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Cuban ex-CIA agent acquitted of charges alleging he lied during US immigration hearing by Will Weissert
EL PASO, Texas — An elderly Cuban former CIA operative accused of lying during a U.S. immigration hearing was acquitted on all charges Friday, with jurors taking just three hours to reach a verdict after enduring 13 weeks of often-delayed testimony. Luis Posada Carriles, 83, broke out in a huge grin when the verdict was read and hugged all three of his attorneys simultaneously. One of the attorneys broke down in tears. Across the aisle, the federal prosecutors who painstakingly built their case during the first 11 weeks by calling 23 witnesses, sat still. "Anytime a jury has a case, there's no telling what they might do. But we respect the jury's decision," Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Reardon said after the hearing. Posada, who spent decades working to destabilize communist Latin American governments, often with Washington's backing, is Public Enemy No. 1 in his homeland and is considered ex-President Fidel Castro's nemesis. Prosecutors said Posada lied to immigration officials about how he sneaked into the U.S. in 2005 and by denying he masterminded a series of hotel bombings in Cuba in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist and wounded 12 other people. Posada said in a 1998 interview with The New York Times that he planned the attacks, but later recanted that. The defence, which called just eight witnesses over eight days, maintained Posada should have been allowed to retire a hero in Miami for his service to the country during the darkest days of the cold war. Posada spent nearly two years in immigration detention centres but was released in 2007 and had been living in Miami. Posada participated in the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion, served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and was a CIA operative until 1976. He then moved to Venezuela and served as head of that country's intelligence service. Also in 1976, he was arrested for planning the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada was acquitted by a military tribunal, but escaped from prison while still facing a civilian trial. He helped the U.S. funnel support to Nicaraguan Contra rebels in the 1980s, and, in 2000, was arrested in Panama amid a plot to kill Castro during a summit there. He was pardoned by Panama's president in 2004 and turned up in the U.S. the following March. Jurors acquit Cuban militant Posada after 3 hours A Texas jury deliberated for three hours before acquitting Luis Posada Carriles on all 11 perjury counts by Alfonso Chardy EL PASO, Texas -- After deliberating for about three hours, a jury of seven women and five men acquitted Luis Posada Carriles on Friday on all 11 charges in an indictment that accused him of lying about his alleged role in bombings in Cuba in 1997 and about how he sneaked into the country in 2005. As soon as U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone read the unanimous verdict, Posada and his three lawyers merged into a tight embrace that lasted several seconds as the federal prosecutors sat without showing emotion. The verdict was a surprise to many observers who had expected the jurors to deliberate for a few days before reaching a decision. The observers also expected the jurors to find Posada guilty on at least some counts. No one had predicted an acquittal across the board on all perjury and fraud charges. Acquittal caps a slow-moving trial that lasted 13 weeks and featured 33 witnesses from the prosecution and the defense. Jurors began their deliberations Friday morning at around 9 a.m. El Paso time and by 11:57 a.m. had sent a note to Judge Cardone saying they had reached a verdict in the perjury trial against Posada, a former CIA operative charged with lying to U.S. immigration officials about his alleged role in the Cuba bombings and how he entered the country in 2005. Had the jurors found Posada guilty on all charges, he might have faced eight years in the federal penitentiary. Despite the acquittal, Posada may not walk a totally free man. A pending deportation order against him may prompt federal immigration authorities to require that he report regularly to an immigration office, as if he were on permanent supervised release. |
Justicia made in USA: Absuelven a Posada Carriles de todos los cargos por José Pertierra Después de un juicio por más de tres meses ante la Corte Federal de El Paso, Texas, en menos de 3 horas el jurado absolvió de todos los cargos a Luis Posada Carriles, que enfrentó un proceso no por terrorista, sino por mentirle a las autoridades de inmigración. Posada Carriles fue declarado hoy inocente de los 11 cargos de perjurio, fraude y obstrucción de procedimiento, según el veredicto de un jurado integrado por siete mujeres y cinco hombres en su mayoría de origen hispano. A las 11:57 de la mañana, hora de El Paso (1:57 PM, en La Habana), la jueza Kathleeen Cardone recibió una nota del jurado -que había estado deliberando en privado- avisándole que los integrantes habían llegado a un veredicto unánime. Es decir, los doce estaban de acuerdo. En declaraciones vía telefónica desde El Paso, el abogado José Pertierra comentó que “la jueza convocó a los abogados y a los fiscales, y los integrantes del jurado entraron a la sala judicial. La jueza Cardone le pidió a Posada Carriles que se levantara, y la jueza leyó los cargos y cada veredicto. Once veces anunció: “Not guilty” [no culpable]“. Los únicos cargos que quedan pendientes son los 73 cargos de homicidio calificado en Caracas por la voladura de un avión de pasajeros el 6 de octubre de 1976, añadió Pertierra. “La República Bolivariana de Venezuela seguirá luchando para que se haga justicia en este caso, y que Estados Unidos cumpla con sus obligaciones internacionales y extradite a Posada Carriles”, aseguró Pertierra, el abogado que representa al gobierno venezolano para la extradición del terrorista. “El veredicto en El Paso prueba que en los tribunales estadounidenses el teatro vale más que la evidencia”, añadió el letrado, que ha estado publicando un diario de este juicio en los sitios Counterpunch y Cubadebate. Luis Posada Carriles, acusado de ser el autor intelectual del peor atentado terrorista en América Latina y de varios ataques terroristas contra Cuba, coordinador de acciones bélicas ilegales en Centroamérica y empleado de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia (CIA), enfrentó cargos en un caso que por primera vez en Estados Unidos incluyó evidencias y testimonios sobre sus actividades clandestinas en atentados de alta violencia. Pero a pesar de miles de documentos de evidencia y múltiples testigos sobre sus actividades terroristas, en un país que dice que su enemigo mundial es el terrorismo, Posada Carriles ha gozado la vida como hombre libre, y hasta ha celebrado como héroe, en Miami, durante los últimos años. Ahora sale absuelto, aunque durante todo el juicio el propio gobierno presentó pruebas abrumadoras de sus actividades violentas. A pesar de ser prófugo de la ley en otros países, con una solicitud de extradición por Venezuela, buscado por Interpol y haber sido identificado como terrorista peligroso por algunas autoridades estadunidenses que incluso lo tienen en su lista de personas a las que no se autoriza viajar por avión en este país, Posada Carriles no estuvo encarcelado en El Paso ni enfrentó un proceso parecido a otros sospechosos de terrorismo en este país, o en Guantánamo. Más bien, los cargos de perjurio y fraude migratorio que enfrentó en Texas estuvieron centrados en su ingreso ilegal a Estados Unidos en 2005 y subsecuentes mentiras a autoridades sobre su papel en algunos casos de terrorismo. José Pertierra es abogado y tiene su bufete en Washington DC. Es el representante legal del gobierno de Venezuela para la extradición de Luis Posada Carriles. |
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