April 27, 2005

U.N. Commission On Human Rights
Denounce U.S. Attacks on Cuba! Target U.S. Violations of Human Rights
Cuba's Immensely Prestigious Reputation at the Human Rights Commission
— Mireya Castañeda, Granma International
U.S. Pulls Its Puppets' Strings to Achieve Anti-Cuban Resolution — Orlando Oramas Leon, Prensa Latina
Moral Victory for Cuba
— Radio Havana Cuba
U.S. Escalates Hostility Amid Growing Support for Cuba
— Agencia Cubana de Noticias

No Asylum for Terrorists
No Asylum for Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles
The U.S. Government Must Respond as to Whether It Is Hiding Posada Carriles
— Granma International


U.N. Commission On Human Rights

Denounce U.S. Attacks on Cuba! Target U.S. Violations of Human Rights

At the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) annual meeting in Geneva, the U.S. once again organized to push through a resolution against Cuba, demanding the renewal of the mandate of the representative of the UN High Commissioner to "monitor the human rights situation" in Cuba. The U.S. yearly pushes this resolution, using intense blackmail and bullying against the countries on the UNCHR. Usually, it gets another country to actually introduce the resolution. The isolation and lack of any credibility of the U.S., and growing support for Cuba this year forced the U.S. to introduce the resolution itself. And while the resolution did pass, a majority of states either voted against the motion or abstained. The votes were 21 in favor and 17 against with 15 abstentions. The number of countries voting in favor went down by one since last year while a large increase in the number of states abstaining is a consequence of concerted U.S. intimidation and bribery.

Voice of Revolution vigorously denounces the U.S. actions against Cuba and their vicious blackmail against all members of the UNCHR. The U.S., guilty of massive human rights violations and outright war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, guilty of broad terrorism against the peoples, and guilty of untold human rights violations inside the U.S., including inhuman treatment of its children, women and prisoners, should be banned from even participating on the UNCHR. We also fully support the Cuba resolution concerning human rights violations of the prisoners held at the U.S. concentration camp at the U.S. Naval base on Cuban territory at Guantánamo Bay.

The resolution was put forward by Cuba April 14, in the face of U.S. attempts to deliberately undermine any legitimacy remaining in the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The Cuban government presented an emergency resolution calling for an independent investigation into the conditions at the Guantánamo Bay concentration camp located on U.S. occupied Cuban territory. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque brought out that EU citizens and many others have been imprisoned at the Guantánamo base for a number of years without having recourse to due legal proceedings or legal aid. They have been subjected to horrific acts of torture. He called on the EU and all UNCHR members to oppose these U.S. violations of human rights.

Speaking of the UNCHR resolution against Cuba, Perez Roque, speaking at a news conference in Havana, said, "Cuba does not accept this resolution and will not cooperate with its spurious mandate." In its deliberately hypocritical and provocative manner, the United States attacked the legitimacy of the Human Rights Commission and flaunted its massive violations of human rights at Guantánamo and elsewhere by seeking to single out Cuba, he added. He denounced the U.S. stand as a "farce." Perez Roque described as disgraceful the fact that Ukraine and Mexico, who typically do not follow the U.S. so openly, voted in favor of the resolution. He noted that Mexico had voted in favor of the resolution in exchange for U.S. backing for its candidate for secretary general of the Organization of American States, Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez. He also noted that the U.S. had exerted great pressure on impoverished African nations to abstain and thus carry the vote, threatening to shut off imports of cotton from one country if it voted against the resolution.

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Moral Victory for Cuba

— Radio Havana Cuba, April 12, 2005 —

Cuba and other countries achieved a moral victory on Thursday at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, after the United States was forced to present its yearly anti-Cuba resolution itself.

Washington had been unable this time to find a third country willing to present its anti-Cuba resolution and was thus forced to do it alone. In past years the United States has been able to persuade other nations to present the resolution as their own.

Today's vote revealed that 21 countries went along with Washington, while 17, despite heavy pressures from the United States, opposed the resolution with 15 abstaining. That means that despite weeks of maneuvers and pressures from Washington, a full 60 percent of the forum's member nations refused to go along with the U.S. resolution.

Before the vote, representatives from China, Zimbabwe, Sudan and Russia expressed their condemnation to the anti-Cuba resolution and underscored the island's achievements in human rights. They harshly criticized Washington for its long history of aggressions against Cuba, including a more than four-decade economic blockade against the island.

China's representative discredited the resolution and urged for an end to Washington's anti-Cuba policy which, he stressed, only serves to maintain tensions, rather than helping to achieve peace.

Last year the Washington-sponsored anti-Cuba resolution in the UN Human Rights Commission was presented by Honduras. Twenty-two voted in favor of the document, 21 against and 10 abstained.

Many critics of the UN Human Rights Commission charge that it unfairly favors developed countries noting that they are almost never sanctioned by the Commission. For example, thus far the United Nations Human Rights Commission has not admonished the Bush Administration for waging a war in Iraq based on the false pretences that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, or for torturing hundreds of prisoners of war in prisons in Iraq and Guantánamo.

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Cuba's Immensely Prestigious Reputation at the Human Rights Commission

— Mireya Castañeda, Granma International, February 18, 2005 —

When the Latin American and Caribbean group of the UN's Human Rights Commission (HRC) elected Cuba to the Standing Committee, it was unanimous acknowledgment of Cuba's immensely prestigious reputation following a decade of work with that organization.

The news hit the media controlled by the major powers and resulted in commentaries against the Cuban presence on the afore-mentioned Committee.

Why such a major reaction? The reasons were explained to Granma International by a Cuban diplomat whose dynamic, clear and incisive style of answering questions as head of the HRC delegation during the 1959-1960 period were noted. I am talking of Juan Antonio Fernández, director of multilateral affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

What is the Standing Committee?

The Standing Committee is part of what is known as the 1503 confidential process which responds to the HRC and makes reports on individuals, groups or organizations in relation to alleged violations. It is the first step in the process before the reports reach the Commission. Prior to that, they arrive at the Communications Committee where expert Miguel Alfonso Martin also represents Cuba.

What are its functions?

The Standing Committee reports on recommendations that are first made by the Communications Committee. It analyzes and considers each case and then there are several options: to discontinue the reports, put them on a pending status while more information is sought or submit them to the Commission.

What are the standards that the Committee must follow in carrying out its analysis?

To demonstrate there is a serious, large-scale, and continuous pattern of human rights violations. That is not to say that an isolated incident would not conform to a situation that could be considered serious, large-scale, and systematic. The group makes its decisions and submits its considerations to the HRC, and during its next period — from March 14 to April 21 — will devote two sessions to reviewing the recommendations and making a decision. The Standing Committee has an important role because it is the gateway to the HRC.

Who are its members?

It has members from five countries, one for each regional group. At the end of last year and continuing through into the beginning of this year, four new members were elected. The African group elected Zimbabwe; The Western European and Others group elected Holland; The East European group elected Hungary and the Asian and Oceanic group elected Saudi Arabia. Only the Latin American group had failed to elect a candidate. Our candidate was nominated a year ago and we were just waiting for the endorsement of the Latin American and Caribbean group which was delayed a little. The delay was not unconnected to certain behind-the-scenes maneuvers which we knew about, regarding a certain extra-regional power that was interested in making sure that Cuba was not elected. Finally, two weeks ago, in response to a proposal by the Group's coordinator Argentina, the Latin American group unanimously voted to endorse our nomination and fortunately, the elections were completed.

The election provoked different reactions. Could you comment?

After the election, we read press organs controlled by the major power blocs, and statements by certain so-called non-governmental and governmental organizations, some of which are a clear cover for the CIA. I am referring basically to the Reporters sans frontières, Human Rights Watch and the US State Department's spokesperson, all of whom, using insulting phrases, strongly criticized the membership of both Cuba and Zimbabwe to the HRC.

Cuba now has its own voice.

I believe that what is most important is that our election is an acknowledgment of the role and prestige that Cuba enjoys on that Commission. The fact that we can have our own voice, with absolute independence and freedom, and that for more than a decade our presence on the HRC has been precisely the result of our ethical stance, in defense of the most just causes taken up by the Commission, and a rejection of the enormous politicization, the double standards, the hypocrisy that from the 90's until the present has encumbered the HRC's work and that has caused its credibility to decline, a fact I believe that is recognized by everyone.

