Posada Planning Yet Another Escape? Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Granma Internacional Digital - June 24, 2002 http://www.granma.cu Foreign Ministry note: Cuban warns of Posada Carriles' possible escape THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has learned that several days ago Rogelio Cruz, defense lawyer for known terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, announced that his client had been transferred to a private clinic in the Republic of Panama, on the alleged grounds of deteriorating health. In the face of such news, the Ministry considers it necessary to restate the development of Luis Posada Carriles' trial, characterized since its beginning by irregularities, politically motivated decisions and actions aimed at encouraging the terrorists to flee, or for their crimes to go unpunished. Shortly after the Panamanian authorities rejected the fair request for extradition of the four terrorists made by the Cuban judiciary, due to the crimes that they committed against our people during decades - perfectly documented in four dossiers totaling over 2,000 pages - a group of Panamanian worker, student and native peoples' organizations presented four lawsuits against the detained terrorists. Our people will remember that the assassination attack planned against President Fidel Castro was to be carried out in the University of Panama's auditorium, at the very moment when a rally in solidarity with Cuba would be taking place. If that attack had not been frustrated by the cooperation of Cuban security agents and the rapid action of the Panamanian security forces, hundreds of people, including workers, students and Panamanian native peoples, would have died at that rally. The four lawsuits were inexplicably rejected by a Panamanian court; although the organizations involved appealed to Panama's Supreme Court, arguing their relevance in the trial against the four terrorists, a decision from the highest Panamanian court has yet to be received. And if this decision is favorable, the lawsuits would be put in the hands of the Panamanian courts as additional elements for the defendants' trial and sentencing. At the same time as this lack of definition continues, our people also learned that, as a result of existing Panamanian legal procedures, the four terrorists will not be tried for attempted murder, a charge that obviously calls for a very tough sentence, but only for possession of explosives, illicit association to commit a crime, crimes against public safety and illegal entry into the country, all of which are lesser charges. At the same time, Panamanian magistrates have been trying to declare themselves incompetent to head the tribunal trying the case, thus requiring intervention by the nation's higher courts once again. Alongside those strange events, unusual activities by the Miami terrorist mafia have come to light: constant visits to Panama, appearances on Panamanian television channels by some of those individuals, even meetings with Panamanian authorities. All those occurrences are linked to the case of the four arrested terrorists and their attempts to achieve impunity for their accomplices. Our government was even able to prove that terrorists of Cuban origin residing in U.S. territory who had participated along with Luis Posada Carriles and his accomplices in the frustrated November 2000 attempt against Comrade Fidel, and whom our legal authorities were seeking for other terrorist acts against Cuba, were among the regular visitors in Panama. These included terrorist Santiago Alvarez Fernández-Magriña, the subject of File No. 10 of 2001 of the Cuban State Security Department's investigative agency, which demonstrates how he financed and organized an attempt to infiltrate our country, by three members of the Florida-based F-4 terrorist organization. After a battle, the four were captured at sea by Cuban security agents: they were carrying automatic and semi-automatic rifles and other weapons. Therefore, on May 16, in accordance with the Panamanian Legal Code and international practice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via the Cuban embassy in Panama, requested the provisional detention of said terrorist Santiago Alvarez Fernández-Magriña, with a view to extraditing him. As is well known, these individuals who systematically travel from Miami to intercede on behalf of the detained terrorists devote themselves to organizing escapes and supplying the necessary resources to make them possible, through plots similar to the one used by Luis Posada Carriles to escape from a Venezuelan prison. Added to this is the fact that in recent weeks, attorney Rogelio Cruz, in response to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela's request for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles, published an advertisement in the Panamanian press, alleging that his client had not "escaped" from a Venezuelan prison, but instead had simply "walked out" and no one stopped him. He also tried to prove Luis Posada Carriles' innocence in the 1976 explosion of the Cubana airliner, presenting him as a quiet little lamb unjustly accused by our government. It seems that Rogelio Cruz has forgotten about Posada Carriles' own words a few years ago in the U.S. press, not only recognizing his crimes against Cuba and its people, but actually boasting about them. Added to all these facts, including the Panamanian authorities' unjust rejection of Cuba's extradition request, the lack of a response to Venezuela's extradition request, the many judicial irregularities we have witnessed in this case, and the constant visits to Panama by members of the Miami mafia, now terrorist Luis Posada Carriles has been transferred to the San Fernando private clinic, rather than putting him in the prisoners' ward of Santo Tomás Hospital, where the Panamanian authorities can take all the necessary security measures to keep him from carrying out the escape that seems to be planned. The Cuban Foreign Ministry can only consider this procedure extremely strange, especially since it was authorized by Joaquín Ortega, head of the 2nd Court of the Republic of Panama. Ortega is the same person who rejected the lawsuits presented against the four terrorists by the organizations of workers, students and Panamanian native peoples. On previous occasions, when these terrorists have been transferred to hospitals without the necessary guards or adequate security, our government has charged that the terrorists' transfer to these facilities constitutes one of the steps in a possible escape, and has alerted Panamanian authorities about their responsibility to prevent these dangerous and sinister characters, supported and financed by a terrorist network in Central America and the United States, from avoiding justice. On this occasion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is proceeding with a similar alert in order to prevent the possibility that terrorist Posada Carriles will escape. We have reiterated to Panamanian authorities that they are responsible for adopting the pertinent measures to prevent the consummation of plans that have been worked out and financed by terrorist groups of Cuba origin currently operating with impunity in U.S. territory, where many of them maintain such excellent relations with Mr. Bush and participated in the ceremony on May 20. Havana, June 23, 2002 (c) 2001 Granma International Digital. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytjus-06.25.02-14:37:03-4759