Ricardo+Alarcon,+Extradition+US-Style,+Counterpunch

Counterpunch, June 14, 2005
=//The New CIA Revelations About Posada//= =Extradition US-Style=


 * By RICARDO ALARCÓN**

The secret documents recently disclosed by the National Security Archive throw new light on the responsibility of the government of the United States--and especially of the CIA, which was directed at that time by George H. W. Bush--in the horrendous mid-flight destruction on October 6, 1976 of a Cuban civilian airliner and the murder of all 73 people on board.

We already knew, by declassified documents published in May, that from at least June 1976 Washington was aware of the plan to carry out this terrible crime, had information about who its authors would be, and knew that the main guilty parties--Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles were seeking to escape Venezuelan justice.

But, what is now known via one of the documents published only two days ago, that's the last straw!: the US government itself sought to save the terrorists, with US diplomats in Caracas conspiring to do so with some local officials.

The document is a secret cable sent to Washington by the CIA station chief in Caracas on October 14 1976. The last paragraph refers in detail to the meetings of the morning of October 10, the afternoon of October 12, and again on the morning of October 13, that the US Embassy had with several individuals, including the Director of the DISIP (the Venezuelan secret police), Raúl Giménez Gainza, and Orlando García, advisor to then President Carlos Andrés Pérez.

The object of the meetings was the delivery of Orlando Bosch to the US authorities--without a diplomatic note, without an extradition request. Nothing of this appears in the report. In these three meetings those attending, who were supposedly speaking on behalf of the Venezuelan president, have promised to give up Bosch. It's that simple.

On what source did the CIA base this information? This time it was not an anonymous informant. The person is clearly identified on page 4 and his words reporting the meetings, rightly in quotes, are cited with great care. He is none other than the US ambassador to Venezuela.

His Excellency complains that "I have still not received official confirmation about the President's (Carlos Andrés Pérez) decision."

The George W. Bush regime has spent three months helping Luis Posada Carriles, refusing to extradite him to Venezuela and seeking to shield him with invented chicanery and technicalities.

The father, George H. W. Bush, didn't worry about legal steps or diplomatic procedures suffice to plot in the shadows. Then, as now, it was a US-style extradition:


 * to try to remove Bosch from Venezuela in October of 1976 and take him to the United States to avoid justice;
 * to keep Posada today and not extradite him to Venezuela;
 * to prevent justice.

Now, as then, the son like the father is an accomplice and a protector of murderers. This makes them terrorists as well and just as guilty as those they shelter.

Ricardo Alarcon Quesada is Cuba's Vice President and President of its National Assembly.


 * From: http://www.counterpunch.org/alarcon06142005.html**