News issued by: NLG Cuba Subcommittee
606 W, Wisconsin Ave. Suite 1706, Milwaukee, WI 53203
(414) 273-1040 ext. 12 aheitzer@igc.org
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25 years after CIA-trained agents bombed Cuban airliner, Miami protests
terrorists at large
I. As we continue to mourn the many victims of Sept. 11th in the US, we
should reflect that Saturday, October 6th is the 25th anniversary of the
terrorist bombing of the Cuban airliner after take off from Barbados. All
73 lives on board were lost -- among them the Cuban fencing team, returning
from a tournament abroad -- when a bomb exploded on board. A number of
Cuban-American groups and others will hold a demonstration in Miami on
Saturday afternoon, to protest the fact that the alleged mastermind of the
operation, Orlando Bosch, continues to operate in freedom in Miami.
Bosch had been jailed on these charges in Venezuela, but was not convicted
after a series of military trials, and left prison after the prosecution
failed to keep the case alive there, reportedly as a result of the
intervention of the US ambassador, Otto Reich, now a nominee to become Asst.
Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere. Bosch then entered FL.
illegally in 1988. He was detained based on his violation of U.S. parole,
after he had been released from serving four years of a 10 year prison
sentence (from 1968-72, for staging a bazooka attack on a Polish freighter
docked in Miami and for sending death threats to the heads of state of three
Western European nations, all because they traded with Cuba). His was
remanded to INS custody, while the US refused Cuba's extradition requests.
Some 30 other countries had refused to accept him based on his long record
of terrorist acts. He filed an application for asylum in the U.S.
According to the U.S. Justice Dept., the Cuban airline bombing was "under
the direction of Bosch. ... We could not shelter Dr. Bosch and maintain our
credibility in this respect." In January 1989 the acting attorney general
wrote: "For 30 years Bosch has been resolute and unwavering in his advocacy
of terrorist violence. . . . He has repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a
willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death.'" Former Attorney
General Dick Thornburgh described Bosch as an "unreformed terrorist." The
U.S. district court found that organizations under his leadership had been
responsible for "numerous terrorist operations," including planting bombs at
embassies and blowing up an airline office, and the CIA documents also
linked him to air attacks on Cuba in the 1960's.
Nonetheless, against the recommendations of the district director of the INS
and the Department of Justice, and after a federal court upheld his
deportation, he was freed without deportation in July 1990, due to the
intervention of former Pres. Bush in response to pressure from Florida's
rising political star Jeb Bush, the Cuban American National Foundation
(CANF) & others in the Cuban American exile community.
Orlando Bosch now walks the streets of Miami a free man. While being held in
Venezuela on the airline bombing charge in 1983, the Miami City Commission
declared an "Orlando Bosch Day" in his honor.
The Cuban government has frequently protested that Washington houses
terrorists such as Bosch, while the US government maintains Cuba on its list
of terrorist nations for reasons that are described as based on politics
rather than facts. (See Wayne Smith's analysis,
http://www.ciponline.org/cuba/waynescommentary & click on the "terrorist"
article, 07/23/01; and the official state dept. rationale
http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2000/index.cfm?docid=2441 )
A commemoration event will be held on Saturday at the Plaza de la Revolucion
in Havana. It is expected to be attended by many thousands, including the
family and friends of those who died. Radio Havana Cuba will present a
program in memory of those who died on the 6th of October 1976 at a time
that is especially poignant in view of the terrorist attack on the United
States on September 11th.
II. Below is the call from Miami re their event on Saturday. III. A list of
sources re Bosch and this record of terrorism is at the end. - Art H.
__________________________________
II. Miami, October 3rd, 2001
Dear friends,
This Saturday October 6th marks the 25th Anniversary of the bombing in
flight of the DC-8 Cubana Airliner with the consequent loss of 73 civilian
passengers and crew. The person most responsible for this terrorist act,
Orlando Bosch, lives in Miami with total impunity and still actively
involved in the organization of terrorist actions against the Cuban people
and those who in Miami favor the normalization of relations between the U.S.
and Cuba.
He is not the only one. It is well known that right wing Cuban American
organizations in Miami and elsewhere in the U.S., principally the Cuban
American National Foundation, are deeply involved in the financing and
planning of terrorist actions against the Cuban people and against their
political adversaries in Miami and other cities in the U.S.
Of course this could not happen if it were not that for the past 42 years
the U.S. government has trained, directed, financed, and protected these
terrorists. Very, but very few of these individuals have been brought to
justice in the U.S. and not even then has the law been rigorously enforced
as it should have been.
It is for these reasons, and to again denounced the U.S. blockade of Cuba as
a policy of genocide, that a number of organizations in Miami have called
for a demonstration to take place this Saturday, October 6th, at the Torch
of Friendship in downtown Miami, Biscayne Boulevard and N.E. 3rd Street
between 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM.
The sponsoring organizations are: the Antonio Maceo Brigade, Alianza
Martiana, Miami Coalition Against the Embargo of Cuba, Alliance of Workers
of the Cuban Community, Cuban American Defense League, and Rescate Cultural
AfroCubano.
from: CubanAmericanAliiance@egroups.com
III. Here are a few resource items:
Jane Franklin's book, Cuba and the United States, A Chronological History
(Ocean, 1997) continues to be invaluable.
Cuban ambassador's speech to UN general assembly this week on terrorism, re
the airplane bombing & Cuba's attempts to get Security Council action, (also
recent Castro speeches) from http://cubaofia.vze.com
Lost History: The CIA's Fugitive Terrorist, By Robert Parry (a
Consortium.com report on Carriles, Bosch & US intelligence),
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/lost13.html
[During the 1980s, Robert Parry broke many of the stories known as the
Iran-contra affair for The Associated Press and Newsweek.]
Clinton pardoned an accused tax cheat, but Poppy Bush set a serial terrorist
free. By Eileen Smith; at
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Smith030101/smith030101.html
also at:
http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/Caribbean/The_Serial_Terrorist_George_
Bush_Freed
A recent summary of terrorism Cuba says it suffered from US sources is
contained in a statement from the Cuban National Assembly at:
http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/Caribbean/CUBANS_JAILED_IN_MIAMI:_POLI
TICAL_PRISONERS_OF_THE_EMPIRE)______________________________________________
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