Anti-Castro Warrior Luis Posada Carriles Dies at 90
HAVANA TIMES – Cuban anti-Castro fighter Luis Posada Carriles, considered a hero by his exiled compatriots and accused of terrorism by Havana and Caracas, died today in a home for veterans in Florida at age 90, informed his attorney, reported dpa.
His lawyer and friend Arturo Hernandez told the Miami Herald newspaper that the health of the former CIA agent has deteriorated since a car accident in 2015 in which he suffered several injuries.
“I’m very sorry, at least he tried to do something for Cuba,” Hernandez stressed, noting that Posada suffered from throat cancer for several years.
A little over three years ago, Posada appeared at a public ceremony of Cuban exiles in Miami organized to protest against the resumption of relations between Washington and Havana.
Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and nationalized Venezuelan, Posada insisted that his country “would not be a tourist paradise” and therefore called to “resist until the end”. “You cannot negotiate with bandits,” he said.
Posada was accused of dedicating a large part of his life to a series of attacks and destabilizing operations against the Castro government in Cuba as well as in Central and South America, which he repeatedly claimed not to regret.
According to documents from the State Department, Posada Carriles was trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States shortly after becoming one of the instructors in the failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
Cuba accused him of being one of the masterminds behind the worst attack the island suffered, against a Cubana de Aviacion plane off the coast of Barbados that killed 73 people in October 1976.
Posada was arrested in Venezuela, where they had their operations center, but a decade later, in August 1985, he escaped from the prison.
In Guatemala he was the target of an attack on February 28, 1990. Posada assured that it was organized by Cuba, although he acknowledged that many people had reasons to want to eliminate him.
The government of Cuba called him “the Bin Laden of the West”
The official media of the island announced today the death of Luis Posada, calling him a terrorist and describing him as the “Bin Laden of the West”.
The state television gave the news of his death today in Florida and related his history as an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in operations against the government of Fidel Castro, but also in Central America and Venezuela.
“Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles dies,” headlined the newspaper Trabajadores, voice of the CTC, Cuba’s only legal union.
For its part, the official website “Cubadebate” noted that Posada “left his country of origin, Cuba, with the sole intention of ending the Revolution on the island” and said that he “dedicated his life to commit acts of terrorism of which innocent people were victims.”
The Cuban government always considered him as the planner of the attack against the Cubana de Aviacion flight, which in October 1976, exploded with 73 passengers on board, including many young athletes.
Posada and Orlando Bosch were arrested in Caracas by Venezuelan police, accused of organizing the air attack, but in 1985 Posada managed to escape from the Venezuelan prison while awaiting sentencing and settled in Miami.
“Posada died unpunished.” His abhorrent existence underlines in these days of pain that other tragedy, not accidental, which occurred in Barbados, 1976. “I hope that this vile worm has not passed to a better life,” Cubadebate editor Rosa Mirian Elizalde wrote on Facebook.
On repeated occasions, Fidel Castro came to consider Posada as the “most famous and cruel terrorist in the Western Hemisphere” and denounced that Washington protected him because of his links with the CIA.
Cuba also accused Posada Carriles of organizing several bomb attacks in Havana hotels in 1997, in one of which the Italian citizen Fabio Di Celmo died.
In the year 2000, Fidel Castro denounced that Posada Carriles planned to assassinate him during his participation in the Ibero-American Summit of Panama, for which he was arrested along with three other men and sentenced to eight years in prison. But four years later, Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned him shortly before leaving office.
You’re comparing apples to pineapples, so typical of Marxists, always trying to rationalize and counter…..
“Vile worm” “worst terrorist of Western Hemisphere” etc,etc, surely Elizalde is referring to the Castros. This man lost two countries to Castro and communism, Cuba and Venezuela.
No one is defending Posada Carriles. But you make a totally unsupported statement Victor when you say
“had they charged him and taken him to trial he would have revealed just how deeply several CIA personnel were involved in his crimes.”
You may have noticed that when I made reference to Fidel Castro being a warmonger who sought to make a first nuclear strike upon the US, I provided the evidence of his own cable to Nikita Khrushchev and Khrushchev’s response. So, do you have any evidence to support your statement or is it merely your own personal opinion?
The CIA leaks information like a sieve, keeping secrets isn’t exactly its forte. But you are suggesting that in this matter they managed to keep involvement secret.
This article failed to note that Posada Carriles confessed to two of these terrorist attacks. He did so in his US immigration interview and therefore these are not simply accusations, but a confession to the murder of dozens of people.
I believe that the real reason the US allowed him to remain free is because had they charged him and taken him to trial he would have revealed just how deeply several CIA personnel were involved in his crimes. Si he remained free and took those names to his grave.
