The Strange Case of Luis Posada Carriles

A long with this year’s fifth anniversary, the release of the film United 93 has brought renewed attention to the tragic events of 9/11. Yet Americans are less familiar with the story of another jet full of innocent people destroyed by terrorists, Cubana Flight 455. On October 6, 1976, it was scheduled to take off from Barbados to Kingston, Jamaica. Nine minutes after takeoff, a bomb in the aircraft’s rear lavatory exploded. The captain radioed to the control tower: “We have an explosion aboard, we are descending immediately.” A second bomb exploded, causing the plane to crash into the water. All 73 people on board died, including all 24 members of the Cuban national fencing team, many of them teenagers. Until 9/11 Cubana Flight 455 was the worst act of terrorism aboard a commercial airline in the Americas. One of the people “allegedly” responsible for the planning of this incident lives in the U.S. and is currently applying for citizenship. His name is Luis Posada Carriles. 

A fanatical antiCastro Cuban exile, Posada has left a bloody swath of terror and destruction across the Gulf of Mexico. By his own admission, the CIAtrained and Miamifunded Posada has planned bombings of Cuban hotels, cafes, and dance halls. Although he has denied involvement, strong evidence exists that Posada was also involved in the bombing of Cubana Flight 455. CIA and FBI documents unearthed by George Washington University’s National Security Archive place Posada among the conspirators at two planning meetings for that bombing. Further, Posada has spent 30 years on the run from the government of Venezuela, which tried him for his role in bombing Flight 455. His trial was never completed because Posada escaped and is still wanted by the Venezuelan government. He was arrested in the United States in 2005 where he had applied for asylum. A judge ruled last September that he could be deported, but not to Cuba, where he faces execution, or to Venezuela. 

On April 26, 2006, in a new twist, Posada applied for U.S. citizenship. Not surprisingly, Posada’s case has not made national news. The reason for the media indifference is, in part, the double standard that exists in the United States between a “terrorist” and a “freedom fighter.” 

In a November 2001 news conference, President George W. Bush declared that, in the “war on terror,” there is no room for neutrality. “A coalition partner must do more than just express sympathy, a coalition partner must perform…. All nations…must do something…. [It’s] important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity.… [Y]ou’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.” Bush effectively eliminated the distinction between passive and active sponsors of terror. George town Professor Daniel Byman says that a regime is “guilty of passive sponsorship if it knowingly allows a terrorist group to raise money, enjoy a sanctuary, recruit, or otherwise flourish, but does not directly aid the group itself.” If so, why then has the U.S harbored a group of terrorists for over 40 years? 

Ever since the Bay of Pigs disaster, the United States government has ignored Cuban exile involvement in terrorist operations against Cuba, as well as violence and intimidation directed against U.S. citizens. According to the Center for International Policy, “Militant hardline exile activities in the late 70s and early 80s caused the FBI to designate Miami the ‘terrorist capital’ of the United States. The terrorist activities in Miami included death threats, beatings, mob attacks, vandalism, extortion, bombings and outright murder.” The same article reported 68 acts of terror in Miami since 1968, including: 

the 1983 bombing of the Continental National Bank where Bernardo Benes,  one of 75 Cuban exiles who met with Fidel Castro to negotiate the release of 3,600 political prisoners in Cuba, was an executive 

• the 1988 and 1990 bombings of the Cuban Museum of Art 
• the 1988 attempted bombing of the home of Maria Cristina Herrera, the organizer of a conference on U.S.Cuba relations (the bomb was discovered in her garage before it went off) 
• the 1989 and 1996 bombings of the Marazul Tours, which arranges travel to Cuba 
• the 1996 bombing of Little Havana’s Centro Vasco prior to the performance of Cuban singer Rosita Fornes 
• the 1999 bombing of the Amnesia nightclub before a performance by Cuban singer Manolín 

Why is someone like Posada on the threshold of becoming a United States citizen? The answer lies in the insidious influence of the Cuban exile lobby in the U.S. Blinded by rage over their expulsion from Cuba, they will settle for nothing less than the total destruction of Castro’s regime by any means necessary. Like Al Qaeda’s bombers and hijackers, the murder of innocent civilians is of little consequence. Lobbying by wealthy, politically connected Cuban exiles has resulted in softball treatment for many Cuban exile terrorists. Posada claims to have the financial backing of the CubanAmerican National Foundation (CANF), an influential taxexempt lobbying group. CANF has frequently intervened on behalf of terrorists, including Virgilio Paz, one of the killers of the former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier in a 1976 Washington car bombing. (Paz was released from INS custody after a campaign largely organized by CANF.)