Thousands of reports on tortures in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.

These criticisms and concerns are not fortuitous either. What happened in the past was that the major power blocs, the Western countries and the United States, could easily manipulate all these mechanisms, whilst the Standing Committee only devoted its time to making recommendations on alleged human rights violations in countries in the south, and we were always condemned by the HRC and nobody was concerned about anything. Fortunately, things have changed and the Committee has changed accordingly, and has before it numerous — hundreds, if not thousands — of reports which, according to world public opinion, are the most serious human rights violations being committed in what President Fidel Castro has referred to as "an international torture center" in the illegal naval base at Guantánamo on our territory. In addition to this are reports on the abhorrent torture and mistreatment practiced at the Abu Ghraib prison in occupied Iraq. Also there have been hundreds of reports on our five heroes, reports from all over the world. It is a cause that numerous sectors and Cuba solidarity groups around the world have taken on. The committee also has dealt with numerous violations of human rights in industrialized countries associated with racism, growing xenophobia in the developed world, anti-immigration policies that also violate human rights, discrimination against minorities and indigenous people.

They are concerned now.

Now they are concerned because of Cuba's presence on this Standing Committee, because they are in the dock and not us. We are going to see the final result of these reports, some of which are in favor and others, against.

Prestige at the HRC.

Cuba enjoys certain prestige within the HRC. Who says this? That we are not a condemned country but that our prestige is immense. Not like the United States that was expelled from the Commission and subsequently gave the seat away so that it would not be submitted to a vote. We always have been elected.

How is the HRC's forthcoming 61st Session taking shape?

A particularly complex situation is going to take place. HRC is going through a serious identity and credibility crisis because of the hypocrisy and double standards it has practiced. For the last 15 years Cuba has denounced it and it seems that it reached receptive ears. In a report delivered to the UN Secretary General, the "Threats, Challenges and Change" group stated the following with respect to the HRC: "In the last few years, less credibility and less professionalism have caused a decline in the Commission's ability to carry out its functions.... The Commission cannot be a credible institution when it applies different standards to address human rights questions."

If they lacked the proof of where the HRC had failed, it was right there.

A litmus test for HRC.

This period will be a litmus test, to see if it can move forward along the road towards rectification, and cease its selective condemnations. For example, during its last session, it could not even meet to discuss the aggression against Iraq. Cuba's proposal regarding the status of prisoners in Guantánamo where the use of torture is systematic is still pending.

Can you disclose what Cuba's participation will be?

We are again ready to confront the maneuvers against our country. Ready to defend what is true and we will also present different motions, covering the right to food, a position against foreign debt, condemnation of the use of mercenaries, the right to peace, and the permanent condemnation of the situation of our five heroes imprisoned in the United States.

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U.S. Pulls Its Puppets' Strings to Achieve Anti-Cuban Resolution

— Orlando Oramas Leon, Prensa Latina, April 2, 2005 —

The United States directs its puppets at the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) to try to repeat an anti-Cuban resolution, whose aim justifies the top officials' trip to put pressure on the members of this UN Forum.

The U.S. delegation is made up of almost 50 members to the CHR which, although it is officially headed by Senator Rodolph E. Boschwitz and the ambassador Kevin E. Moley, also includes major Bush Administration personalities.

Matthew Waxman, who was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense dealing with US detainees in their "war on terror," is here with the mission of counteracting the denunciations of U.S. soldiers' tortures in Iraq and the military base they occupy in the Cuban territory of Guantánamo.

Another member of the delegation is Department of State Deputy Undersecretary Mark Logan, who led a press conference Friday (April 1) reiterating the decision to impose a resolution against Cuba concerning human rights.

The media had a rather tepid reaction to the press conference and a foreign correspondent accredited here considered it "the same thing over and over."

Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque recently observed that it is vital for the United States to achieve the same maneuver in Geneva with the aim of justifying the blockade.

