With international pressure mounting and hours after a massive protest in Cuba, U.S. authorities on Tuesday seized a militant Cuban exile wanted in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.
U.S. authorities took Luis Posada Carriles into custody in Miami, where he had been hiding while awaiting a review of his request for political asylum. The detention occurred early Tuesday afternoon after Posada met with reporters and as he reportedly was preparing to leave the country for Central America.
Posada’s presence in Florida had been an increasing source of controversy for the U.S. government. Cuban officials, who consider Posada a terrorist, had urged his arrest and extradition to Venezuela, which has charged him in connection with the airliner bombing. When the U.S. was slow to do so, Cuban President Fidel Castro accused the Bush administration of having a double standard on terrorism.
The Homeland Security Department did not say what it plans to do with Posada, though U.S. authorities rarely deport individuals to Cuba or countries believed to be acting on Cuba’s behalf. The department has 48 hours to determine Posada’s immigration status, according to a statement.
“He was packing his bags to leave,” said Santiago Alvarez, a Miami developer and friend of the 77-year-old militant. “He was almost gone. He didn’t want to cause any more trouble.”
After decades on the run, Posada came out of hiding Tuesday in Miami to defend himself against accusations that he planned the 1976 airliner bombing as part of a four-decade-long war against the Castro regime.
Posada’s emergence began with an interview in Tuesday’s Miami Herald, followed by an hourlong news conference with reporters at a cavernous warehouse northwest of downtown Miami. The militant exile said he was reconsidering his asylum request because the Cuban government was using it to damage the United States’ image.
Posada said the furor surrounding his case also was drawing attention away from a gathering of opposition figures scheduled for Friday in Havana.
“Castro is using my case as a smokescreen,” said Posada, dressed in a white linen suit and looking relaxed as he spoke to reporters.
Asylum request pulled
Eduardo Soto, Posada’s attorney, said that he formally withdrew the asylum request Tuesday afternoon at about the time of Posada’s detention.
Soto said he believed Posada was taken to Florida’s Homestead Air Force Base in a helicopter before being sent to an undisclosed location.
An unmitigated Cold Warrior, Posada is wanted in Venezuela for escaping prison in 1985 while awaiting a prosecutor’s appeal on the 1976 downing of a Cuban airliner that had originated in Caracas.
Posada also is linked to a series of 1997 hotel bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist, as well as other violent acts.
Asked if he was a terrorist, Posada replied, “No, I’m not.”
But Castro, who led Tuesday’s march in front of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, has compared Posada to Osama bin Laden.
Demand for extradition
In almost daily televised addresses, Castro has questioned how Posada could manage to slip into the United States undetected given the beefed-up border security following the Sept. 11 attacks.
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The Cuban leader demanded that the United States extradite Posada to Venezuela for trial in the airline bombing or send him to an international tribunal to face justice.
“This is not a march against the people of the United States,” said the 78-year-old Castro in brief comments to the crowd, estimated in the hundreds of thousands by The Associated Press. “It is a march against terrorism.”
The Cuban president then walked about six blocks past the American mission without assistance, despite a fall in October that shattered his left kneecap.
Considered a freedom fighter by some and a terrorist by others, Posada left Cuba shortly after the 1959 revolution and has spent much of his life plotting Castro’s demise with a cadre of militant exiles.
The exploits of Posada, a former CIA operative, have taken him from the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion to battling leftist rebels in Venezuela to assisting in the United States’ covert supply operations for the contras fighting Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government.
After years of living clandestinely in the Caribbean and Central America, Posada traveled in March by bus from Guatemala to the U.S.-Mexican border, where he was smuggled into the United States, according to accounts by Posada and his associates.
He then took a Greyhound bus to South Florida, where he has spent time reading, painting and visiting his two children and three grandchildren while awaiting a hearing on his asylum request.
Dilemma for Bush
For weeks, U.S. officials said they were not actively looking for Posada because he is not wanted for a crime in the United States.
Yet Posada’s presence in Miami has posed a dilemma for President Bush, who has staked his presidency on the global war against terrorism but also has taken a hard line against Castro.
