by Jean-Guy Allard
Mar. 21, 2008
Reprinted from Granma Internacional

THERE is insufficient evidence against international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, according to what Caroline Willson, a U.S. envoy for legal affairs, has just affirmed in the United Nations, even though a U.S. immigration official stated two years ago that Posada was a threat to national security.

On March 27, 2006, Robert E. Jolicoeur, the Miami, Florida field office director for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, noted in a letter to Posada that he was not being released from custody because: "You have a history of engaging in criminal activity, associating with individuals involved in criminal activity, and participating in violent acts that indicate a disregard for the safety of the general public and a propensity for engaging in activities... that pose a risk to the national security of the United States.

"Due to your long history of criminal activity and violence in which innocent civilians were killed, your release from detention would pose a danger to both the community and the national security of the United States," Jolicieur wrote. He noted the charges brought against the Cuban-born criminal in Caracas in relation to his participation in the sabotage of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people in 1976; his arrest in Panama in 2000 for a plot to assassinate President Fidel Castro; his public admission to having organized a terrorist campaign against Havana tourist facilities in 1997, and his close relationship with other terrorists.

However, this past week, in response to questions raised by Cuba and Venezuela in the UN, Willson said a few days ago that her country had followed proceedings "consistent with international law as well as our domestic legal framework," the EFE reported.

"In democratic societies, a person cannot be tried or extradited if there is insufficient evidence that he or she committed the crime with which he or she is charged," Willson stated.

She said that after Posada illegally entered the U.S. in 2005, an immigration judge authorized his deportation, but not to Venezuela or Cuba because "because it was more likely than not" that the former CIA agent and torturer for the Venezuelan secret police "would be tortured if he were so transferred."

Willson also noted that her government has appealed a federal judge’s ruling that freed Posada from detention on immigration charges, repeating his defense lawyer’s claims of interpretation errors during an interrogation of the old criminal.

José Pertierra, an attorney representing Venezuela, has indicated on several occasions that this appeal is just a maneuver by the White House to further postpone Posada’s case, even though there is legal recourse and abundant evidence to charge the former U.S. military officer and CIA agent as a terrorist.

On March 18, Cuba and Venezuela presented a petition to the UN Security Council requesting Posada’s extradition from the United States.

Last July, William Brownsfield, the outgoing U.S. ambassador in Venezuela, told the newspaper Panorama that his government had no intention of handing over Posada to the Venezuelan justice system. "Mr. Luis Posada Carriles poses no imminent danger to anybody," Brownsfield stated.

The Venezuelan government has been waiting almost three years for a response to the extradition petition it submitted to the United States. Meanwhile, Posada, a self-confessed terrorist, torturer and murderer, has not been charged with terrorism in the United States, in violation of all the pertinent international agreements signed by Washington.

Ironically, a few days before Brownsfield’s statement, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon told the Organization of American States (OAS) that the U.S. Justice Department was still investigating Posada.

Months after that affirmation, nothing new has occurred in the case of the terrorist, who remains in Miami, conspiring more than ever with his longtime accomplices.

Para EE.UU., "no hay suficientes pruebas" para extraditar a Posada