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International terrorist Posada Carriles released in the U.S.
Apr. 19, 2007
Reprinted from Granma Internacional
 WASHINGTON, April 19 (PL).—International terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was released today by U.S. authorities, despite evidence in their possession of his participation in criminal acts.
According to one of Posada’s lawyers, Felipe Milán, after the bond of $250,000 was posted, his client left the New Mexico prison where he had been detained and traveled to Miami.
On Tuesday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans found in favor of release on bail for the criminal, whom Washington is refusing to try for his bloody acts against Cuba.
The court ruling ignored a Justice Department petition to maintain the detention of Posada Carriles, who has only been charged for the violation of immigration laws and not for his terrorist activities against the island.
It was in the hands of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department to prevent the release of the terrorist, one of the perpetrators of the 1976 sabotage in full flight of a Cubana passenger plane with 73 people on board.
In order to prevent him from being released, the government was forced to argue that to do so would constitute a danger to the community.
Two weeks ago, Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled in favor of the release of this Cuban-born criminal, upon his deposit of a corporate bond of $250,000.
His release is likewise backed up by a so-called family financial commitment, and adorned with an "electronic bracelet" that the terrorist has to wear as a means of localizing him.
Under the order, Posada Carriles is to remain in Miami and non-authorized visits are not permitted.
The judge’s ruling was contradictory, given that in her document she acknowledges that the terrorist is "associated with some of the most infamous events of twentieth-century Central America."
Those events include "Bay of Pigs invasion, the Iran-Contra affair, the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455, the tourist bombings of 1997 and even – according to some conspiracy theorists – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, she noted.
However, Cardone decided that the charges faced by the detainee are unrelated to any of those events.
Posada Carriles was arrested in May 2005 after appearing in public in Miami, thus making evident his illegal entry into U.S. territory.
Last January, a federal district judge in Texas arraigned him on seven charges, including fraud in the naturalization process and another six for giving false information to immigration officials, but none for terrorist crimes.
The trial is set for May 11.
In addition to blowing up the Cuban aircraft, Posada’s criminal record includes the planning of a series bombings of Havana tourist facilities in 1997, one of which caused the death of Italian Fabio di Celmo.
He was also one of a group of four terrorists who organized a thwarted attempt on the life of Cuban President Fidel Castro during the 10th Ibero-American Summit in Panama in 2000.
Anti-Castro exile freed, en route to Miami
by Jeff Franks
Apr. 19, 2007
Reprinted from Reuters
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Anti-Castro Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, wanted in Cuba and Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner and awaiting U.S. trial on immigration charges, has been released on bail, federal officials said on Thursday.
Posada Carriles posted bail totaling $350,000 to get out of jail in New Mexico. He has been in detention since May 2005, after entering the United States illegally to seek asylum.
"He has been released on bond and he is on his way to Miami to report to pre-trial services," said U.S. Marshal spokesman Gary Brown in San Antonio, Texas.
The 79-year-old Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative accused in various plots against Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has been ordered to live with his wife under house arrest in her Miami home until his trial.
He is scheduled to be tried starting May 11 in El Paso on seven immigration fraud charges accusing him of lying to immigration authorities.
His lawyers said recently they expected that once Posada Carriles was freed on bail, which was granted by U.S. Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, he would immediately be detained again on an immigration-detention order.
But Brown said "that has not happened yet."
"We expect him to appear in court on May 11 for his criminal proceeding as ordered by the court," said U.S. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd in Washington
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso said she was waiting for a statement from Washington to comment.
Posada Carriles is wanted for trial in Cuba and Venezuela for trial on charges he masterminded a Cubana airliner bombing that killed 73 people
The two leftist countries have demanded his extradition, but the U.S. has refused, which has prompted charges that the Bush administration is ignoring its own "war on terror."
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not appeared in public since emergency surgery eight months ago, accused the American government last week of harboring his nemesis.
"Not a single word has been said about his countless victims, his bomb attacks on tourist facilities in recent years or dozens of his plots financed by the U.S. government to eliminate me physically," Castro wrote.
Posada Carriles was jailed in Panama for a plot to assassinate Castro during an Ibero-American summit in 2000, but was pardoned by outgoing president Mireya Moscoso in 2004.
Cuba also accuses him of plotting a wave of bomb blasts in Havana hotels in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist.
(Additional reporting by Jim Vicini in Washington and Anthony Boadle in Havana)
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