Continuation of Terrorist Plans from the US

As news was published that Luis Posada Carriles and various extremist organizations based in the US intend to carry on their plans of violent and paramilitary actions against Cuba, international terrorist Francisco Antonio Chávez Abarca was arrested in Venezuela last July 1^st. He is one of the main links of the Central American connection employed in violent actions against Cuba by the notorious criminal, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) and some of its former members that currently make up the Council for the Liberation of Cuba (CLC).

Posada Carriles, a fugitive of the Venezuelan legal system, remains active and devising anti-Cuban schemes inside and out of the US territory, collecting debts and favors from politicians, officials and local or Central American agents as if he did not remember, mind or care about the hearing to set the date of the trial -or mock trial-he should face early next year, under a minor migratory charge.

Cuba, that has never permitted -and never will-the use of its territory for planning, funding or executing terrorist actions against any other state, has watched for over five decades how its neighbor to the North, and particularly Miami city, has provided safe haven to notorious terrorists, from before and after the triumph of the Revolution; funds are raised and provided, and bank accounts operated to finance their actions and those who sponsor, plan and carry out criminal actions against our country, many of them formerly or currently in the CIA and FBI payrolls, are allowed to use the territory.

Is terrorism no longer fashionable?

Chávez Abarca admits that as of September 2005, there have been plans to murder the Venezuelan President.

As a “guest of honor” of the terrorist organization Alpha ‘66 Annual Congress, held on February 27-28, 2010, Posada proposed to take up the plans of violent and paramilitary actions against Cuba.

Although the leaders of the group indicated that as part of a strategy they should pretend to transform into a political, civilian and peaceful party, they have ratified that terrorism is their main line of action and instrument to destroy the Revolution. Likewise, they recommended raising funds for purchasing new boats and equipping them with machine guns either to land in Cuba or to attack our coasts.

Coincidentally, on March 22, a few days after that congress, the residence of the Cuban ambassador in Guatemala was attacked with explosive bullets shot with grenade launchers causing material damages.

In this context, Congressman Lincoln Díaz-Balart makes news again. He is the number one cheerleader of the worst actions against our people, from the promotion in Capitol Hill of a military aggression on Cuba and the assassination of the Commander in Chief, to the kidnapping of the child Elián González or the encouragement of hunger strikes as a method of struggle of the mercenaries.

About to relinquish his legislative position, Díaz-Balart re-launched at the end of May 2010 the terrorist organization known as La Rosa Blanca, created by his father a few days after the revolutionary victory, and of which he now claims to be President, with the objective of becoming the main boss of the Miami Mafia.

La Rosa Blanca was the first counterrevolutionary organization established in the US by henchmen of Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship who fled Cuba running away from their abuses and crimes. As of 1959, it bonded with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo to organize an uprising in the Escambray Mountains. It is remembered for burning down schools, farmers’ houses, sugarcane fields and textile factories wounding and maiming a number of people and causing large economic damage.

Why is a US Congressman reactivating such an organization in the 21^st century? What for?

Díaz-Balart’s new chicanery can’t obscure his intention to receive and channel part of the funds worth millions allocated by the US government for subversion, a booty they all want seize, including other notorious terrorists like Roberto Martín Pérez and his fellow descendants of torturers under Batista’s dictatorship who also took part in the re-founding of La Rosa Blanca.

His colleague Ileana Ros-Lethinen, who won the nickname of ‘the Ferocious She-Wolf’ for her shameful role in the kidnapping of Elián González, is accountable for having done more than anyone else during her 1988 political campaign for the release of Orlando Bosch, a close friend of Enrique Ros, the legislator’s father. Bosch and Posada Carriles were the masterminds behind the action against a Cuban airliner that took the lives of 73 people.

In 1991, under the Administration of George Bush, senior, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lethinen interceded with the President to have three US Air Force type 0-2 planes –the military version of the Cessna used in exploration missions-delivered to the Brothers to the Rescue group headed by José Basulto, a Playa Giron ex-mercenary, a terrorist and CIA agent. On July 19, 1992, as the air operations started, the press for the first time published pictures of the aircraft handed over to that counterrevolutionary group, with the USAF (US Air Force) insignia clearly visible in a report by the editor of the Miami Herald, who made a flight with them.

