Castro is hypocritical to seek extradition.
Editorials. Published Wednesday, November 22, 2000, in the
Miami Herald
Fidel Castro knows terrorists well: He has been one. And he has been quick
to defend and harbor them -- unless he and his totalitarian government become
targets. This hypocrisy was plain at the Ibero-American Summit in Panama that
ended last weekend when Castro claimed that terrorists planned to assassinate
him there; he demanded that Panama extradite the alleged perpetrators to Cuba.
No sale. Let's be clear: All terrorism is criminal no matter the motive.
Those who placed bombs in Cuban hotels to kill innocent civilians are as guilty
of vile acts as the Castro operatives who set bombs in Havana movie theaters to
foment revolution in the 1950s.
Yet at the summit, Castro refused to sign a declaration condemning ETA, the
Basque separatist group that has been terrorizing Spain for decades and is
blamed for scores of murders. Castro then turned around and condemned four Cuban
exiles that he accused of plotting to kill him.
Panamanian authorities promptly arrested Venezuelan fugitive Luis Posada
Carriles, Miamians Pedro Remón and Guillermo Novo and a man identified as
Gaspar Jiménez, also of Miami. All have histories of anti-Castro
violence.
Novo and Remón both were members of Omega 7, a defunct group that saw
terrorism as a means to overthrow Castro. Remón was convicted in
connection with the 1980 attempted murder of Cuba's United Nation's delegate and
the 1979 attempted bombing of the Cuban U.N. Mission.
Jiménez served time for the attempted murder of Cuban diplomats in
Mexico and was a suspect in the 1976 car bombing of radio-journalist Emilio Milián.
Posada Carriles has been accused of bombing a Cubana airplane in 1976 that
killed 73 people; he recently bragged of masterminding the 1997 bombings in
Havana that killed an Italian tourist.
Whatever these men may be, Castro is no better. Cuba's dictator has long
practiced terrorism, from exporting violent revolution to downing civilian
Brothers to the Rescue planes over international waters.
Even terrorists, however, must be prosecuted justly. If there is evidence
for attempted-murder charges against these four, let them be tried in Panama.
The legal process can determine whether Venezuela may prosecute fugitive
Posada Carriles. But in no case should they be extradited to Cuba, where justice
means only what Castro wants it to mean.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald | 