Yahoo! November 20, 2000
Flores, Castro Dispute Terrorism
By John Rice, Associated Press Writer
PANAMA CITY, Panama 18 (AP) - A polite dispute over a resolution against
terrorism spiraled into an argument drenched in civil-war bitterness as Cuba's
Fidel Castro and El Salvador's leader hurled allegations at the close of a
summit on Saturday.
"What you have done here is intolerable,'' Salvadoran President
Francisco Flores told Castro, accusing him of "cruel, bloody
responsibility'' for involvement in El Salvador's civil war.
Castro expressed anger that the anti-terrorism measure sponsored by El
Salvador and Mexico expressed sympathy for Spain - wracked by violence
associated with the Basque separatist movement - but did not mention Cuba, even
though Panamanian officials had just detained a man Castro accused of trying to
assassinate him.
"None of you have had to run the risks that the president of the
Republic of Cuba does each time he appears,'' Castro lectured the leaders of 19
other Latin American nations, plus those of Spain and Portugal, who were
attending the Ibero-American Summit.
Castro later announced at a news conference that Cuba will ask for the
extradition of Luis Posada Carriles and three other men detained Friday by
Panamanian police. He said the men had been plotting to overthrow his
government, and were Cuban citizens.
At the same news conference, Panamanian Foreign minister Jose Miguel Aleman
said Venezuela intends to seek the extradition of the Posada, the group's
alleged leader, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison.
In the course of the summit debate on terrorism, Castro charged that several
nations had cooperated with or failed to stop the men, saying that Posada "comes
from El Salvador, whose government knows perfectly well that he lives there.''
Flores took that as an insult, and in turn accused Castro of involvement in
the deaths of "tens of thousands'' of Salvadorans during El Salvador's
civil war, which ended in 1992.
Castro admitted training rebels from many countries, saying "interrevolutionary
support is a tradition,'' but insisted he had stopped such aid when other
countries stopped trying to isolate Cuba.
Other presidents tried to cut off the seemingly out-of-control debate.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez appealed for "unity and brotherhood'' as the
session finally ended, hours behind schedule.
On the summit's theme issue, the presidents vowed to devote more resources
to children. Chavez suggested that international lenders grant partial debt
relief to poor countries in exchange for investments in schools, hospitals or
other social projects.
Posada was detained Friday evening a few hours after the Cuban leader
accused him of plotting an assassination.
Police Chief Carlos Bares said police had 24 hours to charge or release
Posada, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting retrial on
charges of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73
people.
Bares said no weapons were found with Posada or three other people detained
with him at a Panama City hotel. He said Posada had been using a Salvadoran
passport in the name of Franco Rodriguez Mena. He did not identify the others
detained.
Castro claimed Posada was working for the Miami-based Cuban-American
National Foundation, which immediately denied any connection with Posada.
Born in 1928, according to Cuban sources, Posada fled Cuba after the 1959
revolution led by Castro and was involved in U.S.-backed efforts to topple the
communist government.
After working at least briefly for the CIA (news - web sites), Posada went
to Venezuela where he rose to become director of operations for the country's
intelligence agency, which was monitoring leftist rebels. He lost the job after
a change in the presidency in 1974.
Prosecutors accused him of masterminding the October 1976 bombing of a
Cubana de Aviacion jetliner. He was acquitted twice, but officials were making a
third try to convict him when he escaped from prison in 1985. Venezuelan
officials say he still faces charges there.
After Posada's escape, he allegedly helped send guns to the U.S.-backed
Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Honduran officials also have identified him as the
associate of an alleged arms dealer in that country.
The Miami Herald reported in 1998 that he had been living off and on in El
Salvador and had close ties with current or retired military figures in the
region. Salvadoran officials said in 1998 they were unable to locate him.
In a 1998 interview with The New York Times, Posada was quoted as admitting
involvement in the bombing of hotels in Cuba in 1997. A Salvadoran man who
planted one of the bombs, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, was sentenced to death for
killing an Italian tourist.
U.S., Cuba Agree on Medical Program
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 18 (AP) - It doesn't happen very often, but the United States
and Cuba finally appear to agree on something.
U.S. officials said Friday the State Department is not objecting to a Cuban
proposal to provide medical training to 500 low-income Americans. They noted
that Clinton administration policy is to encourage contact between ordinary
Cubans and Americans and that it's not unusual for Americans to study in Cuba.
