New Panamanian president sworn in
Big News Network.com
Thursday 2nd September, 2004
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Last week, now former President Mireya Moscoso pardoned the men accused of plotting to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in November 2000 during a summit in Panama attended by the Communist leader.
Among the men is one of Cuba's most wanted. Luis Posada Carriles, who is accused of orchestrating the 1976 crash of a Cuban passenger plane off the coast of Barbados.
Venezuela entered the diplomatic spat on Cuba's behalf when it condemned the pardons and criticized the United States for providing asylum to at least three of the Cuban dissidents.
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http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=233f543fd1f0ed1bFlap over pardons embroils U.S.
Panama criticized for freeing exiles
By Hugh Dellios, Tribune foreign correspondent. Tribune news services contributed to this report
Published September 1, 2004
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Three of the freed Cuban exiles flew triumphantly to Miami on the day before President Bush was to appear at a campaign rally there. The fourth--an alleged bomber of hotels and a civilian jetliner--is thought to have flown to Honduras, where the government has vowed to toss him out if they can find him.
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But the U.S. and Panama also are facing criticism for their soft treatment of the four alleged plotters in the midst of a global campaign against terrorism. All four have been tied to previous plots against Castro and his allies.
One of them, Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative accused of killing 73 people by blowing up a Cuban plane over Venezuela in 1976, is being hunted in Honduras, where government authorities think he got off the plane that carried his accomplices to Miami.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0409010148sep01,1,6705318.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hedHonduras admits can't find missing airline bombing suspect
FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer
(09-01) 08:56 PDT TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) --
The government said Wednesday it has been unable to find an airline bombing suspect believed to have entered the country, and it said the man may have fled to the Bahamas.
Security Minister Oscar Alvarez reported "zero results" in a search for Luis Posada Carriles, who was freed from prison in Panama last week and immediately flown out of the Panama. Officials said they believed he stopped here.
"He could have left the country and we believe he is in the Bahamas," Alvarez told a news conference.
"Our informants tell us that Posada Carriles could have used Honduras as a point to travel to the Caribbean."
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/09/01/international1156EDT6749.DTLDeparting Panamanian President should be denounced before the OAS
Caracas, 31 Aug. Venpres (Jaqueline Gil/Armando Nunez).- Pro-government political party (PPT) sector director and Foreign Ministry advisor, Rafael Uzcategui, who put in plain words that pardoning Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles "forms part of a conspiracy plan by those people who are opposed to, particularly those from the United States, Venezuela becoming a sovereign, independent, integrationist, democratic and participatory country", has stated that the Venezuelan Government must denounce outgoing Panamanian President, Mireya Moscoso, before the Organization of American States (OAS) for stating that there are no guarantees of security for a terrorist like Luis Posada Carriles. Solidarity organizations in Caracas have condemned the arbitrary decision which has been characterized as a blow to the forces in the world fighting terrorism. They pointed to how the Cuban people have been victimized by terrorism for more than four decades, perpetrated by individuals like the four pardoned criminals. These same Venezuelan organizations denounced the pressuring by right wing Cuban American organizations in Miami to get the Panamanian authorities to release the four terrorists.
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=22634