Granting political asylum to Posada could open Bush up to criticism that his war on terrorism is selective.
“If they allowed him to stay, then they could be accused of harboring a terrorist,” said Wayne Smith, a former top U.S. envoy to Cuba.
Damian Fernandez, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, said he does not believe Posada’s detention will spark protests among Cuban exiles in Miami because of the “lack of moral certitude” of Posada’s militant campaign.
“This is not Elian,” said Fernandez, referring to Elian Gonzalez, the shipwrecked boy whose plight five years ago sparked an outpouring of support among Cuban exiles in Miami.
“The politics of passion needs to be black and white, and in this case it’s murky,” he said. “He was morally suspect.”
Even if Posada is deemed deportable, he almost certainly won’t be going to Venezuela because U.S. officials believe that President Hugo Chavez is too close to Castro.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke declined to say whether U.S. officials were looking for a third country to which they could send Posada. “We’re still looking at immigration status,” Knocke said.
As he strolled into the warehouse to meet reporters, Posada looked more like a wealthy Florida retiree than a feared anti-Castro militant. His brown loafers were buffed clean and his dark blue tie was pressed neatly against his neck.
The only sign of Posada’s years in battle was the heavy slur in his voice, the result of a bullet that shattered his jaw during a 1990 assassination attempt against him.
Reading from a statement, Posada thanked the exile community for its support and then turned his attention to the airline bombing, saying he had played no role in it.
“I did not have anything to do with this event and I denounce this abominable act,” Posada said.
Posada accused Castro of mounting a smear campaign to link him to the bombing and he gave reporters copies of a polygraph test he said proved his innocence.
Jailed for 10 years
But recently declassified government documents placed Posada–then living in Venezuela–at two meetings where the airline bombing was planned. Posada was jailed in Venezuela for 10 years for the crime but never was convicted.
In 2000, Posada was arrested in Panama for plotting to kill Castro while the Cuban president attended a summit in 2000.
A Panamanian court eventually dropped the most serious charges, but Posada and three accomplices were convicted of lesser charges in April 2004 and sentenced to up to 8 years in prison.
Five months later, then-Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned the four men.
Asked at Tuesday’s news conference whether he wanted to kill Castro, Posada told reporters, “It’s not on my agenda at this moment.” But the aging militant said he would continue battling to end what he described as the Castro dictatorship.
“I will keep fighting for the liberty of my country until I die or until Cuba is liberated,” he said.
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Exile has opposed Castro for decadesU.S. authorities on Tuesday seized Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who recently entered the United States and sought political asylum. A fugitive for much of the last three decades, he is wanted in the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976.
1928
Luis Posada Carriles is born in Cienfuegos, Cuba.
1961
Posada takes part in the Bay of Pigs invasion, a CIA-sponsored effort to overthrow Fidel Castro, but the plot fails before his ship reaches shore.
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1976
A bomb detonates aboard a Cuban airliner en route from Caracas, Venezuela, to Havana, killing 73. Posada is charged in connection with the bombing and begins serving time in a Venezuelan prison but is never convicted.
1985
Posada escapes from prison while his case is being appealed.
1990
Posada survives an assassination attempt in Guatemala.
1997
A series of bombings at Havana hotels and restaurants kills 1 and injures 11. Posada is implicated in the attacks.
2000
Posada allegedly plots to assassinate Castro while the Cuban president is at a summit in Panama.
2004
In Panama, Posada and three others are convicted of lesser charges in the 2000 assassination plot against Castro and sentenced to up to 8 years in prison. They are pardoned four months later.
April 12, 2005
After reportedly sneaking into the U.S. from Mexico in March, Posada petitions for asylum, saying he is a target of the Cuban government.
May 10
Newly declassified CIA and FBI documents suggest Posada was involved in the 1976 Cuban airliner bombing and was on the CIA payroll for years. Posada denies any role in the bombing.
Tuesday
Posada is taken into custody by U.S. immigration officials, and his lawyer withdraws Posada’s asylum request.
Sources: National Security Archive, Tribune and other news reports
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