Posted at 11:12 a.m. EDT Thursday, May 3, 2001 in the
Miami Herald
HAVANA -- (AP) -- The communist government expressed its "profound
indignation'' Thursday over Panama's decision last month not to extradite to
Cuba a man accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro.
"Panamanian Authorities Have Succumbed to the Pressures,'' the
Communist Party declared in reporting on a Foreign Ministry statement on
Panama's refusal to send Luis Posada Carriles and three fellow Cuban exiles to
Cuba to be tried on terrorism charges.
The statement expressed "the most profound indignation by the Cuban
people for the unjust denial of extradition ... and energetically condemns those
who are preventing justice from being done.''
By refusing to extradite the men, Panama "has left in doubt the
impartiality of the subsequent process,'' the statement said.
In denying Cuba's extradition request in April, Panama's Foreign Secretariat
said that its decision was based in part on Cuba's previous refusal to extradite
Panamanian suspects to Panama. The secretariat also noted that Posada and the
three other suspects arrested in the case still face charges in Panama.
Posada and the others were arrested in Panama last November shortly after
Castro arrived in the country for a regional summit and announced that a group
of men were planning to kill him.
The other suspects were Gaspar Jimenez, Pedro Crispin Remon and Guillermo
Novo, all of the Miami area. The four are still being held in Panama on charges
of possessing explosives and criminal association. Jimenez and Posada also are
accused of falsifying documents.
Posada also is wanted in Venezuela, where he was convicted in absentia for
involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviacion jetliner in which 73
people died.
He denies involvement in that incident but has admitted organizing hotel
bombings in Cuba that killed an Italian tourist.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 