Thirty-three years of impunity: Who killed my father?

By Carlos Muñiz

To my grandmother, Idania Varela

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO – As recently as November 2011, we received some documents that give evidence of the people responsible for the murder of my father, Carlos Muñiz Varela. The documents – partially declassified by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) through the efforts of attorney Alejandro Olivero – confirm that the FBI knew the identity of those responsible.

What’s relevant about this information, in addition to the difference in format and the way in which the FBI reports and memoranda are presented with relation to other declassified documents, is that the information points to the main suspects in the murder of my father and reveals the conspiracies to murder his companions Raúl Alzaga and Ricardo Fraga.

In addition, these documents contain the identities of the men who allegedly placed three bombs in the Varadero Travel Agency offices on Jan. 4 and July 26, 1979, and Jan. 18, 1980.

It should be noted that the names of the main suspects and some specific information have been blacked out under a code that refers to laws and regulations that forbid the release of those names for reasons of alleged “national security” and other reasons.

It would be enough to remove those blacked-out parts to find out who killed my father, who attempted to murder Raúl and Ricardo, and who were the men responsible for placing the three bombs at the Varadero Travel Agency between 1979 and 1980.

What’s revealing about these documents is that, several months after my father’s murder and the placement of the bombs, the FBI documented and was fully aware of the terrorist acts carried out in Puerto Rico and the United States by the main organizations of the Cuban far right, such as CORU, Alpha 66 and Omega 7.

On March 28, 2012, Raúl Álzaga Manresa and the undersigned met with prosecutor Yamil Juarbe, the man in charge of the investigation, and we gave him copies of these documents.

More recently, I wrote to the Secretary of the Department of Justice of Puerto Rico, Guillermo A. Somoza Colombani, asking him to take immediate action and assume his ministerial responsibility to demand from the FBI the complete declassification of the documents and the names of my father’s murderers.

This letter joins innumerable efforts made previously to achieve a full declassification of the information. These efforts include writing to President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of Justice Eric Holder, and FBI director Robert Muller, from whom we have not received an answer to this date.

April 28 marks the 33rd anniversary of the assassination of my father. Oddly, that date coincides with the First National Encounter of Cubans Residing in the United States, summoned by the Interests Section of the Republic of Cuba, to be held in Washington, D.C., which I plan to attend.

This Encounter is part of the efforts to continue a dialogue with the Cuban émigrés, something that began shortly after the visit by the Antonio Maceo Brigade in 1977, composed of young people in exile, and later facilitated the decision by the Cuban government to invite other Cubans in exile to initiate a constructive dialogue that culminated with the so-called dialogue in November 1978.

My father founded and worked in the Varadero Travel Agency, along with Raúl and Ricardo. After almost four months, terrorist teams working on behalf of the Cuban far right murdered my father and placed three bombs in the agency in an effort to quash the dialogue that had begun and had allowed more than 2,000 people to travel to Cuba from Puerto Rico until that time, and about 100,000 from the United States in 1979.

The U.S. government’s refusal to declassify the documents, and its inaction on the matter, are consonant with its intransigent policy to not lift the restrictions on travel to Cuba, as well as its opposition to the release of the five Cuban prisoners held in the U.S. and the elimination of the economic blockade against Cuba.

Every passing day exposes the impunity the federal authorities enjoy on the subject of my father’s assassination. It is evident that the discourse about the struggle against terrorism does not apply to these groups that are still protected, even as they act against democracy itself, justice and the fundamental human right of knowing who killed my father.

The author is Carlos Muñiz Varela’s son.