Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 25 May 2018
Militant Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles has died

By GISELA SALOMON curity firm in Venezuela by
Associated Press the time he was accused
MIAMI (AP) — Former CIA of coordinating the 1976
operative and militant Cu- bombing of the Cuban
ban exile Luis Posada Car- airliner that exploded over
riles, who was accused of the Caribbean shortly after
organizing a string of 1997 taking off from Barbados.
Havana hotel bombings Posada was arrested when
and a 1976 Cuban airline two men who worked for
bombing that killed 73 peo- his small firm confessed to
ple, has died. He was 90. planting the bombs.
Posada, who had been di- Posada — who still had
agnosed with throat can- strong ties to the then-Ven-
cer about five years ago, ezuelan government —
died Wednesday in Memo- was acquitted by a military
rial Regional Hospital in Hol- court.
lywood north of Miami. He later escaped from jail
"An extraordinary life has dressed as a priest while
ended," Arturo Hernandez, awaiting a second trial in a
a lawyer for the hardline civilian court.
exile, told The Associated He made his way to El Sal-
Press. "It's a very sad morn- vador, where he helped
ing for me, to say farewell the Reagan administration
to such a great man." and U.S. Army Col. Oliver
Posada had been acquit- North resupply neighboring
ted in 2011 by a federal jury In this April 13, 2011, file photo, anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles gestures as he responds to Nicaragua's rightist Contra
in El Paso, Texas, of lying to a reporter during a news conference in Miami. rebels against the left-lean-
U.S. officials about his role Associated Press ing Sandinista government.
in the Havana bombings to Posada flew beneath the
win political asylum. from Barbados in 1976. It sity of Havana, and briefly number of occasions Mas radar for years — moving to
He was among a core said he died "without hav- worked for the Firestone Canosa helped support Guatemala, where he sur-
group of Cuban exiles the ing paid for this crime nor Tire and Rubber Company. him financially. vived a 1990 assassination
CIA trained in the early the many other terrorist Following the Castro forces' Early on, Posada's CIA attempt that left his face
1960s in a failed effort to acts that are a feature of final triumph in the Cuban handlers described him as and body bullet-scarred
overthrow Fidel Castro's his criminal record." Revolution on New Year's reliable and even a rea- and permanently dam-
fledgling communist gov- Posada always publicly Day 1959, he joined the po- sonable voice among the aged his speech.
ernment. Unlike many oth- denied involvement in the litical opposition and was exiles, whom he was will- Then in 2004, he was con-
ers, he never renounced bombing of the bombing imprisoned briefly. He fled ing to inform on, accord- victed in Panama in con-
violence as a way to bring of a Cuban airliner that to Mexico and eventually ing to declassified agency nection with a failed assas-
about change on the is- had taken off from Barba- the U.S. in 1961. documents released at the sination attempt against
land. dos, the deadliest in-flight Other members of his fami- request of the National Se- Castro. While in prison,
"If Castro came through explosion until the 1988 Pan ly, including his brother and curity Archives. Posada became a pro-
the door, I'd kill him, not Am flight bombing over sister, remained in Cuba "A15 is not a typical kind lific painter. His subjects
because I hate him but be- Lockerbie, Scotland. and he continued to send of 'boom and bang' indi- ranged from Cuban inde-
cause I'd kill a cockroach But in a 1998 New York Times them money throughout vidual," CIA handler Grover pendence hero and poet
too," Posada told the AP interview, he took credit his life through friends and Lythcott wrote in 1966, using Jose Marti to Mother Tere-
at one point during a series for the Havana bombings, other emissaries. a code name for Posada. sa and then Panamanian
of interviews between 2009 which killed an Italian tour- Several years after arriving "He is acutely aware of the President Mireya Moscoso,
and 2010. ist, before later recanting. in the U.S., he divorced his international implications who pardoned him in 2005
To many older exiles, Posa- When the AP asked about first wife and married Elina of ill-planned or overly en- at the behest of several
da was a freedom fighter that interview and the Nieves, with whom he had thusiastic activities against Cuban-American lawmak-
who did what was neces- bombings in 2009, Posada a son and a daughter. The Cuba." ers from South Florida.
sary to attempt to over- initially said he didn't hear lived apart for much of The agency has refused Posada resurfaced in Mi-
throw a dictatorship. Many or understand the Times' their marriage, but in his lat- to declassify many docu- ami in 2005. Two months
other people, like Peter questions, then mentioned er years, Posada boasted ments related to Posada, later, he was arrested, fol-
Kornbluh, head of the in- his lawyer, then stopped, that Nieves still did his laun- but official summaries of lowing international pres-
dependent National Secu- laughed and shrugged. dry. those documents released sure on the George W. Bush
rity Archive's Cuba project Posada enjoyed an official Posada trained for but nev- to the Archive, show U.S. administration to hold him
that fought years to declas- and sometimes tumultu- er participated in the disas- officials were particularly to the same standard as
sify documents relating to ous relationship with the trous 1961 Bay of Pigs inva- concerned about Posada's other accused terrorists.
Posada, viewed him as an CIA until 1975. Yet through- sion of Cuba organized by relationship with the ma- The U.S. refused to turn
unrepentant terrorist. out his years living in Latin the CIA. Through that expe- fia-linked casino operator him over to Venezuela or
"The CIA created and un- America, he retained at rience, he became lifelong Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. Cuba, citing fears he might
leashed a Frankenstein," he least some contact with friends with the late Cuban Another summary shows face torture, nor did it ever
said of Posada. U.S. officials, culminating in exile and political king- the agency was also con- try him directly on any ter-
Cuban government web- the 2011 trial and acquit- maker Jorge Mas Canosa, cerned he'd taken CIA ex- rorist charges, just the immi-
site Cubadebate on tal. He returned to a hero's a reported benefactor and plosives and other items gration charges.
Wednesday described him welcome in Miami's Cuban with whom he graduated with him when in 1967 he Opinions were as widely
as a "terrorist" whose victims community. from the U.S. Army's officer took a job with Venezu- split over the verdict as they
included the innocent pas- Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, training school at Fort Ben- ela's state security agency, were over Posada himself.
sengers on the plane that in 1928, Posada studied ning, Georgia. which he later headed. He is survived by his wife
exploded after taking off chemistry at the Univer- Posada claimed on a He was running his own se- and two adult children.q