12 April 2011
On April 9, 2011 a jury in the United States, the nation which has afforded itself the right to draw up a list of countries allegedly sponsoring terrorism, found international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles innocent of 11 charges of perjury, fraud and obstruction.
Luis Posada Carriles, accused of being the author of the worst terrorist actions in Latin America, as well as of various terrorist attacks against Cuba, the coordinator of illegal war actions in Central America, and an employee of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), faced charges in a case that included for the first time in the United States, evidence of his illegal activities and terrorist acts.
However, despite the thousands of pieces of documental evidence and several witnesses about his terrorist activities and regardless of the fact that he is wanted in other countries, with a request for extradition by Venezuela, wanted by Interpol and having been identified as a dangerous terrorist by several US authorities that even have them in a list of people who are not allowed to travel by plane, the government of United States refused to acknowledge Posada as a terrorist and try him as such, in line with international agreements signed by the U.S.
Demonstrating its duplicity and hypocrisy the jury in El Paso, Texas, found Posada Carriles not guilty of 11 charges for lying and obstructing justice turning the three month-trial against these well known terrorist in a mockery of impartiality. What took place in El Paso, Texas was a theatrical trial of Posada Carriles, for lying to immigration authorities.
The trial flagrantly ignored arguments put forward before the jury which proved the complicity of Posada Carriles in terrorist actions against Cuba in 1997, including the bomb planted in a hotel in Havana that killed the Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo.
Posada Carriles was acquitted from 11 charges of perjury, immigration fraud and obstruction of procedure, all risible accusations compared to the magnitude of his terrorist actions, including the bombing of a Cuban plane, killing all 73 people on board, in 1976 and his involvement in a series of bomb attacks in Havana in 1997.
As Posada is acquitted, five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters are unfairly serving a collective 99-year sentence, plus two life sentences, in US prisons for informing on the plans of violent actions against Cuba conceived by terrorist groups based in U.S. territory.
What happened in El Paso is a shame to the U.S. judicial system as it contradicts its much-trumpeted war on terror, which has triggered military interventions and claimed thousands of lives in other countries. It is an insult to the Cuban people and the bereaved families of the victims of this self-confessed terrorist.