Cuba commutes Salvadoran bomber's death sentence

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba commutes Salvadoran bomber's death sentence
The Associated Press
Friday, December 3, 2010; 6:33 PM

HAVANA -- Cuba's Supreme Court has commuted the death sentence of a Salvadoran man convicted of terrorism for a string of hotel bombings in 1997 that killed one tourist.

Ernesto Cruz Leon is to serve 30 years in prison instead, the maximum term allowable under the statute. He has been behind bars for more than a decade already.

The ruling was announced Friday on state-run website Cubadebate.

Cruz Leon confessed to planting bombs in five hotels and a restaurant between July and September 1997 in a plot to scare away tourists and hurt a key source of income for the island.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/03/AR2010120305742.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Earlier:Cuba mulls Salvadoran's death sentence for terror

Cuba mulls Salvadoran's death sentence for terror
The Associated Press Published: Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 5:54 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 5:54 p.m.

Cuba's Supreme Court has begun reviewing the death sentence of a Salvadoran man convicted of terrorism for a series of hotel bombs in 1997.

Government website Cubadebate said the review of Ernesto Cruz Leon's sentence began Thursday, but it did not give details of the process or a timetable.

Cruz Leon confessed to planting bombs in five Cuban hotels and a restaurant between July and September 1997 in a plot to scare away tourists and hurt a prime source of income for the island. He and fellow Salvadoran Otto Rene Rodriguez were sentenced to death in 1999 for the plot, which killed an Italian tourist and wounded 11 other people, including seven foreigners.

It was allegedly organized and financed by Cuban-Venezuelan Luis Posada Carriles, one of Cuba's most-wanted men. Posada Carriles is also accused in the bombing of a Cuban jetliner and in a series of attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro.

More:
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20101202/API/1012022583

[flamingdem]

2. I didn't know they considered the death penalty seriously

for Cruz Leon. It damaged them internationally in the case of the ferry thieves and they won't repeat that.. at the time they were desperate to end a rash of hijackings including a passenger plane in Isla de la Juventud, by making an example.

[Judi Lynn]

3. I'm pretty sure Cruz Leon was a couple of years before the the ferry thugs

hijacked the ferry which wasn't seaworthy, and held passengers with knives to their throat. I read many passengers leaped over the sides into the water to escape the same fate they expected the hostages would have.

And thanks for the reminder of that stolen plane and maybe another one taken, too. I seem to remember that that loonytoones woman, Ana Margarita who was married to the Cuban spy who was watching Los Hermanos al Rescate was given the proceeds from a plane hijacked to Miami from Cuba, as part of her settlement satisfaction against her trial against Cuba for "raping" her with the spy! (Any sex perpetrated upon you without your consent, she says. What????)

The ferry hijack was right at the beginning of _Bush's pResidency.

Just looked for anything on Cruz Leon, and found an article which indicates his assignment bombing Cuba was in 1997.

Accused bomber makes calm TV confession in Cuba
By Pascal Fletcher, Reuter. 16 September, 1997
HAVANA, Sept 16 (Reuter) - A Salvadorean man arrested by Cuban police on charges of planting hotel bombs which killed an Italian tourist was presented on television on Monday night and calmly confessed to the attacks.

he man, who identified himself as Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon from El Salvador, said he placed the bombs which exploded at two Havana hotels July 12 and at three more hotels and a restaurant in the city Sept. 4. An Italian businessman was killed in one of the Sept. 4 blasts.

"There in El Salvador, I was given the mission to come (to Cuba) and plant explosive artifacts in a certain number of tourist sites -- they gave me a list -- generally hotels, to create panic among tourists,'' Cruz Leon said. He was speaking on a special TV program broadcast by the Cuban authorities about the recent bombings, which targeted tourist installations on the communist-ruled island.

More:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/073.html

http://cubanfive.ca.nyud.net:8090/images/2010/05/cruzleon-123x150.jpg

Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon