Havana. September 17, 2010
Cuba’s reasons
Terrorist plans continue from the U.S.
The statements by Francisco Chávez Abarca and the plans that have been hatched against Venezuela reveal that terrorist actions continue to be planned against the island and raise new questions on the complicity of the CIA, CANF, Posada Carriles and anti-Cuban Congress members.
As news was published that Luis Posada Carriles and various U.S.-based extremist organizations intend to continue with their plans to organize violent and paramilitary attacks on Cuba, international terrorist Francisco Antonio Chávez Abarca was arrested last July 1 in Venezuela. He is one of the principal links in the Central American connection employed in violent actions against Cuba by the notorious criminal, the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) and some of its former members, known as the Cuban Liberty Council (CLC).
Posada Carriles – a fugitive of Venezuelan justice – continues to be active, hatching his anti-Cuban plans inside and outside U.S. territory, currying favors and running up debts with local or Central American politicians, officials and local agents as if he did not remember, mind or care about the hearing to set the date for the trial – or mock trial – that he is supposed to be facing at the beginning of next year on a minor immigration infraction.
Cuba, which has never permitted nor will it ever permit anyone to use its territory to plan, execute or finance acts of terrorism against any other state, has contemplated for more than five decades how our northern neighbor – and particularly the city of Miami – has given refuge to notorious terrorists both before and after the triumph of the Revolution; funds are provided and raised, bank accounts are opened to finance these actions and permission to use that territory is given to those who sponsor, plan and commit criminal acts against our country, many of whom are or have been on the payroll of the CIA and the FBI.
IS TERRORISM NO LONGER FASHIONABLE?
As a "Guest of Honor" at the annual congress of the Alpha 66 terrorist organization, which took place on February 27 and 28, 2010, Posada proposed to once again embark on violent and paramilitary plans against Cuba.
Although the leaders of the group stated that, as a strategy, they should pretend to transform themselves into a political party, legal and pacifist, they have confirmed that terrorism is their principal line of action and an instrument to destroy the Revolution. In that context, they have proposed raising funds in order to acquire new vessels, equipping them with machineguns in order to land in Cuba or attack our coasts.
Coincidentally, on March 22 – shortly after that congress – the residence of the Cuban ambassador in Guatemala was attacked with explosive devices fired from a grenade launcher, causing material damage.
In that context, Congressman Lincoln DÃaz-Balart makes news once again. He is the number one cheerleader for the worst causes against our people, that range from the promotion on Capitol Hill of military aggression against Cuba, the assassination of the Comandante en Jefe, to the kidnapping of young Elián González or encouraging hunger strikes as a means of struggle for mercenaries.
About to relinquish his position as legislator, at the end of May 2010 DÃaz-Balart re-launched the "Rosa Blanca" terrorist organization, created by his father just a few days after the triumph of the revolution and of which he now claims he is president, with the aim of establishing himself as a major capo of the Miami mafia.
"La Rosa Blanca" was the first counterrevolutionary organization established in the U.S. by the henchmen of Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship who had fled Cuba because of the abuse and crimes they had committed. From 1959, it was linked to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo to organize an uprising in the Escambray mountains. It is remembered for having burned down schools, the homes of campesinos, sugarcane fields and textile factories, wounding and maiming countless individuals and provoking considerable economic damage.
Why is a US Congressman reactivating an organization of this kind in the 21st century? What for?
DÃaz-Balart’s current chicanery cannot obscure his intention to receive and channel part of the million-dollar funds allocated by the U.S. government for subversion, loot that they all want to seize, y al que no renuncian other notorious terrorists such as Roberto MartÃn Pérez and his fellow descendents of torturers from the Batista dictatorship who also took part in the re-foundation of La Rosa Blanca.
His colleague Ileana Ros-Lethinen, who earned the nickname "Ferocious She-Wolf" for her shameful role in the kidnapping of Elián carries on her shoulders the responsibility for having done more than anyone else during her 1988 political campaign for the release of Orlando Bosch, a close friend of Enrique Ros – the legislator’s father – and also Posada Carriles’ co-author in the attack on a Cuban passenger plane that cost the lives of 73 people.
In 1991, during the administration of George Bush Sr., Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen interceded with the President to have three US Air Force type 0-2 planes –the military version of the Cessna used in reconnaissance missions-delivered to the Brothers to the Rescue group headed by José Basulto, a former Playa Giron mercenary, a terrorist and CIA agent. On July 19, 1992, as the airborne operations started, for the very first time the press published photos of the aircraft presented to that counterrevolutionary group, with the USAF (US Air Force) insignia clearly visible in a report by the editor of The Miami Herald, who took a flight with them.
Incited by Congress members Ileana Ros and Lincoln DÃaz-Balart, as well as by other counterrevolutionary organizations in Miami, Brothers to the Rescue staged provocations over Cuban territory in order to damage the favorable process of talks initiated by the United States and Cuba after the Migratory Accords of 1994 and 1995.
Under the auspices of the Miami Mafia, this counterrevolutionary group concentrated all its efforts on provoking an incident and violated Cuban airspace 25 times in 20 months, including flights over Havana dropping various objects which led to the events of February 24, 1996 and the downing of the aircraft.
Once again, this provocation strained U.S.- Cuba relations and encouraged the adoption of the Helms-Burton Act, whose content makes it more difficult to find solutions in the future to the dispute between the two countries, as it codifies into law all of the measures related to the intense US economic, commercial and financial blockade.
In 2008, Ileana Ros headed another effort, this time for the presidential pardon of terrorist Eduardo Arocena, the mastermind behind the murder of Cuba’s ambassador to the UN, Felix GarcÃa RodrÃguez in 1980 and the bombs placed in public places in the U.S. More recently, Ros-Lethinen has played a major role raising funds to pay for Posada Carriles defense attorneys.
"The CANF goals are my own," she said. This was her early commitment in 1989 with the terrorist organization that put up her candidacy and used all of its economic and political power to ensure her a seat in the U.S. Congress. "I approve the possibility of someone murdering Fidel Castro," she said to a British BBC documentary maker in March 2006, while she sat calmly in her Washington office.
Various analysts have addressed the concern and expectations in the U.S. arising from the arrest of Chávez Abarca, particularly among members of Congress and officials whose political careers are very closely linked to Posada, the CIA and CANF. There are rumors that some of the most anxious are anti-Cuban New Jersey Congressmen Bob Menéndez and Albio Sires. The former has always sponsored terrorists, from the days when his community "adviser" was Alfredo Chumaceiro Anillo who, on July 24, 1976, tried to blow up the Lincoln Center Theater during a performance by a troupe of Cuban artists.
Menéndez was a close friend and the son-in-law of the late CANF director Arnaldo Monzón Plasencia, who not only made donations to his election campaigns but also contributed $25,000 to defray for the terrorist actions of 1997. His personal assistant for the planning and murder of said Cuban diplomat was José Manuel Alvarez, a.k.a. "The Bear." Others involved in that assassination were the convict Arocena, ex leader of Omega 7, and hired assassin Pedro Remón RodrÃguez who shot our official. This crime, like many others, still remains unpunished.
Another revealing link is attorney Guillermo Hernández, one of Menéndez’s most active consultants. He is now acting as an independent council to Posada Carriles in order to try and prevent his extradition to Venezuela and to help him face other charges that might be brought against him.
One of Congressman Albio Sires’ closest advisors is Angel Manuel Alfonso Alemán, a.k.a. "La Cota", a member of the terrorist commando detained in Puerto Rico in 1997 on board a CANF vessel on its way to Margarita Island, Venezuela, with the intention of assassinating Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz using high power rifles while he attended the 7th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State. Alfonso Alemán is one of his main contacts with Posada Carriles and the Miami Mafia.
Nor does it come as any surprise that the notorious Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), which for a long time sponsored a great number of terrorist groups bent on damaging our interests, both inside and outside of the national territory, is now publicly adopting -just like the others- an image of apparent moderation, while it funds and supplies resources for the provocative actions of the so-called "Ladies in White" and tries to promote domestic discontent, which they pay for with their own money and that allocated by US entities.
Targeting the Venezuelan elections
If terrorism is no longer fashionable, what was the purpose of Chávez Abarca’s trip to Venezuela? What was he doing during those suspicious movements around Central America? Who are behind his actions? What have U.S. officials done to prevent them from bringing their terrorist plans to fruition in Miami, El Salvador, Guatemala or Cuba? How effective were the measures adopted by previous Salvadoran governments to halt their freedom to kill?
The detainee has already admitted the destabilizing plans he would have carried out in that sister nation, attempting to kill leaders of the Bolivarian process or damage their image in light of the forthcoming elections on September 26. Chávez Abarca has said that it was his purpose "to burn tires, promote street disturbances, and attack a political party so that it sets upon another one."
He has revealed that one of Posada Carriles’ most important plans at the moment is to try to sink ships taking oil from Venezuela to Havana. He also said that CANF has allocated nearly $100 million to plans to damage Venezuela, as it believes that the South American country is the "financial backbone" of Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia and Guatemala.
According to his statements, at the end of September 2005 they planned to assassinate President Hugo Chávez. To that end, Posada instructed him to use a .50 caliber Barret rifle.
Ever since that mercenary left prison in September 2007, after serving a sentence for trafficking stolen cars, he started working in coordination with Posada to carry out acts of violence against Cuba and other ALBA nations, including attempts on the life of President Chávez in exchange for money.
At the time of his arrest, and in order to ensure such objectives, he had instructions from his bosses in Florida to undertake intelligence activities in Venezuelan territory with the aim of creating the necessary logistics to implement covert operations.
With Posada’s support, this mercenary has operated and taken refuge in Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador.
During the preliminary investigation into the case, the detainee has admitted that he was recruited as a mercenary and trained by Posada Carriles himself, who gave him firsthand instructions and paid $2,000 for every bomb that went off in Cuba. He received the instructions during meetings in hotels and other places in El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala where he met terrorists from the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) such as Arnaldo Monzón Plasencia, Pedro Remón RodrÃguez, Guillermo Novo Sampol and Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo. "All of them clearly said that they belong to the Foundation and that Posada is a member of CANF in Miami," said Chávez Abarca.
With the acquiescence of CIA and friendly presidents
He added that Posada boasted of having to ask for CIA consent every time he was to carry out one of his violent attacks on Cuba, and that on one occasion he had said that the man who had interrupted the conversation was a CIA officer, his handler, who had called him on the phone. He also said that it was easy for him to evade the very few inquiries into his actions conducted by the FBI and the State Intelligence Office in El Salvador.
As for Posada’s personal connections in El Salvador, he said that he had an excellent relationship with almost every rightwing president before the current government. He mentioned Calderón Sol, Cristiani and Francisco Flores, the latter of which he used to go fishing. He also mentioned his friend Rodrigo Avila who was police Commissioner twice. "They all visited the Foundation people in Miami," he added.
Chávez Abarca related that in 1997, when Cuban TV broadcast a program showing Salvadoran terrorist Raúl Ernesto Cruz León admitting his connection to CANF and Posada Carriles, the latter instructed him to kill the members of the man’s family; thus he now fears for the fate of his wife and children.
Chávez Abarca not only recruited and trained other Central American mercenaries previously arrested in Cuba -one Salvadoran and three Guatemalans-but he also placed bombs in the Aché disco and on the 15th floor of the Meliá CohÃba hotel, on April 12 and 30, 1997, respectively, and another one at the Comodoro hotel, while an international chess tournament was taking place with over 40 children participating. Some of these children could have been killed as they unknowingly played with the bag where the explosive device was camouflaged.
The bomb found on the eve of May 1st, 1997, on the 15th floor of the Meliá CohÃba hotel contained 1.5 kilograms of the highly-destructive plastic explosive C-4, used by the military and capable of destroying buildings, bridges and vessels.
In that period, the terrorist ring led by Posada Carriles and the CANF brought into the country over 30 explosive devices -18 of them in less than a year-11 of which blew up in various tourist facilities, including the one that caused the death of Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo, injuries to others and substantial material damage.
Nevertheless, there could have been thousands of fatalities if they had perpetrated their plans on normally-crowded recreational and tourist centers like the Tropicana cabaret, nightclubs, hotels and monuments, all of them frustrated by the Cuban Sate Security with the cooperation of the people.
The CANF and those from the U.S. government who incited and permitted this kind of actions had some obvious objectives: to build the perception that these actions had been executed by domestic opposition groups; to trigger panic and instability; to deal a strong blow to tourism; and, to bring chaos to the national economy.
Coinciding with these acts of violence, between 1990 and the first years of the current decade, the Miami Mafia implemented more than 25 terrorist attacks in the U.S. territory, which included bomb blasts, aggressions with firearms, verbal threats and provocations against Cuban interests, immigrants, travel agencies, individuals and organizations supportive of Cuba, and even death threats against President William Clinton and his Secretary of Justice Janet Reno for their decision to return young Elián González.
