Under the headline "Infamous Judicial Decision: Posada under the Empire's Protection", the Cuban daily Granma reported on September 28 that US immigration judge William Abbott chose not to deport Cuban-born terrorist Posada Carriles, either to Venezuela or Cuba. Posada was the mastermind of a commercial plane bombing that killed 73 people.
Abbott ruled that the notorious criminal should remain in the custody of the Immigration Customs Enforcement, and granted 90 days for the US to find a country willing to shelter him.
"This is a chronicle of an agreement reached since the very first day Posada decided to travel to the US", said Jose Pertierra, an expert on immigration issues.
"There are two dangers now. The US government can send him to a third country in the coming three months to avoid his extradition to Venezuela, or may refuse to deport him and release him on bail, as it did in the case of Posada's crony, Orlando Bosch."
On September 26, the Venezuelan government issued a statement condemning the US administration for harbouring "this self-confessed terrorist". "Prosecution is neither persecution nor torture", underlines the statement, issued by the Venezuelan embassy in Washington. "There is no evidence that the government of Venezuela would torture Posada. To grant CAT [Convention Against Torture] relief to Posada Carriles is to twist an international treaty meant to protect innocent victims of torture into an instrument with which to shelter a terrorist."
[Abridged from Prensa Latina.]
From Green Left Weekly, October 12, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.