Press Conference calls for Posada's extradition,
Freedom for the Cuban Five

WASHINGTON, DC – A well-attended press conference held today at the National Press Club in Washington, D..C., sponsored by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, heard powerful testimony from a number of important speakers, calling for freedom for the Cuban Five and the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles. The press conference took place on the 30th anniversary of the car-bombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt on Embassy Row, Washington DC, Sept. 21, and the 30th anniversary of the blowing up of Cuban Airlines flight 455, that killed 73 people on Oct. 6. Posada and his accomplice Orlando Bosch are widely known as the architects of the plane bombing.

Some photos from the conference are below. Read the press coverage of the press conference here.

Press Conference Speakers:

Francisco Letelier, whose father, Orlando Letelier, was assassinated with U.S. activist Ronnie Moffitt, in a car bombing Sept. 21, 1976, on Washington DC's Embassy Row. Letelier was Chile's foreign minister in Salvador Allende's government.

Livio Di Celmo, brother of Fabio Di Celmo, murdered by a bomb placed in the Hotel Copacabana in Havana, Sept. 4, 1997. Luis Posada Carriles admitted his role in paying mercenary Raúl Ernesto Cruz León to plant the bomb, in a New York Times interview, July 1998.

Camilo Rojo, by telephone from Cuba, whose father, Jesús Rojo Quintana, 33, airlines official with "Cubana de Aviación," died in the 1976 plane bombing. Rojo is part of the Committee of Familes of the Victims of the Cubana plane bombing. The families committee issued a statement available on the Cuban Five website.

José Pertierra, D.C. attorney representing Venezuela in its request for Posada's extradition.

Andrés Gómez, Cuban-American community activist in Miami, and leader in La Alianza Martiana coalition

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Partnership for Civil Justice, National Lawyers Guild;

Eugene Puryear, organizer, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, which has spearheaded a massive letter- writing campaign in the U.S. directed to Condoleezza Rice, calling on the State Department to honor Venezuela's extradition request.

Gloria La Riva, coordinator, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five.