Incited by members of Congress Ileana Ros and Lincoln Díaz-Balart as well as by other counterrevolutionary organizations in Miami, Brothers to the Rescue staged provocations on Cuban territory to damage the favorable process of talks initiated by the United States and Cuba after the Migratory Accords of 1994 and 1995.

Sponsored by the Miami Mafia, this counterrevolutionary group concentrated every effort in provoking an incident and violated Cuban airspace 25 times in 20 months, including flights over Havana City dropping various objects and leading to the events of February 24, 1996 and the downing of the aircraft.

Again, this provocation strained the Cuban-American relations and encouraged the adoption of the Helms-Burton Act, whose content makes it more difficult to find solutions in the future to the two countries feud, as it turned into law all of the measures related to the US economic, commercial and financial blockade.

In 2008, Ileana Ros headed another effort, this time for the presidential pardon of terrorist Eduardo Arocena, the intellectual author of the murder of United Nations Cuban diplomat Felix García Rodríguez in 1980 and the bomb blasts in US public places. More recently, Ros-Lethinen has played a major role raising funds to pay for Posada Carriles defense attorneys.

“The CANF goals are my own,” she said. This was her early commitment in 1989 with the terrorist organization that put up her candidacy and used all of its economic and political power to ensure her a seat in the US Congress. “I approve the possibility of someone murdering Fidel Castro,” she said to a British BBC documentary maker in March 2006, while she sat peacefully in her Washington office.

Various analysts have addressed the concern and expectations in the US arising from the arrest of Chávez Abarca, particularly among members of Congress and officials whose political careers are very closely linked to Posada, the CIA and CANF.  There are rumors that some of the most anxious are anti-Cuban New Jersey Congressmen Bob Menéndez and Albio Sires. The former has usually sponsored terrorists, from the days when his “adviser” for the community was Alfredo Chumaceiro Anillo who, on July 24, 1976, tried to blow up the Lincoln Center Theater during the performance of a troupe of Cuban artists.

Menéndez was a close friend and son-in-law of the late CANF director Arnaldo Monzón Plasencia, who not only made donations to his election campaigns but also contributed $25,000 to partly pay for the terrorist actions of 1997. His personal assistant for the planning and murder of said Cuban diplomat was José Manuel Alvarez, a.k.a. “The Bear.” Others involved in that assassination were the convict Arocena, ex chieftain of Omega 7, and hired assassin Pedro Remón Rodríguez who shot our official. This crime, as many others, is still unpunished.

Another revealing link is attorney Guillermo Hernández, one of the most active among Menéndez’s consultants. He is now acting as an independent council to Posada Carriles to prevent his extradition to Venezuela and to help him face other charges that might be brought against him.

One of Congressman Albio Sires’ closest staff is Angel Manuel Alfonso Alemán, a.k.a. “La Cota”, a member of the terrorist commando detained in Puerto Rico in 1997 on board a CANF vessel on its way to Margarita Island, Venezuela, with the intention of murdering Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, with high power rifles, during the 7^th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State. Alfonso Alemán is one of his main contacts with Posada Carriles and the Miami Mafia.

It doesn’t come as a surprise either that the notorious Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), which for a long time sponsored a great number of terrorist groups bent on damaging our interests, both inside and outside of the national territory, is now offering the public -just like the others- an image of moderation, while it funds and supplies resources for the provocative actions of the so-called “Ladies in White” and tries to promote domestic discontent, which they pay for with their own money and that allocated by US entities.

Targeting the Venezuelan elections

If terrorism was no longer fashionable, what was the purpose of Chávez Abarca’s trip to Venezuela? What was he doing during his suspicious movements around Central America? Who are behind his actions? What have the US officials done to prevent them from bringing their terrorist plans to fruition in Miami, El Salvador, Guatemala or Cuba? How effective were the measures adopted by the previous Salvadoran government to restrain their freedom to kill?

The detainee has already admitted the destabilizing plans he would have carried out in that sister nation, attempting to kill leaders of the Bolivarian process or hurt their image in light of the forthcoming elections on September 26. Chávez Abarca has said that it was his purpose “to burn tires, promote street disturbances, and attack a political party to blame the other.”