A resolution presented by Cuba against the policy, which has gone on for more than 40 years, has received 179 votes in favor at the UN General Assembly leaving Washington almost alone.

However, the White House Resolution at last year's UNCHR meeting was barely passed, by a margin of one vote, after exerting strong pressure on Commission member countries by a vast mobilization of State Department personnel and employees from embassies all over the world.

Many other "personalities," including counterrevolutionary groups and the so-called dissidents, are included in this list of supporters of Washington's plan against Cuba at the UNCHR.

But this time there is a surprise since other Cuban Americans have already arrived in Geneva with a completely different objective: they have addressed the auditorium to denounce Bush's restrictions of trips and family remittances to the island.

"We have decided to come here since it was necessary to tell the commission and the world about Bush's cruel measures against the Cuban family," an activist of the group that mobilized Christian women in Miami against those regulations told Prensa Latina.

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U.S. Escalates Hostility Amid Growing Support for Cuba

— Agencia Cubana de Noticias, March 29, 2005 —

Support for Cuba is on the rise worldwide at a time when Washington steps up its hostility against the island, stressed panelists on Monday's (March 28) edition of the prime time national radio and television program "The Round Table."

In response to Washington's annual resolution that tries to single out Cuba at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the analysts noted that over two thousand artists, scientists, academics and public figures from Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia and North America have signed the document "Let us stop a new maneuver against Cuba."

In Spain alone, 345 intellectuals have already signed the demand, while in Great Britain actor Alan Rickman heads the list of internationally acclaimed artists.

In addition to this movement, marches have taken place in several countries where participants call on their governments to vote against the Bush Administration's attempt to discredit Cuba.

The analysts pointed out that despite Washington's arm-twisting the draft resolution that it will present at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva is likely to be defeated.

In another display of discontent with White House policy on Cuba, TV footage was aired on The Round Table of a rally held in Miami on March 20, showing civic organizations demanding the lifting of travel restrictions to Cuba imposed on the Cuban American community by the Bush Administration. The rally coincided with marches in 800 U.S. against the war on Iraq.

The latest actions by the White House to reinforce the economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba and the earmarking of an additional 15 million dollars to finance subversive actions against the island in 2006 were also commented on in the program.

These funds are being channeled to pay mercenaries, to bankroll terrorists who operate from U.S. territory and to aid the self-proclaimed "dissidents" on the island, as well as for the training of what they call "future Cuban leaders."

Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega has publicly expressed his pride in his country's efforts to hinder any attempt by Cuba to receive income from abroad, and he openly boasts about the multi million dollar accounts for the internal destabilization of the Caribbean island.

Regarding this issue, the Chicago Tribune recently published an article disclosing the sums the White House distributes among counterrevolutionary organizations and anti-Cuban writers.

In the meantime, members of the U.S. Congress are expressing their outrage with the recent Bush Administration measure that seeks to limit Cuban purchases of food products from U.S. exporters. The restriction calls for the advanced cash payment of the products, before they are loaded onto Cuba-bound ships.

In reality, this measure seeks to confiscate Cuban funds to pay a never ending series of arbitrary settlements ordered by biased U.S. courts.

The active anti-Cuba lobbying by former Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar along with the violent Miami based anti-Cuba groups was also denounced on Monday's program.

Images from a southern Florida television station, showed the infamous counterrevolutionary and CIA agent Felix Rodriguez, current chairman of the 2506 mercenary brigade, defeated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Rodriguez was bragging about new plans of aggression and to assassinate the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela.

The panelists said the hostile expressions by counterrevolutionary organizations, calling for an armed insurrection against a foreign nation, are in total breach of U.S. laws and will be soundly defeated by a people determined to resist.

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No Asylum for Terrorists

No Asylum for Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles

The A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition along with many others is calling on everyone to take action to stop the U.S. government from granting asylum to convicted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. The letter below is being widely circulated and has already been signed by more than 10,000 people. A press conference held April 21 in Miami, with speakers from A.N.S.W.E.R. and the Antonio Maceo Brigade and a statement from the National Lawyers Guild. Among the news media that attended were Telemundo, Fox TV, Agence France-Presse, NBC affiliate Ch. 51, Mexican agency Notimex, the Miami Herald, the Sun-Sentinel, and Telemiami 21. To sign the letter and see more information go to www.internationalanswer.org

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Urgent Alert - Take Action Now!