Cuban President Fidel Castro offered the medical training at a meeting in
May with a delegation from the Congressional Black Caucus.
"It would be hard for your government to oppose such a program,''
Castro told the Americans. "It would be a trial for them. Morally, how
could they refuse?''
The offer is for annual groups of 250 black Americans and 250 Hispanics,
American Indians and others from poor families.
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
department outlined the official position on the offer in a letter to Rep.
Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., a member of the caucus.
Thompson said Friday he had not seen the letter but added that "we will
move forward'' if the State Department has no objection. An official at Cuba's
diplomatic mission in Washington said he had not been informed that the
department had taken a position.
The United States has been encouraging travel to Cuba by Americans who have
a purpose other than tourism. Tens of thousands of Americans visit each year,
including many students, and the number is rising sharply. The main goal of the
policy is to plant democratic seeds on the communist-ruled island.
Thompson said his Mississippi Delta district is the nation's poorest. "I
have 24 counties,'' he said. "All or part of each one is medically
underserved,'' he said.
Following the May meeting, there were follow-up discussions in September
when a delegation of Cuban lawmakers visited Washington.
The State Department official said it is unclear whether Americans who
receive training in Cuba will be able to meet licensing requirements once they
return home. Many Cuban physicians who fled Cuba for the United States have had
difficulty obtaining permission to practice.
Cuba also proposed sending its own doctors to poor areas of the United
States as part of the overall offer, but the State Department official said the
idea was rejected.
Cuba has a surplus of doctors and dispatches thousands abroad each year to
work in Third World countries. Shortages of basic medicines have been acute in
recent years in Cuba, particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
island's former benefactor.
Commenting on the Cuban offer in September, Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of an
anti-Castro group called the Democracy Movement, noted that Cuban-Americans send
medications worth millions of dollars each year to make up for the shortages.
On the Net: State Department:
www.state.gov/www/regions/wha/index.html
Library of Congress country notes:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
Cuba, Venezuela Seek an Extradition
By John Rice, Associated Press Writer
PANAMA CITY, Panama, 19 (AP) - Cuba and Venezuela are seeking the
extradition of Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile who Fidel Castro says planned
to assassinate him during the weekend's Ibero-American Summit.
"Viva Panama, the land where the most famous criminal in all the
hemisphere has been captured,'' Castro said to cheers from an audience of
leftist students at the University of Panama late Saturday night.
Castro announced that his government has given Panama an official note
requesting that Posada and three other men detained here on Friday be sent to
Cuba. Under Cuban law, anyone born on the island is usually considered a Cuban
citizen even if they adopt other nationality.
At a news conference earlier, Panamanian Foreign minister Jose Miguel Aleman
said Venezuelan officials also planned to request the extradition of the Posada,
who escaped in 1985 from a Venezuelan prison where he was awaiting trial on
charges of bombing a Cuban jetliner.
Castro also suggested that an international tribunal should be formed to try
the men for crimes committed in numerous countries.
None of the men had been charged as of Sunday and investigators said they
had not found the cache of arms that Castro claimed the exiles had brought into
the country. Posada allegedly entered Panama under a false name, Francisco
Rodriguez Mena.
Reading from a copy of the Cuban note, Castro told the university audience
that Cuba was accusing Posada of at least 16 terrorist acts. "It is not so
many, but it is enough,'' he said, prompting laughter.
The note accused Posada not only of the 1976 jetliner bombing in which 73
people died, but of a string of attacks on Cuban offices throughout Latin
America in the mid-1970s.
Posada was twice acquitted of the airline bombing, but Venezuelan
prosecutors wanted to try him again. Two men accused of planting the bomb had
said they worked for Posada and allegedly called him shortly after the attack.
Posada has admitted arranging the 1997 bombing of several hotels in Havana,
the Cuban capital. A Salvadoran man was condemned to death for killing an
Italian tourist in one of those attacks.
The Miami Herald reported Sunday that two of the men detained along with
Posada - Pedro Remon, 56, and Guillermo Novo, 61 - were former members of the
defunct militant group called Omega 7. Both live in the Miami area. The other
man was identified as Manuel Diaz.
In February 1986, Remon pleaded guilty to participating in a 1979 bombing at
Cuba's mission to the United Nations (news - web sites) and of conspiring to
kill the Cuban ambassador.
Novo's conviction in the 1976 murder of former Chilean diplomat Orlando
Letelier in Washington, D.C., was overturned on appeal and he was acquitted in a
second trial.
