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Ibero-American foreign ministers condemn pardon of
Posada Carriles and his accomplices
BY JUANA CARRASCO MARTIN AND
JORGE LUIS GONZALEZ —Granma daily special
correspondents—
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica.—“Cuba is
satisfied with the document,” affirmed Foreign
Minister Felipe Pérez Roque to members of the press
who dashed to find out whether the meeting of
ministers of foreign affairs had approved a special
communiqué on terrorism that reaffirms the will and
commitment to combat it in all its forms and
manifestations, reiterates the obligation of all
states to prevent impunity and expresses profound
concern at the pardon granted to Luis Posada
Carriles and his accomplices.
This has been a nerve point in
discussions since the National Coordinators stage of
the summit, and many among the press and other
coteries presumed that the principled Cuban position
of an express rejection of the pardon granted to
those terrorists by Mireya Moscoso just before her
presidential term expired in Panama would be
frustrated.
However, the terms employed in
the three paragraphs of the accepted document are
conclusive.
The one referring to the pardon
says: “While we recognize that the granting of
pardons is the exclusive and sovereign prerogative
of states, we observe with profound concern the
recent release of four notorious terrorists of Cuban
origin responsible, among other crimes, for an
attempt to execute a terrorist attack in the
framework of the 10th Ibero-American Summit. The
results of the aforementioned release are
incompatible with the efforts that the international
community must make to effectively prevent and
combat terrorism. We reaffirm that offering shelter
and/or aid to them contradicts the principles of
this Ibero-American community and international
instruments in this context.”
The arguments that precede it are
equally energetic, as in addition to a commitment to
combat terrorism in all its forms and
manifestations, the text confirms the decision to
“reinforce our national delegations and strengthen
international cooperation in order to prevent,
repress, combat and sanction any act of terrorism
wherever it should occur and whomsoever should
commit such an act, and not to lend aid or shelter
to the authors, promoters or participants in
terrorist activities.”
This points directly to the fact
that the three accomplices of Posada Carriles –
Pedro Remón, Guillermo Novo and Gaspar Jiménez –
were given refuge in Miami and Posada Carriles, as
Foreign Minister Pérez Roque noted, is in some
country of this continent.
In this context, it is very
important that the special communiqué on terrorism
reiterates, in accordance with international law and
agreements based on resolutions passed in the UN
General Assembly and Security Council, “the
obligation of all states and the international
juridical instances to prevent the impunity of
persons committing acts of terrorism in any part of
the world, among other means, by apprehending,
committing to trial or extraditing the authors of
such acts.
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