He's still free and enjoying his life in the US... He was a terrorist for us.


And as for Assata Shakur?

"After she was acquitted six different times on May 2, 1973, Assata, Sundiata Acoli and Zayd Malik Shakur were ambushed by state police on the New Jersey turnpike. A state trooper shot Assata in the arm and back as she had her hands in the air. Another trooper was killed. Zayd Malik Shakur was killed. Sundiata escaped and was later captured after a massive police manhunt.

"After her arrest, Assata was shackled and chained to her hospital bed as the police guarding her shouted racist slogans, beat her with shotgun butts and threatened to kill her.

"One of the state troopers admitted that he shot and killed Zayd Malik Shakur. But Assata was charged with the killing of Zayd--who she described as her "closest friend and comrade"--as well as with the death of the trooper. Sundiata Acoli was also charged with both deaths. No evidence linked either of them to the shooting of the state trooper. Defense testimony from several expert witnesses made it clear that Assata was not involved in the shooting. Nevertheless, in 1977 an all-white jury convicted Assata and sentenced her to life plus 33 years in prison. Sundiata was sentenced to life plus 30 years. He remains a political prisoner today."

At least that's what Ramsey Clark's IAC says.

http://www.iacenter.org/archive-2006/assata-policebrut-12-2006.htm

[Judi Lynn]

9. More on the violent "exile" monster, Luis Posada Carriles:

LUIS POSADA CARRILES
THE DECLASSIFIED RECORD
CIA and FBI Documents Detail Career in International Terrorism; Connection to U.S.

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 153

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/index.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times
July 12, 1998

A Bomber's Tale


By ANN LOUISE BARDACH and LARRY ROHTER

MIAMI -- A Cuban exile who has waged a campaign of bombings
and assassination attempts aimed at toppling Fidel Castro says
that his efforts were supported financially for more than a decade by the
Cuban-American leaders of one of America's most influential lobbying
groups.

The exile, Luis Posada Carriles, said he
organized a wave of bombings in Cuba last
year at hotels, restaurants and discothèques,
killing an Italian tourist and alarming the Cuban
Government. Posada was schooled in
demolition and guerrilla warfare by the Central Intelligence Agency in the
1960's.

In a series of tape-recorded interviews at a walled Caribbean compound,
Posada said the hotel bombings and other operations had been supported
by leaders of the Cuban-American National Foundation. Its founder and
head, Jorge Mas Canosa, who died last year, was embraced at the White
House by Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.

A powerful force in both Florida and national elections, and a prodigious
campaign donor, Mas played a decisive role in persuading Clinton to
change his mind and follow a course of sanctions and isolation against
Castro's Cuba.

Although the tax-exempt foundation has declared that it seeks to bring
down Cuba's Communist Government solely through peaceful means,
Posada said leaders of the foundation discreetly financed his operations.
Mas personally supervised the flow of money and logistical support, he
said.

More:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/posada/posada7-12-98.htm

[heliarc]

10. Why thank you Judi!

The mere mention of Luis Posada Carriles and there you are with the pertinent information. Wish that were true when I argue with people outside of DU :-)

[Judi Lynn]

12. Welcome, of course! It seems impossible ANYONE would look past mass murderers

to point their gummy, pudgy fingers at Assata Shakur. Simply defies belief.

It's such a pleasure to see someone respond who knows the story, who isn't bamboozled by the right-wing whopper which has been used to replace the facts of this situation.

It must KILL them when people know exactly what they're trying to substitute for the truth, and they get called on it. It's very gratifying to witness!

Thank YOU, heliarc.

[ngant17]

11. That is a well-known case in Cuba

and Ms. Shakur was/is innocent, definitely not guilty beyond any reasonable degree of doubt.

There is no way a fair trail can be granted for Ms. Shakur in the US and she would simply end up as being another political prisoner here.

The blatantly criminal and terrorist actions of Posada, he was already proven guilty in Venezuela but escaped justice there, deserve far more cries for extradition to Cuba.