Stop terrorist Luis Posada Carriles from gaining asylum in the United States!

Support Venezuela and Cuba's demands on Bush to extradite the murderer Luis Posada to Venezuela.Tell George W. Bush and Congress: No asylum for the fascist criminal in the United States!

On April 12 Luis Posada Carriles, the notorious anti-Cuba terrorist and killer, appealed for asylum in the United States through his attorneys in Miami. The planner of terrorist acts that have killed dozens of Cubans and other people, Posada was in hiding in Central America for the last seven months after being prematurely released from jail by Panama's right-wing puppet president Mireya Moscoso at the behest of the Bush administration.

Posada was convicted in Panama after being caught in November 2000 with 33 pounds of C-4 explosives intended for assassinating Cuban President Fidel Castro. Now, the U.S. government is entertaining inviting this man, who poses such a great and vicious danger, to receive safe haven from prosecution in the United States.

Undoubtedly assisted by the U.S. government to enter the United States, Posada has been in Miami since the end of March. His three other conspirators, Pedro Remón, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo and Guillermo Novo Sampol, were also pardoned in Panama and flew into Miami last August. They are implicated in several murders in the United States, including the 1976 Washington DC car-bombing that killed Chilean Orlando Letelier and American Ronnie Moffitt.

Posada was a CIA agent in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and possibly to the present. He was trained in explosives and sabotage at the notorious School of the Americas in the CIA's "Operation 40" for the Bay of Pigs invasion.

What are some of his other crimes? Posada and his accomplice Orlando Bosch were the masterminds of the bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455 on October 6, 1976 that killed 73 people. Posada and Bosch plotted the crime from Venezuela.

The Justice Department moved to deport Bosch from the United States in 1989. In the deportation order, U.S. Asst. Attorney General Joseph D. Whitley said: "For 30 years Bosch has been resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence. . His actions have been those of a terrorist, unfettered by laws or human decency, threatening and inflicting violence without regard to the identity of his victims." These words hold true for Posada, his partner-in-crime.

However, Bush Sr. overrode the deportation order in 1990. Bosch lives in Miami.

Posada bragged to the New York Times in an interview (July 12 & 13, 1998) that he directed the 1997 bombings of Havana hotels. A 32-year-old Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo, was killed at the Copacabana hotel.

These are only some of the shocking crimes carried out against the Cuban and other peoples. While in Venezuela in the 1970s, Posada oversaw the killing of Venezuelan leftists as head of the Intelligence and Prevention Services Division (DISIP) of the national police. In the 1980s Posada commanded the supply of munitions to the Nicaraguan contras from the CIA's Ilopango airbase in El Salvador.

Today, the presence of Posada, Bosch and other terrorists in Miami is proof that the U.S. government is fully behind the terror attacks on Cuba. Since the 1959 Cuban revolution, more than 3,400 Cuban people have died by violent attacks perpetrated on the island by anti-Cuban paramilitary groups that operate freely in Miami.

It is time for justice for the victims of Posada's crimes. Peace-loving people in the U.S. and all who believe in justice must make it clear that Posada is not welcome here, and we must demand that this government reject his asylum claim.

The fact that the Bush Administration and the CIA are clearing the way for Posada to take up residence in the U.S. is evidence of the extreme hypocrisy and outright lie of Bush's so-called "war on terror." They have engaged in a calculated and cynical manipulation of the term to claim to be fighting against "terrorism" when in truth, they are waging a political war for conquest and empire.

We urge all A.N.S.W.E.R. supporters to send a letter to Bush and Congress now to say:

No asylum for Posada!
Honor the extradition demand of Venezuela!