He has revealed that one of the most important of Posada Carriles current plans is to try to sink ships taking oil from Venezuela to Havana. He also said that CANF has destined nearly $100 million to plans against Venezuela, as it feels that the South American country is the “financial backbone” of Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia and Guatemala.

According to his statements, at the end of September 2005 they had plans to murder President Hugo Chávez. To that end, Posada instructed to use a .50 Barret rifle.

Ever since that mercenary left prison on September 2007, after serving a sentence for trafficking in stolen cars, he started working in coordination with Posada to act violently against Cuba and other ALBA nations, including attempts on the life of President Chávez in exchange for money.

At the time of his detention, and in order to ensure such objectives, he had instructions from his bosses in Florida to undertake intelligence actions in Venezuelan territory leading to the creation of the necessary logistics to implement covert operations.

This mercenary, who has operated with Posada’s support, had taken refuge in Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador.

During the preliminary investigation into the case, the detainee has admitted that he was recruited as a mercenary and trained by Posada Carriles himself, who gave him firsthand instructions and paid $2,000 for every bomb blast in Cuba. He received the instructions during meetings in hotels and other places in El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala where he met the terrorists of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) Arnaldo Monzón Plasencia, Pedro Remón Rodríguez, Guillermo Novo Sampol and Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo. “All of them clearly said that they belong to the Foundation and that Posada is a member of CANF in Miami,” said Chávez Abarca.

With the acquiescence of CIA and friendly presidents

He added that Posada boasted of asking for CIA consent every time he was to carry out one of his violent actions against Cuba, and that on one occasion he had said that the man who had interrupted the conversation was a CIA officer, his handler, who had called him on the phone. He also said that it was easy for him to evade the very few inquiries into his actions conducted by the FBI and the State Intelligence Office in El Salvador.

As to Posada’s personal connections in El Salvador, he said that he had excellent relations with almost every rightwing president before the current government. He mentioned Calderón Sol, Cristiani and Francisco Flores, with whom he used to go fishing. He also mentioned his friend Rodrigo Avila who was police Commissioner twice. “They all visited the Foundation people in Miami,” he added.

Chávez Abarca related that in 1997, when the Cuban TV broadcast a program showing Salvadoran terrorist Raúl Ernesto Cruz León exposing his connection to Posada Carriles and CANF, the former instructed him to kill the members of the man’s family; thus he now fears for the fate of his wife and children.

Chávez Abarca not only recruited and trained other Central American mercenaries previously arrested in Cuba -one Salvadoran and three Guatemalans-but he also set up bombs at the Aché disco and in the 15^thfloor of the Meliá Cohíba hotel, on April 12 and 30, 1997, respectively, and another one at the Comodoro hotel, as an International Chess Tournament was taking place with over 40 children. Some of these children could have been killed as they unknowingly played with the bag where the explosive device was camouflaged.

The bomb detected on the eve of May 1^st, 1997, in the 15^th floor of the Meliá Cohíba hotel contained 1.5 kilograms of the highly-destructive military plastic explosive C-4, capable of razing buildings, bridges and vessels.

In that period, the terrorist ring led by Posada Carriles and the CANF brought into the country over 30 explosive devices -18 of them in less than a year-11 of which blew up in various tourist facilities, including the one that caused the death of young Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo, injuries to others and large material damage.

Still, there could have been thousands of fatalities if they had materialized plans on usually crowded recreational and tourist centers like the Tropicana cabaret, discothèques, hotels and monuments, all of them frustrated by the Cuban Sate Security with the people’s collaboration.

The CANF and those that from the US government incited and permitted this kind of actions had some obvious objectives: to build the perception that these actions had been executed by domestic opposition groups; to trigger panic and instability; to deal a strong blow to tourism; and, to make the national economy succumb to chaos.

Between 1990 and the first years of the current decade, coinciding with these violent actions, the Miami Mafia implemented more than 25 terrorist actions in the US territory, which included bomb blasts, aggressions with fire weapons, verbal threats and provocations against Cuban interests, immigrants, travel agencies, personalities and organizations supportive of Cuba, and even death threats against President William Clinton and his Secretary of Justice Janet Reno for their decision to return the child Elián González.

Additionally, throughout this decade we had to tackle plans to assassinate the Commander in Chief in practically every Ibero-American Summit held in various capitals and during his travels overseas, as proven by Posada’s and his henchmen’s capture in fraganti in Panama, where in order to murder him they were willing to cause a genocide killing hundreds of university students and other participants in a function chaired by comrade Fidel.