Castro claimed Posada was working for the Miami-based Cuban-American
National Foundation, which immediately denied any connection with Posada.
Born in 1928, according to Cuban sources, Posada fled Cuba after the 1959
revolution led by Castro and was involved in U.S.-backed efforts to topple the
communist government.
He worked at least briefly for the CIA (news - web sites) and later moved to
Venezuela, where he became director of operations for that country's
intelligence agency.
After Posada's escape from Venezuela, he allegedly helped send guns to the
U.S.-backed Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
El Salvador's vice-minister of the interior, Gabriel Carranza, said Saturday
that he did not know if Posada was the same man as Rodriguez Mena, whose name
appeared in Salvadoran records in 1995.
He said Rodriguez Mena had listed a false address in San Salvador and had
left that country 59 times over the past five years.
Would-Be Castro Assassin Detained
By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer
PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) - As Latin American and European leaders met to
discuss their problems, Panamanian police on Saturday were trying to decide what
to do with a shadowy former CIA (news - web sites) agent accused of trying to
kill Fidel Castro.
Luis Posada Carriles was detained Friday evening a few hours after the Cuban
leader accused him of plotting an assassination during the two-day
Ibero-American Summit, which was to conclude Saturday.
Police Chief Carlos Bares said police had 24 hours to charge or release
Posada, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting retrial on
charges of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73
people.
Bares said no weapons were found with Posada or three other people detained
with him at a Panama City hotel. He said Posada had been using a Salvadoran
passport in the name of Franco Rodriguez Mena. He did not identify the others
detained.
"The situation of these people is the same. They are being
investigated,'' Bares said Saturday.
Castro claimed Posada was working for the Miami-based Cuban-American
National Foundation, which immediately denied any connection with Posada.
Castro's dramatic announcement and the subsequent detention of Posada
overshadowed the summit of 19 Latin American leaders, along with those of Spain
and Portugal.
As the summit neared a close, the presidents vowed to devote more resources
to the problems of children in Latin America. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez
suggested that international lenders should grant partial debt relief to poor
countries in exchange for investments in schools, hospitals or other social
projects.
He warned that desperation over continuing poverty "is going to
destabilize the world.''
For decades, Cuba has accused Posada of terrorist acts against the communist
island nation and assassination attempts against Castro himself.
Born in 1928, according to Cuban sources, Posada fled Cuba after the 1959
revolution led by Castro and was involved in U.S.-backed efforts to topple the
communist government.
After working at least briefly for the CIA, Posada went to Venezuela where
he rose to become director of operations for the country's intelligence agency,
which was monitoring leftist rebels. He lost the job after a change in the
presidency in 1974.
Prosecutors accused him of masterminding the October 1976 bombing of a
Cubana de Aviacion jetliner. He was acquitted twice, but officials were making a
third try to convict him when he escaped from prison in 1985. Venezuelan
officials say he still faces charges there.
After Posada's escape, he allegedly helped send guns to the U.S.-backed
Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Honduran officials also have identified him as the
associate of an alleged arms dealer in that country.
The Miami Herald reported in 1998 that he had been living off and on in El
Salvador and had close ties with current or retired military figures in the
region. Salvadoran officials said in 1998 they were unable to locate him.
In a 1998 interview with The New York Times, Posada was quoted as admitting
involvement in the bombing of hotels in Cuba in 1997. A Salvadoran man who
planted one of the bombs, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, was sentenced to death for
killing an Italian tourist.
The Herald reported that Posada had been involved in several other attempts
to disrupt Cuba's socialist economy or kill Castro at other international
summits.
Police in the Dominican Republic intensified security for a Caribbean summit
in August 1998 after the Herald reported that the FBI (news - web sites) had
received a warning that Posada planned to have Castro assassinated at the event.
Castro Steals Show With Death Plot
By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer
PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) - The king of Spain and leaders from throughout
Latin America were here, but the spotlight was on one man at the Ibero-American
summit: Fidel Castro, who stole the show by alleging that his enemies had sent
armed assassins to murder him.
The Cuban president said Friday that the assassination plot was led by a
Cuban exile named Luis Posada Carriles, who has admitted to Cuban hotel bombings
in the past. Hours later, police detained Posada Carriles and three other Cuban
exiles at a Panama hotel for questioning.
The four had apparently arrived in the country Wednesday, and no guns were
found in their possession, chief of police Carlos Bares told The Associated
Press. He said they could be held for up to 24 hours and were still in custody
late Friday.
