Witness: Posada Carriles arrived in Miami aboard the Santrina
From Cubadebate
(Editor’s Note: Progreso Weekly would like to remind our readers that in 2005 Manuel Alberto Ramy published in Progreso Weekly an interview with Mexican journalist Renán Castro, a reporter for the daily Por Esto, confirming at the time that Luis Posada Carriles had entered Miami aboard the Santrina and that his trip to the United States began from Isla Mujeres in Mexico.)
Judge Kathleen Cardone this morning (Jan. 25) allowed witness Gilberto Abascal to tell the jury details of the voyage on the ship that brought Luis Posada Carriles from Isla Mujeres to Miami, crucial evidence that [Posada Carriles] lied to the immigration authorities about how he entered the United States.
Posada Carriles had said that he came by bus across the border, with the aid of a smuggler. However, the U.S. government says that he did it on a shrimp boat converted into a yacht, the Santrina, owned by a Posada friend and supporter, Santiago Álvarez Fernández Magriñá.
The judge granted the prosecution permission for its witness, an FBI informant, to tell about his conversations while the Santrina traveled to Isla Mujeres, lawyer José Pertierra, who is in El Paso, told Cubadebate.
According to Pertierra, Gilberto Abascal made the following important statements:
“Santiago Álvarez brought us together in the dining room of the ship, when we were on Isla Mujeres, and said ‘Now I can tell you that we came to pick up Posada.’”
“The Santrina arrived with Posada Carriles in Miami. It was 10:30 in the morning.”
“When the Santrina arrived in Miami, Rubén López Castro took Posada Carriles in a speedboat to a restaurant on the Miami River. Shortly thereafter, he returned to the Santrina, and Reuben said: ‘Oh, my God, the police chief was eating at that restaurant!’”
“Posada Carriles gave me a painting after arriving in Miami. He gave the same to each of us who accompanied him from Isla Mujeres.”
This afternoon begins the cross-examination of the witness by Posada Carriles’ attorney, Arturo Hernández.
Prosecutors have filed charges against Posada Carriles for making false statements about how he came into the United States and his involvement in a series of bombings of Havana hotels in 1997 that caused the death of Fabio di Celmo, a young Italian tourist.
Despite the criminal record of Luis Posada Carriles, who faces a pending trial in Venezuela for the deaths of 73 people aboard a civilian airliner in 1976, the defendant faces trial for lying, consisting of 11 federal charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, and immigration fraud.