Have such intentions left the minds of Posada Carriles and the bitter enemies of the Revolution that still hold seats in the US Congress? Will the current US Administration be able to curb the impetus and ambitions of the freeloaders and re-founders of old murderous organizations in the US territory? Will the complex US legal system ever put an end to the impunity of Miami, already in its 51st year, and do justice in the case of our Five Heroes who have spent more than 12 years enduring a cruel imprisonment?

Will there be an end to the reproduction of mercenaries when the threat of the coups is a reality in the region as tangible as weapon-trafficking, drug-trafficking and the proliferation of all sorts of gangs?

Although unjustly and inexplicably included in the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Cuba has given plenty of evidence to the US that it fights that scourge seriously and steadily. Despite the state terrorism that has been Washington’s official policy through five decades, there have been valuable bilateral exchanges of information on this issue, from the Cuban alert on a plan to murder President Ronald Reagan in 1984 to Posada Carriles’ intentions to revisit in 1998 an action similar to the Barbados crime, this time against airlines operating between Central America and Cuba.

At that time, June 16-17, 1998, talks were held with an FBI delegation which visited Havana and its airport facilities, received firsthand information of the documents available on plans, evidence, and personal information on the terrorists; their exact addresses and connections in the US and Central America; theirmodus operandi and false names used in their immigration documents; the places where they hid the boats for their actions; explosives and devices seized or the remains of those that exploded.

Impunity and injustice as a response

The US delegation took back home almost ten dossiers, hundreds of pages of stunning and irrefutable evidence, in addition to those discussed with them during a number of hours of exchanges with chiefs and experts of the Ministry of the Interior. Before they left, the FBI officer heading the mission and the chief of the US Interests Section in Cuba promised to respond within 15 days on the results of their inquiries.

Twelve years later, the only response is the impunity of the culprits of those repulsive actions who walk free and even march through the streets of the United States, and the injustice of keeping in prison five young anti-terrorist fighters who contributed to the detection of and timely alert on such plans. Their only “crime” is having prevented the loss of more human lives and larger material damage. The first result of those talks was the arrest of our comrades and the sudden stampede of the perpetrators of such crimes.

Cuba has described impunity and double-standard as unacceptable in the fight on terrorism, and has reiterated its commitment to the struggle against such actions.  Our country condemns every terrorist action, method and practice in every form and expression wherever they are committed, no matter by whom or against whom, and regardless of motivation. This has just been ratified at the UN General Assembly where we have also denounced the most abominable State terrorism of which we have been victims for over half a century.

The current US government has inherited a gloomy and dangerous history with a combination of intelligence services and unscrupulous officers; terrorist organizations and notorious criminals and mercenaries; rigged trials and investigations; corrupted detectives, prosecutors, judges, members of Congress and former government officials.

Washington has enough information to unearth the hidden truths that the courts need to do justice in the case of Posada Carriles and a number of other terrorists who walk free in the US; indispensable elements to clarify and put an end, once and for all, to their impunity and the injustice committed with our five compatriots.

The world needs the truth to prevail. It’s in the hands of the current US Administration, its intelligence services and legal authorities to declassify and release all the necessary documents to expose and punish the culprits, and to prevent new terrorist actions against Cuba, Venezuela and other member countries of ALBA, which are still the targets of this scourge.

Such effort cannot underestimate or ignore the revelations made by detainee Chávez Abarca concerning the plans against the forthcoming elections in Venezuela; the involvement of Miami terrorists in the coup d’état dealt in that fraternal nation and in Honduras as the investigations show or the new plots against democratic governments in Central America, mentioned by the detainee that give rise to questions on possible connections of members of the extreme right, the CIA and the Mafia in Florida.

Punishing Posada Carriles is only as fair and necessary as releasing the Cuban Five heroes, that is, if Washington wants to be consistent with its alleged commitment to the anti-terrorist struggle.

Cuba has plenty of reasons to defend itself and to continue in the struggle for justice and against terrorism. The 3,478 dead and 2099 compatriots physically disabled by State terrorism and the continuation of the plans of its main authors and promoters reaffirm our determination not to give in to such threats.