Terrorist in the US delegation
to Human Rights Commission

When the United Nations Human Rights Commission resumed on 
Wednesday last week, Orlando Requeijo Gual, Cuba's Ambassador and 
Permanent Representative to the HRC presented a letter to UN 
Secretary General Kofi Annan, reporting that an official US 
delegate to the HRC has participated in and been convicted for 
acts of terrorism. The following is the letter from the Cuban 
Ambassador:

I have the honour of directing myself to Your Excellency to 
denounce before the United Nations the presence of a well-known 
terrorist of Cuban origin, Luis Zuqiga Rey, on the official US 
delegation to the 60th session of the Human Rights Commission 
presently convened in Geneva.

The attitude adopted by the US Government is paradoxical when the 
images of the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Madrid last March 
11, costing the lives of more than 200 people, are still fresh.

For those who combatting terrorism in an honourable way, it is a 
real affront and a complete lack of respect to have — under the 
disguise of a diplomat and delegation member to such a forum — 
an individual with a long and well-known criminal history, as 
confirmed in a report by Mr Enrique Bernales Ballesteros, UN 
Special Rapporteur on mercenary activities, which was presented 
precisely before the HRC in 1999.

In that report, the UN Special Rapporteur points to Luis Zuqiga 
Rey, of Cuban origin and based in Miami, as a member of the 
underground security of the so-called Cuban-American National 
Foundation (CANF), a paramilitary structure.

According to Bernales Ballesteros' 1999 report, Zuqiga Rey 
recruited Guatemalan citizen Percy Francisco Alvarado Godoy to 
study points in Cuba that were vulnerable and susceptible to 
terrorist attacks, such as hotels, thermoelectric plants and oil 
refineries, among others.

It was possible to frustrate the actions promoted by Zuqiga Rey 
due to the fact that Alvarado Godoy was a Cuban State Security 
agent. The current occupant of a seat within the US delegation 
left Cuba illegally in 1973, by entering the Guantanamo naval 
base and, on his arrival in Miami, enrolled in a Central 
Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation that consisted of a plan to 
infiltrate Cuban territory in order commit sabotage and 
assassinate the country's main leaders.

That plan was neutralised by the Cuban authorities in August 
1974. Zuqiga Rey was arrested with explosives and weapons. After 
standing trial by the due legal authorities, he was sentenced to 
25 years' imprisonment, of which he completed only 14, being 
released in 1988. Upon his return to the United States he linked 
up with the CANF and was directly or indirectly involved in 
planting explosive devices in Havana hotels and Cuban hospitals.

The decision by the US Government to include Luis Zuqiga Rey as a 
member of its official delegation to the Human Rights Commission 
currently convened in Geneva is not only disrespectful to the 
United Nations; at the same time, the presence of an individual 
with such a record places the security of this venue at risk, as 
well as that of all of the delegates now participating in the 
labours of the 60th session of the Human Rights Commission.

Of what value is the report presented in 1999 by Mr Enrique 
Bernales Ballesteros, the UN Special Rapporteur on mercenary 
activities to the Human Rights Commission? Is it possible that 
five years after its presentation to this forum the report has 
become a dead letter and an object of mockery on the part of a 
member state that proclaims to be a standard-bearer in the 
international struggle against international terrorism?

Is it possible to remain silent in face of an individual with 
such a criminal and terrorist history in a body whose fundamental 
objective to date has been for the full application of human 
rights?

Cuba hopes that the HRC's current president will adopt the 
appropriate measures for dealing with an unsuitable delegate and 
act accordingly. If the presence of Zuqiga Rey is accepted as a 
normal event, terrorism is being blessed instead of combatted, 
and an erroneous message of complicity and impunity is being sent 
to the convicted perpetrators of terrorist acts.

Cuba's delegation is willing to offer more detailed information 
on this notorious terrorist and his prior activities. Based on 
the need to adequately report this repugnant fact and alert 
member states to this felony, I have the honour of asking Your 
Excellency to see fit to circulate this letter as a General 
Assembly document under issue 119: "Questions related to human 
rights" and issue 156: "Measures for the elimination of 
international terrorism."

Orlando Requeijo Gual Ambassador Permanent Representative March 
27, 2004 Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/

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Footnote: The Nicaraguan Human Rights Center has also 
protested against the inclusion of Zuqiga Rey as a member of a 
delegation representing Nicaragua before the United Nations. The 
Center's President, Vilma Nunez de Escorcia, said Zuqiga's 
membership of the Cuban American National Foundation disqualified 
him because Cuba says group members funded and planned terrorist 
bombings in Havana.