5-06-05, 8:42 am

From Trabajadores

The World is clamoring that justice be done in the case of the fugitive terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, said Fidel Castro in his May Day speech delivered before over a million people in Havana.

The Cuban leader called for an end to the hypocrisy and methods used by the US to deceive and dominate a growingly unsustainable world.

Fidel Castro inferred that Posada Carriles’ presence in the US represents the opening of a can of worms for President Bush that could come back to haunt him.

The Cuban leader has spoken repeatedly over the last 3 weeks to denounce the presence of Posada Carriles in US territory and the possibility he be granted asylum. 

In his May Day address on Sunday morning, Fidel Castro called attention to the important agreements reached this week between Venezuela and Cuba and the memorable visit of the South American nation’s president, Hugo Chavez.

Under the latest accords, Cuba will purchase 412 million dollars in products from Venezuelan exporters while supplying that country with considerable assistance in establishing a network and staffing of health facilities, provide education support and assist in several other sectors.

The Cuban leader outlined the advances in the blossoming integration process among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Returning to the case of Posada Carriles, Fidel Castro cited an article appearing in the El Nuevo Herald of Miami on April 29 where Santiago Alvarez -the known terrorist and accomplice of Posada Carriles-, said that faced with the extradition request made by Venezuela, the terrorist’s accomplices are preparing to strengthen his legal team.

Among those stepping on board is Kendall Coffey, a former Miami district attorney. He is the same lawyer who represented the distant family members of the kidnapped Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez in the failed attempt to prevent his reunification with his father and grandparents in Cuba.

The article cited by Fidel also names Joaquin Chafardet, a lawyer well-known in Venezuela who represented Posada after he planned the in-flight bombing of a Cuban airliner back in 1976.

The President also referred to articles stating that the notorious terrorist may appear before the press in Miami for a limited interview when his attorneys consider it beneficial. Alvarez is quoted as saying Posada is in good spirits, painting and listening to the news and reading.

Fidel Castro said the Bush administration has a lot of questions to answer in the case of the terrorist.

“They’ve got a time bomb on their hands,” said the Cuban leader, adding that the right wing Cuban-American Foundation –one of the White House’s leading partners in anti-Cuban acts- might see its already worn image sink even further.

One of Posada Carriles’ points of leverage in Miami and Washington is that he has a wealth of information on anti-Cuba actions.

The Cuban president referred to news articles out of New York that report that the White House is negotiating secretly to transfer the terrorist to a Central American country.

In that light, the Salvadoran government has reportedly informed the US government that it does not want Posada Carriles in its country.   Fidel Castro called the terrorist a hot potato that doesn’t want to cool off, “and besides, we won’t let it cool off.”

The Cuban president cited Salvadoran newspaper articles noting that for some leaders of the governing right wing ARENA party, their close personal friendships with Posada and ties to the anti-Cuba Miami groups makes it a natural to do what they can for the terrorist. 

Despite the majority of those killed in decades of criminal actions plotted by the US trained and funded terrorist have been Cubans, Fidel reiterated his previous statements renouncing the island’s claim that Posada Carriles be sent to Cuba, in favor of his extradition to Venezuela where he plotted the plane bombing and escaped from prison.

The Bush administration is in a state of paralysis, said Fidel Castro. They still don’t know how to handle the case, adding that by the time Posada actually shows his face in public, the FBI will have a plan ready.

The Cuban leader noted that the principle television networks are on the trail of the notorious terrorist and that some are close to finding him. Rumor has it that Posada Carriles is hiding out in a posh residence on the outskirts of Miami, he said.

Fidel recalled when the criminal said “we put the bomb and so what” as well as his statement that the young Italian tourist killed in one of his Havana hotel bombings was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. “Now it appears he [Posada} and the US government are in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He added that what 180,000 people working for numerous security and intelligence agencies with hundreds of millions of dollars have been unable to do is in the end going to be discovered by the US press.

The Cuban president referred to the late breaking news that Senator Norm Coleman (R) has confirmed in a letter, which the president read, that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has received an asylum request from Posada Carriles.

Coleman recalls that Posada was pardoned by ex-Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso in 2004 and that the terrorist’s lawyer says he entered the US from Mexico. The senator said that the DHS has confirmed that Posada’s lawyer made the asylum request but that due to terrorist acts admitted by Posada Carriles he is not eligible for asylum.

On another point, the senator asserts that the DHS cannot officially confirm whether the criminal has entered the country.  To this Fidel responded saying they will never be able to refute that it was the terrorist Santiago Alvarez who boarded him on his little boat. “This is an irrefutable truth,” he emphasized.  

Fidel predicted that in the coming days, news of supreme interest should surface. The US government, blackmailed by its own creations, has so far not had the courage to apply the only option that it has left: to immediately arrest Posada Carriles, to enforce national and international law, and place him at the disposition of Venezuelan courts where he should be judged, said the Cuban leader. 

As another alternative, he stated that Cuba would even accept an international court –absolutely impartial – in a country agreed upon by all interested parties, so that he is tried for murder.  

It is not so much that he is an important person, reflected President Castro, his importance is that he reveals to the world the immense hypocrisy, the lies, the immorality and cynical actions by which the empire continues to subjugate the world.