El Paso Times
By Aileen B. Flores
Posted: 01/10/2011 12:00:00 AM MST
The National Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition, or ANSWER, on Sunday demanded justice and the exposure of terrorism acts committed by the anti-Castro Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles.
Posada Carriles, 82, faces federal charges of perjury, obstruction and naturalization fraud in the United States.
Jury selection for the Posada Carriles' trial is today. His trial is to start Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in El Paso.
Brian Becker, national director of ANSWER, called for the extradition to Venezuela of Posada Carriles during a tribunal Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Community of El Paso.
The government of Venezuela is seeking Posada's extradition in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people, known as the Cubana Flight 455.
Panama officials also want to extradite Posada Carriles on charges that he plotted to kill Fidel Castro during Castro's visit to the country in 2000. Posada has denied the allegations.
Becker said the U.S. government knows Posada Carriles is a terrorist. Becker said Posada Carriles acted under the umbrella of the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. government when he planned the attack on the Cuban airplane in 1976 and the hotel bombings in Havana that killed Italian businessman Fabio Di Celmo in the 1990s.
By hosting this trial, the U.S. is protecting Posada Carriles from revealing the truth, Becker said.
Posada Carriles is accused only on immigration charges because the U.S. is
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afraid of what the anti-Castro militant has to say, he said.
"If Posada has a trial for those (terrorism) acts, he would be able to talk. ... Posada has a lot to say. It's a big problem for the U.S.," Becker said.
Becker and his supporters described Posada Carriles' trial as an act of "hypocrisy."
Civil-rights attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of Washington, D.C. said the U.S. government is trying to keep Posada Carriles away from the attention of international and national media by having his trial in El Paso.
ANSWER supporters plan a protest at 8 a.m. Tuesday in front of the federal courthouse in Downtown El Paso to demand Posada Carriles' extradition to Venezuela.
Aileen B. Flores may be reached at aflores@elpasotimes.com; 546-6362.
El Paso Times had an informal poll:
The trial of Luis Posada Carriles on immigration charges begins today. What do you think?
Total Votes = 250
They should be trying him on terrorism charges. 74 %
They should leave him alone. He s an old man. 14 %
He s not guilty. 12 %
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