Reheating the Cold War
The trial of a suspected terrorist is stoking old passions, from D.C. to Miami to Havana
Either way, 1976 was a fateful year. In one declassified FBI document from 1976, Posada, then living in Venezuela, is quoted as saying a few days after a Caracas fundraising dinner for his fellow militant exile and CIA operative Orlando Bosch: "We are going to hit a Cuban airplane." A short time later, on October 6, Cubana Flight 455, carrying members of the Cuban national fencing team, as well as a half-dozen Guyanese scholars on their way to medical school in Havana, blew up off the coast of Barbados. Seventy-three people died.
Posada and his lawyers deny his involvement, though Venezuelan police records show that a Venezuelan who worked for Posada, then a naturalized citizen in that country, staked out potential Cuba-connected bombing targets. According to the documents, at least four targets, and the airliner, were on the list and bombed that summer and fall.
Posada and his lawyers say he was at the center of some of the U.S. government's most notorious operations in Central America, including the supplying of the Nicaraguan contra rebels with arms. The CIA says it was finished with him before some of the operations took place. Either way, he stayed busy; Posada was shot in the face during a 1990 attempt on his life in Guatemala. He was later convicted in Panama of plotting to blow up an auditorium there during a 2000 visit by Castro but was ultimately pardoned.
When Posada surfaced in the United States in 2005, he claimed he crossed over from Mexico with a smuggler, then rode a bus to Miami. There, Posada lawyer Eduardo Soto said his client would petition for asylum. But after skipping a scheduled interview with the Department of Homeland Security, Posada announced he would withdraw his application, and Soto said his client might leave the country. Instead, he was arrested and charged with illegal entry. Government lawyers later alleged that Posada was brought to the United States from Mexico on a boat owned by a friend.
Posada may have believed he could end up living freely in Miami like his friend, Bosch, also implicated, in CIA and FBI documents, in the airline bombing. Bosch was granted a special parole in 1990 by former President George H. W. Bush after being charged with violating the terms of his release from a previous terrorism conviction. The parole was promoted by the president's son, Jeb Bush (who later became Florida governor), despite objections of officials at the Justice Department who argued that the Cuban exile had long been an active terrorist. But in the post-9/11 world, the politics of such determinations may well have changed.
Jose Pertierra, general counsel for the Embassy of Venezuela, fought unsuccessfully for Posada's return to face charges. But in August 2005, a Texas judge barred Posada's extradition to Venezuela after his lawyers argued he might be tortured there. U.S. prosecutors did not challenge the claim-a win for his client, Soto said.
Pertierra finds the current case against Posada absurd. "Prosecute him for killing 73 people in the downing of the plane. Prosecute him in the United States for the death of the Italian tourist in the Havana bombings. Don't prosecute him for an immigration violation," Pertierra said. "Certify him as a terrorist."
advertisement
