Posada Carriles Stars in Anti-Castro Rally in Miami
HAVANA TIMES — Luis Posada Carriles, accused of terrorism by Havana and regarded as a hero by anti-Castro militants, appeared Saturday in a protest of old guard Cuban exiles and supporters in Miami against the resumption of relations between the US and the island, reported dpa.
“I felt very sad, but I reacted and I saw the picture. Cuba will not be a tourist haven. We must resist that with all that we can to the end,” Posada Carriles, 86, said with great difficulty to journalists.
Posada, a Cuban but with Venezuelan citizenship, was one of about 200 people who gathered to protest the United States government’s agreement announced on December 17th to reestablish diplomatic relations with the island.
“It will not succeed. You cannot do business with bandits. Nobody can do business with criminals, with murderers, with drug traffickers and those are Raul and the horde alongside him,” said Posada Carriles, accompanied by two people who spoke in favor of armed struggle against the Cuban government.
Posada Carriles has a history of attacks and destabilizing operations in Cuba, Central and South America, and he says he is proud of his actions and has no regrets.
“You are young and you are going to see the end, the end of them,” Posada told reporters, with a whisper, referring to the Castro brothers.
In the 60s, Posada was trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and became an instructor in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
Cuba accuses Posada of being one of the masterminds of the worst attack suffered by the island, perpetrated in 1976 against a Cubana Airlines plane that killed 73 people off the coast of Barbados.
Posada Carriles was arrested in Venezuela, where he had his base of operations, but a decade later, in August 1985, he escaped from prison.
In Guatemala, Posada was the target of an attack on February 28, 1990, he said was organized by Cuba, although he acknowledged that many people had reasons for wanting to eliminate him.
In a series of interviews with “The New York Times” in 1998, Posada Carriles admitted to a series of attacks on hotel facilities in Havana which a year earlier had killed Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo.
In 2000, Fidel Castro denounced in Panama, a “plot” to assassinate him during the Ibero-American Summit. Posada Carriles was arrested along with three other men and sentenced to eight years in prison for “endangering public safety”. But in 2004, shortly before leaving office, Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned him.
In May 2005 he was arrested in the US for illegal entry and lying to immigration authorities after Castro publicly denounced his presence in Miami. Cuba accused Washington of protecting him.
However in April, 2011, a US court in El Paso, Texas found Posada not-guilty of 11 charges including perjury, fraud and obstruction of procedures, allowing him to live freely in the US despite his never renouncing his plans for violent attacks on Cuba or its interests abroad.
On May 7 of this year, Cuban authorities reported the arrest of four Cuban-Americans who had come to the island from Miami to plan “terrorist acts”.
The Havana government accused three Miami residents of being the masterminds of the attacks planned by the four detainees. The three were linked to Posada Carriles, said the official Cuban newspaper “Granma”. Arturo Hernández, Posada’s attorney in Miami, denied any involvement of his client.
I would consider no such thing. Its disturbing that you imagine such things. Even for people like Fidel Castro, who likely has an eternity of fire and brimstone waiting for him, his funeral should be undisturbed to allow those who will genuinely mourn him their time to say goodbye.
When Posada dies, you should consider disrupting the funeral of Luis Posada if the Miami mayor decides to hold a funeral for Posada. Why? Because Posada was such a mean-spirited, fanatical militant exile that he doesn’t deserve a funeral. You could work with some non-Cuban Hispanics in Miami to pull Posada’s coffin with a rope and throw it into the Atlantic Ocean (not the Florida Straits) so that it can sink down to the mid-Atlantic ridge. By throwing Posada’s body into the sea just because he was a fanatical terrorist, we could avoid creating a shrine for right-wing Latino extremists.
If Posada dies, then Cuba will see no reason to accuse the US of harboring terrorists b/c in the past it accused the US of its double standard on fighting terrorism by imprisoning the now-freed Cuban Five while sheltering Posada and the late Orlando Bosch. As a matter of fact, Obama will remain mum on the death of Posada, as neither Bush nor Obama chose to extradite Posada for the fear of ruining America’s image as the leader of the anti-terrorist fight by admitting that the US harbored Posada.
Many Cubans did pick up a gun and fight. Surely you heard of the bay of Pigs? Before that, there were rebels who had fought along with Castro against the Batista dictatorship who became quickly disillusions by Castro’s growing despotism. They took to the hills in Escambray to fight against the new Communist regime Castro was establishing. That fight lasted 6 long years and was finally put down when Castro sent tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers, under the command of a Soviet General, to crush the rebels.
This man has the nerve to call the Castro’s murderers? He and two of his colleagues blew up a Cuban Airline that killed 73 people, of which quite a few were teenagers that were members of the Cuban fencing team.
When he escaped from Venezuela he ended up living in Miami as a free man.
However, the chance for the embargo to be lifted by President Clinton was dropped when we all got upset that two private planes were shot down by the Cuban Air Force that were purported to be in international waters. These same planes also would, on other trips, hang outside Cuba’s air space and drop anti Castro leaflets that the wind carried into the Island.
Of course through our own propaganda, we only hear about the atrocities of the Castro’s —- Americans before they pass judgement should look at both sides of the story not base it on what you are fed by the politicians.
In a recent interview Senator Rubio made the comment “If 99% of US citizens wanted the embargo lifted, I would still be against it”.
200 protestors? Just shows how many people in the Cuban community are upset about lifting the embargo on Cuba.
How on earth would anybody want to continue punishing the Cuban people for the vendetta between the US and the Castro’s
One thing has always bothered me… When the Miami exiles had a chance to fight the Castro legions in 1958-59, why didn’t they pick up a gun and fight?
The “Revolution” died when the Soviet sugar-daddy collapsed and cut off the support payments to his Cuban mistress. All that has happened since is mere regime survival.
If by “revolution” you mean the Castros, I’ll take that bet. If you mean something less tangible like their legacy of human rights abuse, and totalitarianism, you may be right. What else is left of the revolution that took place in 1959?
With all remaining members of the Cuban 5 no longer in jail, the question is how long Luis Posada will live, given his advanced age and the fact that the use of extremist violence to bring change to Cuba is no longer considered satisfactory. When Posada dies and the Miami mayor decides to stage a funeral, some local police may disrupt the funeral, push Posada’s coffin away, and throw it into the Atlantic Ocean (not the Florida Straits).
Who says Posada Carriles “starred” in this protest? The photograph above was not from the protest marches this weekend, so don’t be deceived by the cheap propaganda. Carries showed up with his tiny cade of supporters, but he had no official role in the protests. He was not invited to speak.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article4731864.html
Frankly, I am glad he was able to see this change, the revolution will outlast its detractors.
Commenting on Posada…..is like talking to an “unpainted” wall…..
Unfortunately guys like Carriles, with all their secrets and dirty tricks, are truly living Cold War relics. He probably has some safe deposit box somewhere with a file full of names and places that the CIA would rather the public not know. So as long as he has this ‘Get out of Jail Free’ card, he will probably walk free. Sometimes life just ain’t fair.