Yet again Kennedy Earle Clarke in your enthusiasm to condemn all things American you write nonsense!
I quote!
“The USA is a Terrorist. It supports all the TERRORIST GROUPS in the world!”
So you would try to persuade others that the USA supports Hamas? What nonsense!
There is not one single government that be a moral reference. By the
way, Russia was invited to Afghanistan??? Yes sure, they were also
invited to Budapest, Prague, and the rest of the colonies in east
Europe every time a group of bad socialist tried to lose the soviet
iron red chain
Mr Earle Clarke let me give you a good news, you cam hate both
governments at the same time if you want, there is no need for to
defend the Cuban dictators just because you don´t like the American
government.
There is always a double standard to judge particular terrorist and state terrorist, it is a shame that people who get horrify by the killings of jack the reaper admire the killings of Napoleon.
Fidel Castro killed many more Cubans by firing squad than Carllles kllled. If one cares for humanity and morality, one has to condemn both.
Well, Well, Well, Look at the hypocrisy of Havana Times, referring to this Terrorist as a Warrior? Look at how the Anti- Terrorist country — the USA harboured this Terrorist after after he had bombed the Cubana Airline just off the coast of Barbados, killing all 73 people on board and the USA shielded him from1976– 2018=42 years and would not extradite him to stand trial for his crime!
Were they afraid that he would divulge that he was trained and provided with the Terrorist tools by the CIA to carry out this nefarious and heinous mission? And then the USA has the gall to speak about TERRORISM? Who trained Ben Laden when the Russians were invited to Afghanistan? Who armed Bin Laden with stinger missiles? Hypocrisy which stinks to the highest heavens! From the comments on this post by some writers, is it any surprise that schools are attacked with weapons and students masacred in the USA?
Is it a case of EXAMPLE set, EXAMPLE followed? The USA is a Terrorist Country. It supports all the TERRORIST GROUPS in the world! Didn;t it train those Terrorist groups in Jordon and send them into Syria to overthrow President Assad who was Democratically elected? Can the USA be serious when it mouths condemnation of TERRORISTS and TERRORISM when it is the biggest supporter of them all?
Repatriado, I totally agree with you.
Some of the other comments on this are sad but entirely predictable.
I have met many people in Cuba who are opposed to the way the country is governed. I’ve met those who expressed a dislike of Fidel Castro. But regardless of their views on those issues, I have never met anyone in Cuba who have any respect for Posada Carriles.
In the country of his birth this man was hated.
Hi Circles,
I would absolutely agree that certain people consider this individual to be an ‘Anti-Castro Hero’.
But the way the first edition of the article was phrased suggested that HT regarded him thus.
I note that the wording has now been altered slightly to make it clearer and more neutral.
Much appreciated.
Example of all that a human being should not be, murdered of how many Cubans he had to murder with such of changing a political regime, nobody that doesn’t respect the life of innocent people is entitled to be considered a hero, the mothers and the fathers of all those that died so that this man achieved his objectives will never forgive his crimes.
He learned his tactics from the Castro’s books. The M26J that Castro was leader blows movie theaters in Havana in the 1950’s so whatever this man did to get rid of the longer, brutal, bloody Castro dictatorship is fair game. After all Castro betrayed the Cuban people promising generals multiple parties elections and restoring democracy and the constitution of 1940.
What we have here is moral relativism. As bad as you may consider Posada Carriles to have been, he is perceived to have been far better than the Castros.
Speaking of double standards, there are those who admired Fidel Castro. Yet he was the man who urged Nikita Khruschev to make a first nuclear strike upon the US, which as Khruschev pointed out in response, would undoubtedly have caused a Third World War killing millions. Total shame on those who admired Fidel Castro – sure you would agree NIck!
If Posada Carriles was responsible for the Cubana de Aviacion explosion and there is reason to believe that he was, then he was a terrorist, but awful though that was, killing 73 innocent people, it is relatively insignificant compared with Fidel Castro who was a warmonger. seeking to kill millions – including his own people. Perhaps the best way to describe Fidel Castro is as an Anti-humanity hero.
Nick, the old guard exile community in Miami sees exactly that… Posada is their anti-Castro hero.
The freedom loving USA gave this revolting murderous terrorist filth a safe haven until the end of his days.
Total shame on the US government for their twisted double standards.
Shame.
And I shudder at the HTdescription of this individual….
‘Anti-Castro Hero’
Really?
Would Havana Times like to re-phrase this?
Would Havana Times describe Osama bin Laden as an ‘Anti-Bush Hero’ ??