Washington's terror hypocrisy

October 12, 2006
Issue 

George Bush's administration claims it is waging a "war against terrorism". But since April 2005 Luis Posada Carriles, who worked for the CIA and engaged in brutal terrorist acts including the bombing of a Cuban airliner, has resided in the US, and Washington has resisted pressure to deport him to Venezuela, where he escaped from jail, to face justice. Posada Carriles is currently in "immigration detention" for entering the US illegally. Even a court filing by the US Justice Department described him as "the admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks". The following letter, among the signatories of which are four Nobel laureates, was issued on October 6.

Exactly 30 years ago, on October 6, 1976, a horrendous crime was perpetrated against 73 innocent victims who lost their lives in the explosion of the plane Cubana de Aviacion in Barbados.

The author of this bloody terrorist act is the notorious criminal and old CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles, who is also responsible for numerous criminal acts. He himself confessed to his crimes in his autobiography The Roads of the Warrior.

The official documents of the FBI and CIA, unclassified in May and June of 2005, confirm Luis Posada Carriles' guilt.

Arrested and condemned in Venezuela for this indescribable act, Luis Posada Carriles escaped prison in 1985, thanks to the help of the extreme right of Cuban origin in Florida.

Currently, Luis Posada Carriles finds himself in preventive detention in Texas since April 2005, for illegal entry into United States territory.

Venezuela is demanding his extradition, but Washington is refusing to proceed with his extradition, violating at least three treaties dealing with the fight against terrorism.

We, the signatories to this declaration, demand from the United States government that Luis Posada Carriles be put on trial for the 73 assassinations committed on October 6, 1976, or that he be extradited to Venezuela. We cannot accept double standards in the fight against terrorism. All those guilty have to pay for their crimes and the United States has the opportunity of demonstrating in front of the world's eyes that it is consistent in its struggle against terrorism.

Nadine Gordimer, Salim Lamrani, Noam Chomsky, Jose Saramago, Rigoberta Mench, Adolfo P. Esquivel

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