Terrorism is Relative
Tom Whitney
On August 26,
2--4, Mireya Moscoso, not quite done with her term as president of Panama,
pardoned four jailed thugs. The next day, two small airplanes, chartered
by Santiago Alvarez, one of their Miami friends, taxied in to deliver the
men to safety. Alvarez had already headed up a campaign that netted almost
$500,000 for their legal expenses.
To the cheers and warm embraces of hundreds of like-minded Floridians,
three well-known terrorists returned home to U.S. soil, the very epicenter,
so the story goes, of war against terrorism. Apparently the other released
prisoner, Luis Posada Carriles, no U.S. citizen, had been dropped off in
Honduras.
This quartet of hyperactive seniors was arrested in Panama City in late
2000 and charged with preparing to kill Cuban president Fidel Castro while
he was attending an Ibero-American Summit. Panamanian police found 33 pounds
of explosives in their possession, and lots of guns. Convicted in April,
2004 for "endangering public safety and falsifying documents," they were
each sentenced to jail terms of seven to eight years.
Cuba broke off diplomatic relations with Panama on April 27, and Venezuela
has withdrawn its ambassador. President-elect Martin Torrijos, a centrist,
has announced that he would try to fix things with Cuba. Panamanian students
and labor activists have been out in the streets protesting the prisoners'
release. Opposition forces point out that pardons are not allowable under
Panamanian law until all judicial proceedings have been completed. In fact,
these terrorists still had appeals pending when they were freed.
Former President Moscoso said she let the men go for ''humanitarian reasons.
'' She reportedly feared that President Torrijos would extradite them to
Cuba. Her critics have reminded the press that she spent 11 years in Miami,
keeps in touch with friends there, and that Colin Powell's recent visit to
Panama might have had something to do with the pardons. Panamanian professor
of international law Julio Yao accuses him of meddling in Panama's internal
affairs.
While all of this is going on, five men of principle languish in U.S. jails,
three of them for life. The Cuban government had taken steps to counter
Washington's blind eye to terrorism out of Florida. The estimate is that
terrorism against Cuba has killed 3000 persons. To bolster its defense,
Cuba needed to look in on paramilitary groups in Miami and learn directly
about enemy plans for murder and mayhem. That was the work of the five heroes,
and a Miami court deposed of them. They were defending Cuba against the
likes of these pardoned criminals.
Long ago they were credentialed as champion terrorists, exemplars of the
trade. CIA -trained Luis Posada Carriles helped plan the bombing of a Cuban
jetliner in 1976 that killed 73 people (*),
and was associated with Oliver North in supplying the Nicaraguan Contras.
He told the New York Times that he was responsible for a 1997 series of bombings
at tourist sites in Havana.
Gaspar Jiménez served six years in a Mexican prison for the attempted
kidnapping of a Cuban diplomat and the death of his bodyguard. He escaped
to safety in Florida. He was also charged in a 1976 bombing attack on the
Miami radio announcer Emilio Milián, who lost his legs.
Pedro Remón went to jail in 1986 for trying to kill a Cuban UN diplomat
and for helping out with the murder of Félix García Rodríguez,
another Cuban UN official. Previously, he had been picked up just prior
to attacking Cuba's U.N. Mission with a bazooka.
Guillermo Novo was tried for his part in the 1976 murder in Washington
of the former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier. He won an appeal of his
murder conviction, but, convicted of perjury, he spent four years in jail.
Julia E. Sweig, a Cuba expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, comments,
"These are bad guys...It is the most preposterous violation of what this
administration stands for." Speculating on the role of Florida power brokers,
particularly the Governor there, she adds: "My gut is this reeks of political
and diplomatic cronyism.".
On August 31 President Ricardo Maduro of Honduras told reporters: "I will
not let terrorists and international criminals enter Honduras and think
that the country will be their shield and shelter." His reference was to
Posada Carriles, who had apparently entered Honduras with a fake U.S. passport.
His whereabouts there is unknown.
(*) Among the victims of the jetliner bombing were
the members of the Cuban National Fencing team, some of whom are pictured
on the home page