Castro's allegations came during his first visit to Panama since he took
power in 1959. Within hours of his arrival, he had announced the alleged murder
plot, stalled an effort to condemn the Basque separatist group ETA and made the
opening speech at the 10th Ibero-American Summit, which brings together leaders
from 19 Latin American countries, along with Spain and Portugal. The summit ends
Saturday.
Shortly after he arrived, Castro held a press conference and charged that
the U.S.-based Cuban-American National Foundation had sent arms, explosives and
assassins into Panama, "intent on my physical elimination.'' He said the
latest plot was led by Carriles, a Cuban exile whom he described as "a
cowardly man totally without scruples.''
The Cuban-American National Foundation said it has no links to Posada.
Ninoska Perez, a spokeswoman for the Miami-based foundation, said the group has
no one in Panama and Castro "should get a new story.''
"There is no reason why we should have to respond to unfounded
accusations,'' she said. "He is the terrorist. They are accusations without
proof. Where are the people he's talking about?''
Posada has been accused of organizing the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner
that killed 73 people. He was twice acquitted of that, but he spent nine years
in a Venezuelan prison before escaping in 1985.
In July 1998, the New York Times quoted Posada as admitting he organized
bombings of hotels in Cuba.
Panamanian Interior Minister Winston Spadafora said an advance security team
for Castro had been in Panama for several months and that the Cuban leader had
been "offered all security and all cooperation.''
At his press conference, Castro joked that there have been "about 600''
attempts on his life.
In December, a Puerto Rico federal jury acquitted five exiles - including a
director of the Cuban-American National Foundation - of plotting to kill the
74-year-old leader.
The Coast Guard had stopped three of the men aboard a yacht near Puerto Rico
in 1997. Sniper rifles, ammunition and night-vision goggles were found aboard,
and one of the men told officers they were headed to the Ibero-American Summit
in Venezuela to kill Castro.
Defense attorneys argued that the men merely planned to help Cuban officials
defect and they needed the weapons for defense.
The Cuban leader's very presence in Panama on Friday was symbolic, coming
less than a year after the United States handed over control of the Panama Canal
to the Panamanian government after 97 years. Upon his arrival, Castro praised
Panama for achieving "full sovereignty'' with the December 1999 handover.
Castro, who hosted last year's Ibero-American Summit, opened this year's
session by speaking about the meeting's main topic: the problems children face
in Latin America. The U.N. Children's Fund estimates that about 500,000 children
under the age of 5 die each year in the region.
Also Friday, Cuba blocked a resolution condemning terrorism by the Basque
separatist organization ETA. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Cuba
considers the issue an internal matter for Spain and favors a more general
condemnation of terrorism.
Castro Attends Summit in Panama
By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer
PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) - Nearly a year after U.S. troops bade farewell to
Panama, Fidel Castro said hello.
Wearing his olive-green military uniform, Cuba's communist president stepped
off an airliner into a light rain at Panama City's Tocumen International Airport
on Friday to attend a summit of 19 Latin American nations, along with Portugal
and Spain.
In brief remarks, Castro, 74, praised Panama for achieving "full
sovereignty'' with the December 1999 handover of the formerly U.S.-owned Panama
Canal and the departure of U.S. troops, who maintained a presence in the country
for 97 years.
With Panama a stronghold of U.S. influence, Washington's least-favorite
Latin leader had never visited the country since taking power in 1959, though he
made a brief stop here in 1948 on the way to a student conference in Colombia
before taking up arms against Cuba's old government.
He said he had then met a group of Panamanian students injured in
demonstrations against the U.S. presence.
"Today everything has changed,'' Castro said after shaking hands with
President Mireya Moscoso. "There are no troops shooting on students and the
people of Panama own its canal and administer it excellently.''
The Ibero-American leaders planned to adopt resolutions attacking
exploitation and other problems affecting children before ending their summit on
Saturday.
They were expected to promise to dedicate more resources to aid children in
a region where many live in poverty and must drop out of school.
Two presidents said they would not be able to attend: Peru's Alberto
Fujimori (news - web sites) and Nicaragua's Arnoldo Aleman.
El Salvador proposed a resolution condemning political violence, especially
that of the Basque separatist group ETA in Spain, but Cuba reportedly balked at
singling out ETA.
Panama's foreign minister, Jose Miguel Aleman, said the foreign ministers at
the summit had not discussed the U.S. presidential election.
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