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The U.S. Government Must Respond as to Whether It Is Hiding Posada Carriles

Granma International, April 12, 2005

Voice of Revolution vehemently condemns the U.S. protection and harboring of convicted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, and the refusal of President George W. Bush to admit this action and immediately arrest Carriles and extradite him to Cuba or Venezuela for crimes of terrorism. Among the terrorist crimes Carriles is guilty of are the 1976 bombing of a plane flying out of Barbados in which 73 people, the majority of them young Cuban athletes, lost their lives, and efforts to assassinate Cuba’s President Fidel Castro by planning to bomb a university amphitheater in Panama. He was convicted in Panama, then under U.S. blackmail, granted a pardon by the outgoing president of Panama. We reprint below a recent article from Granma International that speaks to Carriles’ many crimes and the Cuban demand that Bush defend before the world the U.S. actions to defend and grant asylum to a known terrorist, an action that stands against U.S. and international law.

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President Fidel Castro yesterday demanded that U.S. President George W. Bush respond before the world whether it is true or not that his government is sheltering the notorious international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles on U.S. territory.

The U.S. government must respond as to whether it is hiding Posada Carriles. By April 11, Posada Carriles had been in the U.S. for 19 days, and the top authorities in that country had not stated a single word; the news had only spread via press reports like one published in The Miami Herald, in which a federal official confirmed the terrorist's presence.

All indications are that the assassin's rigged, silent and conspiratorial entry into the U.S. responds to Washington's interest in letting time pass, given that at this moment it is trying to condemn Cuba in the UN Human Rights Commission and it would not be convenient for the world to learn of the empire's hypocritical attitude, the revolutionary leader said.

"We call on them to say something, to express some kind of opinion regarding something that is like a creature about to be born. The truth is, at this moment, the honorable president of the United States is like a pregnant woman with a monster in her belly, and she has to give birth, and soon, because it would be too hard to backtrack; they have to present it," Fidel affirmed during a special appearance at the International Conference Center.

The president of the Councils of State and Ministries reminded the U.S. president of the latter's comment on August 26, 2003, when Bush affirmed that he was sending a message that could be understood by the whole world: if someone protects a terrorist, if someone feeds a terrorist, then that person is just as guilty as the terrorists.

Therefore, how to understand the protection being afforded to Posada Carriles? In Fidel's opinion, doing so is an outrage to the U.S. citizens who died in the Twin Towers in New York; not forgetting that thousands of relatives of those who have been sacrificed in atrocious terrorist acts are living over there -- like here.

Fidel made his observations before an audience of combatants and relatives of those who lost their lives in the sabotage of the La Coubre boat and in the struggle against bandits begun in late 1960; the survivors and relatives of the victims of the explosion in the El Encanto department store in 1961; combatants and relatives of those who died fighting the mercenaries during the Bay of Pigs invasion; and members of the health brigade that lent its services at that time.

The audience also included relatives and survivors of the February 1974 bomb attack on the Cuban embassy in Peru; relatives of those who died in the mid-flight explosion of a Cubana Airlines jet in 1976 (the most monstrous crime of its type committed in this hemisphere); and relatives of those who died during the attack on Tarará harbor in January of 1992.

Other members of the audience were victims of the hemorrhagic dengue fever epidemic caused by the CIA in Cuba; relatives of those who died in the sabotage of the Ñico López refinery; relatives of Adriana Corcho, murdered in the Cuban embassy in Portugal in 1976; the father of young Italian Fabio Di Celmo who died as a result of acts of terrorism perpetrated on hotels and other facilities in Havana in recent years; and the relatives of the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in the U.S.

Also in attendance were the lawyers participating in the two lawsuits filed by the Cuban people against the United States government for human and economic losses. Referring to all of them, Fidel said: "Listen well, Mr. Bush. Here are the victims of the crimes and terrorist acts committed against our people going back dozens of years. It is in their name that I am speaking."

He then asked the European governments to express an opinion regarding the reality that monstrous killers (Posada Carriles' accomplices) should be welcomed into the United States with more than one expression of tribute and recognition.

Fidel charged the U.S. leader to respond as to whether it is a fact or not that certain persons in his most intimate circle are interested in him, Bush, offering hospitality to Posada Carriles. And if he was not aware of that, when did he become aware of it. Moreover, he demanded that the U.S. president should publicly state whether he knew that his closest friends in the White House were involved in protecting the terrorist while John Paul II was on his death bed, and if he was aware of that fact when he traveled to Rome and bowed before the Pope's body.

Fidel also asked Bush if at that moment of humanity's consternation at the death of the Supreme Pontiff, he was aware of something so shameful and repugnant as the protection of Posada Carriles was taking place in the United States.

"Would the Pope have approved of such conduct, would world public opinion have approved of that conduct, the peoples -- including our own -- the families of the victims of acts of terrorism?" the Cuban president inquired, going on to add: "Everyone would like to know whether you knew or not, if you are aware or not of what was happening, because something like that would be like Bin Laden being on U.S. territory and the president of that country not knowing about it or not doing anything about it.

What Security Can the U.S. People Have?

What kind of a president does the United States have, a man who can grant a safe haven in his country to a terrorist monster who masterminded the sabotage in full flight of a plane with 73 passengers on board and who carried explosives to Panama to blow up the university amphitheater, which could have caused the death of hundreds of people? What kind of security can the U.S. people have with a president like that? What use are all the security bodies, all the intelligence agencies, the machinery costing hundreds of billions of dollars, if they didn't know that Posada Carriles was there? Fidel asked.

"And if they knew and they informed you," he continued, "why haven't you informed world public opinion?" he insisted.
Referring to Bush, he stated: "You have a great responsibility before that world opinion, before the people of the United States, before the victims of acts of terrorism against U.S. citizens in any part of the world, before the peoples of Latin America, before the people of Cuba, and before the families at this meeting who have never even received the consolation of one word of remorse, one word of pardon on the part of any U.S. government."

He qualified as a monumental and grave deed Washington's action in relation to Posada Carriles, whose terrorist record, as well as that of his closest accomplices, is fully and publicly known.

Fidel also recalled that the Cuban leadership has always been disposed to cooperate with the U.S. authorities and give them the necessary information on the criminal history of those terrorists, even though the White House and its agents, including the CIA, are well aware of it because those killers have worked under the orders of the empire for many years.

The Cuban president recounted in detail the post-trial events in Panama that led up to the release of Posada Carriles and his accomplices via the pardon granted by the ex-president of that country, Mireya Moscoso.

After recalling that it was Cuba that supplied all the information leading to the arrest of the terrorists by the Panamanian police, he noted that Cuba could have captured them, "but we never did and never will, because we have an ethic, we respect the sovereignty of other countries and we are not accustomed to undertaking actions of that type in which the empire is always involving itself.

Commentaries circulating among the U.S. ultra-right are generating much expectation concerning the political cost that the administration could pay at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, given the total silence on the part of the government and counterrevolutionary capos in the attempt to conceal Posada Carriles, he observed.

"However," he added, "the information filtered out before it should have done because various members of the Cuban Liberty Council (a notorious counterrevolutionary organization) have been asked for financial support for that terrorist; in other words, backing to do what they had already planned."

Tales of the mob

Fidel explained how the newspapers and radio stations in Miami have been elaborating a strategy in order to once again introduce notorious counterrevolutionary terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to this city, by describing him as a "veteran anti-Castro warrior," "symbolic figure," and "exiled Cuban."

After describing the maneuvers of those self-proclaimed human rights defenders as "outrageous" and "abhorrent," the leader of the Revolution explained in depth the cynical focus that these media channels have adopted by reporting Posada as the "legendary fighter" who is now bringing to an end his "errant, clandestine life" and seeking asylum in the United States.

He listed many of the attacks comprising the service records of this well-known criminal and his accomplices for over 40 years and condemned the attitude of U.S. administrations which, from the very triumph of the Revolution, elected to train, direct and protect them.

Fidel referred to the public confession made by the criminal Posada Carriles in The New York Times in relation to his pride at having perpetrated the 1976 attack on a plane flying out of Barbados in which 73 people, the majority of them young Cuban athletes, lost their lives.

Long before this, going back to 1960, Posada Carriles had organized counterrevolutionary plans directly linked to the CIA. On that subject, Fidel recalled that one of the empire's declassified documents reveals that the ringleader worked under the pseudonym "The Hunter" in the "Black Hawks" terrorist organization. He also stated that in 1961, Posada received military training in order to back up the mercenary landing at the Bay of Pigs, but the rapid military victory of our people prevented him from acting.

