Venezuela Urges Extradition of Terrorist Posada Carriles from US

On Monday, the Venezuelan Ministry of Public Affaire issued an additional request for the capture of known terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. While Venezuelan authorities are still waiting for the United States to act on a 2005 extradition request to try Carriles for his involvement in the 1976 downing of a commercial airliner, killing all 73 people on board, this week’s request comes alter Venezuelan prosecutors uncovered his role in, “acts of torture, violation of international laws, illegal detention and physical abuse of prisoners” during his time at the now defunct Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention
Services (DISIP).

Posada Carriles, DISIP’s Chief of Operations during one of the most violent periods of anti-communist repression, currently resides in Miami, Florida.

The new charges against Posada Carriles are the result of ongoing investigations into crimes that occurred during the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s by so-called “democratic” governments that held power for 40 years. All close allies of Washington, the bi-party alliance of Democratic Action (AD) and Christian Democrats (COPEI) is said to have authored thousands of kidnappings, tortures, and disappearances of leftist activists in the decades preceding the electoral victory of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

POSADA’S TERROR REIGN

In a press release issued Monday, Venezuela’s Ministry of Public Affairs explained that investigators recently uncovered the case of two women – Brenda Hernandez Esquivel and Marlene del Valle Esquivel – who claim to have suffered “torture, abuse, and illegal detention” at the hands of “Commissioner Basilio”, the known alias of Luis Posada Carriles while at DISIP.

According to the two women, on June 3, 1973 a group of state security agents disguised as “employees of the electricity company” arrived at their home in Maracay, state of Aragua. The agents knocked at the door until Jose Sanchez Romero, a friend of the two women, unknowingly opened the door to hostile security forces sent by Posada Carriles to search the home for “subversive elements”.

After opening the door, Romero was shot and killed by the unidentified agents.

Fearing for their lives, the two women, three children, and three other men in the home – Luis Eduardo Cools, Francisco Hernandez Cruz and Jose Acosta Garcia – attempted to “turn themselves in peacefully” by waving a white bandana.

The DISIP forces responded by opening fire on the home.

After some time, the two women,three children and Jose Acosta Garcia walked out of the house with their hands in the air, at which time agents gunned down Acosta Garcia.

The women report that agents then threw the children on the floor and physically assaulted them before taking everyone to a clandestine detention center somewhere in the vicinity. Brenda, eight months pregnant at the time, was taken to a holding cell for common criminals while Marlene del Valle was held in a neighboring unit. The following day the women and children were released, at which point they returned to home and found the slain body of Luis Eduardo Cools.

A day later both women were again picked up by state security forces and formally taken to DISIP headquarters in Maracay for questioning. There they met Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, referred to by fellow officers as “Commissioner Basilio”. Noticing Brenda was pregnant, Posada Carriles is said to have told his officers, “the seed must be finished off”, authorizing his men to kick Hernandez repeatedly in the abdomen. After killing her unborn child, security forces made several unsuccessful attempts to drown and kill Brenda.

In the case of Marlene del Valle, Posada Carriles is said to have used a lit cigarette to burn her and her child (six months old at the time) in an attempt to extract information from del Valle on the whereabouts of “subversive elements”. After del Valle insisted she had no information, Carriles chocked the infant, used a revolver to simulate shooting both del Valle and the young child, and pretended to pull the trigger suggesting he would soon kill both.

The two women claim they were then transferred to DISIP headquarters in Caracas where they suffered further torture, abuse, and interrogations before being released.

During recent investigations into the illegal conduct of state agencies before the democratic revolution led by President Chavez, both women told public prosecutors that they had withheld this information until now for “fear of reprisals against themselves and their loved ones.”

In an interview this week with Ciudad CCS, Brenda Hernandez Esquivel said that she and Marlene del Valle, “hold no expectations” as to the possible extradition to Venezuela of Posada Carriles. However, she said, the Public Ministry’s request serves to call attention to“the type of murderer the (US) Empire protects”.

THE TERRORIST

Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles (1928 – ) began his use of torture and violence as a member of Cuba’s security forces during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958). After Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army overthrew Batista on January 1, 1959, Carriles and others fled to the United States where they received direct support to try to prevent the revolutionary government from consolidating political, social, and economic reforms on the island.

From 1967 to 1974 Posada Carriles served as Chief of Operations at the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), a shady security agency feared for its use of violent tactics in supposed “anti-communist” operations against progressive and leftist Venezuelans inspired by the Cuban Revolution.

In 1976, frustrated by Cuba’s increasingly successful social transformations, Posada Carriles and admitted terrorist Orlando Bosch (1926-2011) orchestrated the bombing of Cubana de Aviacion Flight 455. On October 6, the plane was blown up in midair, killing all 73 people on board.

A week later, Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, and two others were detained for their involvement in the bombing. In 1983, after eight years in prison, Carriles escaped and fled the country soon after.

After participating in a series of other international incidents, including a failed attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama, Carriles snuck into the United States in 2005 at which time the Venezuelan government formally requested his detention and extradition so that he finally stand trial for the 1976 bombing.

Instead of acting on the Venezuelan request, US authorities detained Carriles on immigration and perjury charges, ignoring his links to international terrorism. After a Texas court found him innocent of said charges, he was allowed to return home to Miami, Florida.

Last year Francisco Chavez Abarca, a Salvadorian terrorist responsible for a series of hotel bombings in Cuba during the 1990’s, was caught trying to enter Venezuela. Abarca admitted to having orders to disrupt the country’s National Assembly elections and that Luis Posada Carriles was behind the operation. Apart from “provoking riots” and “political assassination” to disrupt elections, Abarca said plans had been developed to bomb oil tankers traveling between Venezuela and Cuba.