In addition, throughout this decade we had to deal with plans to assassinate the Comandante en Jefe at practically every Ibero-American Summit held in various capitals and during his trips abroad, as proven by the in fraganti capture of Posada and his henchmen in Panama, where in order to assassinate him they were willing to cause a genocide killing hundreds of university students and other participants during an event presided over by compañero Fidel.
Have such intentions disappeared from the minds of Posada Carriles and the bitter enemies of the Revolution who still hold seats in the U.S. Congress? Will the current U.S. administration be able to curb the impetus and ambitions of the freeloaders and re-founders of old murderous organizations in U.S. territory? Will the complex U.S. legal system ever bring an end to the impunity of Miami, now in its 51st year, and seek justice in the case of our Five Heroes who have spent more than 12 years enduring a cruel imprisonment?
Will there be an end to the reproduction of mercenaries when the threat of coups d’état is a reality within the region as tangible as weapon-trafficking, drug-trafficking and the proliferation of all kinds of gangs?
Although unjustly and inexplicably included in the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Cuba has provided ample evidence to the U.S. to show that it is fighting that scourge seriously and steadily. Despite the state terrorism that has been Washington’s official policy towards us for the past five decades, there have been valuable bilateral exchanges of information on this issue, from Cuba’s warning of a plan to murder President Ronald Reagan in 1984 to Posada Carriles’ intentions to repeat in 1998 an attack similar to the Barbados crime, this time against airlines operating between Central America and Cuba.
At that time, June 16-17, 1998, talks were held with an FBI delegation which visited Havana and its airport facilities, received firsthand information of the documents available on the plans, evidence, and personal information on the terrorists; their exact addresses and connections in the US and Central America; their modus operandi and false names used in their immigration documents; the places where they hid the boats for their actions; explosives and devices seized or the remains of those that exploded.
Impunity and injustice as a response
The U.S. delegation took back home almost ten dossiers, hundreds of pages of astonishing and irrefutable evidence, in addition to the information afforded them during many hours of exchanges with officials and experts from the Ministry of the Interior. Before they left, the FBI officer heading the mission and the chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba promised to respond within two weeks on the results of their inquiries.
Twelve years later, the only response is the impunity of the culprits of those repugnant actions who walk free and even march through the streets of the United States, and the injustice of keeping in prison five young anti-terrorist fighters who contributed to the detection and timely alert of such plans. Their only "crime" is having prevented the loss of more human lives and more substantial material damage. The first result of those talks with the FBI was the arrest of our compañeros and the sudden stampede by the perpetrators of such crimes.
Cuba has described impunity and double standards as unacceptable in the fight on terrorism, and has reiterated its commitment to the fight against such actions. Our country condemns every terrorist action, method and practice in every form and expression wherever they are committed, no matter by whom or against whom, and regardless of motivation. This has just been ratified at the UN General Assembly where we have also denounced the most abominable state terrorism of which we have been victims for over half a century.
The current U.S. government has inherited a murky and dangerous history which interweaves intelligence services and unscrupulous officers; terrorist organizations and notorious criminals and mercenaries; rigged trials and investigations; corrupted detectives, prosecutors, judges, members of Congress and former government officials.
Washington has enough information to unearth the hidden truths that the courts need to do justice in the case of Posada Carriles and a number of other terrorists who walk free in the U.S.; indispensable elements to clarify and bring an end, once and for all, to their impunity and the injustice committed with our five compatriots.
The world needs the truth to prevail. It is in the hands of the current US Administration, its intelligence services and legal authorities to declassify and release all the necessary documents to expose and punish the culprits, and to prevent new acts of terrorist against Cuba, Venezuela and other member countries of ALBA, which are still the targets of this scourge.
Such an endeavor cannot underestimate or ignore the revelations made by detainee Chávez Abarca concerning the plans concerning the forthcoming elections in Venezuela; the involvement of Miami terrorists in the coup d’état dealt in that fraternal nation and in Honduras that are emerging from the investigations or the new plots against democratic governments in Central America, mentioned by the detainee that give rise to questions on possible connections between members of the extreme right, the CIA and the Mafia in Florida.
Punishing Posada Carriles is as fair and necessary as releasing the five Cuban heroes, that is, if Washington wants to be consistent with its alleged commitment to the anti-terrorist struggle.
Cuba has ample reasons for defending itself and continuing the struggle for justice and against terrorism. The 3,478 dead and 2,099 compatriots physically disabled by state terrorism and the continuation of the plans of its main authors and promoters reaffirm our determination not to give in to such threats.