This notorious enemy of the Revolution's links with the worst causes in Latin America are clearly demonstrated in the events recalled by Fidel, which included attacks on Venezuelan revolutionaries during the 1960s as well as in other countries of Our America.

The list of bloody attacks carried out by Posada Carriles and his henchmen is extensive and includes the assassination of Cuban officials abroad and the organization of attacks on the life of the president, particularly during various Ibero-American Summits during the 1990s.

In Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in 1994, taking advantage of the leaders' meeting, Posada Carriles organized an attack on Fidel scheduled to take place as he was traveling by car into the city with Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, as part of the Summit agenda. The attack failed.

The leader of the Revolution gave details of the extensive list of terrorist attacks perpetrated by Posada Carriles, Pedro Remón Rodríguez, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, and Guillermo Novo Sampoll.

He spoke of how the terrorists tried to destroy what Cuba was creating in the tourist industry, the country's way forward out of the Special Period and the collapse of the U.S.SR and the socialist bloc. Nor should it be overlooked that with those acts of sabotage, they were attempting to create an atmosphere of internal chaos and defeat the Revolution in that way.

Fidel offered details of the arrests of Luis Posada Carriles and his sidekicks on November 17, 2000, when they had everything planned for an assassination attempt as he was due to meet with students in the University of Panama lecture Hall. They were in possession of no less than 40 kilograms of TNT and other sophisticated armaments for effecting this crime.

"We had them under check, under control and on film and we gave the Panamanian authorities some time so they could take steps. Remember that I appeared before the press and offered them details of the monstrous slaughter that they were planning, after which they were arrested," he explained.

Immediately afterwards, the Cuban president spent some minutes giving a synthesis of the dossiers on Posada Carriles and his supporters, Remón Rodríguez, Novo Sampoll and Jiménez Escobedo, each one filled with details of abhorrent killings and attacks such as the one committed on Eulalio J. Negrín in November 1979. Negrín attended a Nation and Emigration conference in Cuba, after which Pedro Remón (following the orders of Orlando Bosch, another henchmen imprisoned in Venezuela at the time), murdered him in front of his son.

He also spoke of the murders of Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and Félix García Rodríguez, a Cuban official at the UN, in which those individuals also took part. "Criminals such as these are currently in the United States and is it possible that the Americans are unaware of the presence of those individuals exposed by our country?

Once pardoned by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, Bush's "little buddies" began to be feted in Miami and other cities, where money was even raised on their behalf. The Cuban Liberty Council stood out in that endeavor by organizing a party in their honor in Miami on September 28, 2004.

The leader of the Revolution recalled that whilst these killers are walking free, five Cubans, anti-terrorist fighters, are languishing in U.S. jails serving life sentences whilst their families are barely able to visit them. "How noble, how democratic, how just are these gentlemen of the empire!"

"Here are the diplomatic notes from Cuba directed to the so-called government of the United States," said Fidel. "Our country protested against what they were attempting to do in order to change the legal process against the murderers in Panama, maneuvers in which the hand of the United States appeared pressuring the government to free the terrorists."

The Cuban Foreign Ministry (MINREX) condemned those ploys and the intimidation to which key figures were subjected in order to destroy a judicial process that had gone ahead with impartiality and justice. In one of these notes, Cuba stated that it was aware of Mireya Moscoso's intention of pardoning the terrorists, but not one of those communiqués received a reply.

"We made it known to the government of the United States -- supposedly committed to combating international terrorism -- that if these criminals entered that country they should be handed over to the authorities and Cuba would cooperate in offering any information requested," he stated.

"We are informing the world before they complete their dirty work. So many notes sent and they still haven't uttered a single word." Fidel recalled that immediately after their release the U.S. government was asked to act on information that Posada Carriles was in Miami, that MINREX was demanding his arrest and extradition to Cuba to be tried for crimes committed against our people. It was stated in those notes that he and his accomplices would be tried for the crime of international terrorism. We hope that the United States acts in a responsible manner and does not allow these "gentlemen" to once again make a mockery of justice."

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Voice of Revolution
Publication of the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization
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