Posada Carriles is acquitted in Texas

Luis Posada Carriles is acquitted in Texas

In order to do him justice for the crimes he committed he must be extradited, affirms attorney José Pertierra

By David Brooks

Correspondent

La Jornada

Saturday 9 April 2011, pg 36

New York, 8 April. Luis Posada Carriles, an ex CIA employee and veteran of the failed 1961 invasion to Cuba, a back-up operative for the Nicaraguan contras, and accused of being the mastermind behind the worse terrorist attacks in Latin America, was acquitted today by a jury in El Paso, Texas where he was trialed only for lying to the American migratory authorities and not for the long criminal record which makes him a target of Venezuela´s and other jurisdictions. 

After a 13 weeks long trial, and three hours of deliberation, the jury reached a unanimous “not guilty” verdict for each one of the eleven charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and migratory fraud. 

This verdict marks the end of a U.S. government judiciary process against Posada Carriles initiated four years ago, when he was accused of illegal entry; now, it all indicates that he will be able to pursue a quiet existence in Miami, where he is considered to be a hero, after walking out from trial as a free man.  

Therefore, the only extant legal action against him is the Venezuelan appeal of extradition in order to put him on trial for 73 manslaughter charges, as the organizer of the most serious terrorist attack in Latin America, that of bombing a Cuban flight in 1976.

According to spokesman Dean Boyd, the Justice Department was “disappointed by such decision”, as reported by Reuters. Nevertheless, in conversation with La Jornada, José Pertierra, an attorney acting on behalf of the Venezuelan government in its attempts to put Posada Carriles on trial, suggested to the U.S. administration, “not to feel so disappointed and extradite him instead.”

The El Paso case arose from a 2005 illegal entry in the U. S, where he asked, first, for political asylum and then for a citizenship. Federal attorneys accused him of lying in relation to the way of entering the country, as well as his denial of participation in certain terrorist acts, such as the 1997 series of bombings of Cuban  hotels and touristic resorts which resulted in the death of Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo, injuring 12 other people.

Pertierra, who was present throughout the El Paso trial, declared last Friday to La Jornada that the evidence produced in both respects was “substantial”, adding that recorded statements of Posada Carriles himself as well as those from several witnesses showed, “as clear as water”, that the man had lied.

Those witnesses included forensic experts and Cuban investigators, partners of the defendant himself and even reporter Ann Louise Bardach, who met the terrorist for a New York Times interview in which he admits being the mastermind in the attacks against Cuban hotels.

But the verdict, “did not come as a surprise to me,” said Pertierra: “the play they built created such confusion in the jury that in the end it was more effective than the evidence itself.” According to the lawyer, jury trials in this country are part of a “failed system” whereby evidence tends to be superseded by the performance of gullible and easy-to-manipulate jurors.

At the same time, the unnecessary lengthening of the trial, as part of the strategy of the defense, contributed to conform a “deaf and blind” jury. Besides, they managed to obtain permission from the judge to carry out a sort of “mini-trial inside the trial to discredit Cuban witnesses and their country” by accusing them of various human rights violations.

Even if the process was outstanding for being the first in the U.S. where the government presents proofs against his ex-employee, it is also remarkable that he has never been formally accused or submitted to investigation for his participation in terrorist actions. This, despite the fact that American authorities consider him a terrorist suspect and therefore have put him in an official list of persons who are forbidden to go aboard commercial flights in this country.

Posada Carriles participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion promoted by the U.S.A An official CIA agent and Army officer, he moved to Venezuela in 1976 to head that country´s intelligence service. That very same year, he was arrested after being accused for the bombing a Cubana airlines flight; he managed to flee before facing civil trial. In 2001, he was arrested in Panama for planning the previous year an assassination complot against Fidel Castro, involving the use of 200 pounds of dynamite and C4 explosives in a students-full auditorium. He was exonerated by Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso, in 2004, to reappear shortly after in the United States. In 2005 he was arrested here, thereby initiating a process which culminated Friday with his acquittal.

“My path is not yet finished,” Posada declared after trial to AFP, “the nature of the fight has changed, but it´s still the same.” He added that he would devote himself, in a peaceful manner, to “restore what Cuba was before.”

So as to learn more about his “path”, one can get in touch with documents of the CIA and other North American agencies abounding on his career, in the site of the National Security Archive: www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/index.htm.

Pertierra informed that the Venezuelan government insists on demanding that the U.S. fulfills international obligations by responding to its extradition plea of Posada Carriles.

“The 73 charges of manslaughter in Caracas are more important than 11 perjury charges in El Paso,” concluded Pertierra.