Panama releases anti-Cuban terrorists

On August 26, Mireya Moscoso, not quite done with her term as 
President of Panama, pardoned four jailed terrorists. To the 
cheers and warm embraces of hundreds of like-minded Floridians, 
three well-known criminals returned home to US soil, the very 
home, of course, of war against terrorism. Apparently the other 
released prisoner, Luis Posada Carriles, not a US citizen, was 
dropped off in Honduras.

The quartet 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" in a plot that could have killed Castro and 
hundreds of students at the University of Panama in a big 
explosion, they were each sentenced to seven to eight years in 
jail.

Under Panamanian law, pardons may not be granted until any 
remaining judicial proceedings have been completed. An appeals 
process had still been in the works when the prisoners were set 
free. There is speculation that Colin Powell's recent visit to 
Panama may have had something to do with the pardons.

Cuba broke off diplomatic relations with Panama August 26 and 
Venezuela has withdrawn its ambassador. President-elect Martin 
Torrijos has announced that he will try to repair relations with 
Cuba. Panamanian students and labour activists have been 
protesting the release.

The freed prisoners have a long history of terrorist activity. 
Posada Carriles was CIA-trained, involved with the bombing of a 
Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73 people, and 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 
in Havana.

Gaspar Jiminez 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 Miami radio announcer Emilio Milian, 
who lost his legs.

Pedro Remsn went to jail in 1986 for trying to kill a Cuban UN 
diplomat and for helping out with the murder of Filix Garcma 
Rodrmguez, another Cuban UN official.

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."

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People's Weekly World,
Newspaper of the CPUSA