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The mastermind of the 1976 murder of
Cuban fencing team must stand trial
• Sister of champion Virgen
Felizola, victim of the Barbados sabotage, calls for
Posada Carriles t be brought to justice
BY ANNE-MARIE GARCÍA—Special for Granma
International—
THE
image of fencer Virgen Felizola playing with her
beloved nephew is fresh in the memory of her older
sister, Pilar.
 “She
was crazy about my one-year-old son. They used to
play in the living room, he would pull her hair, and
she would hug and kiss him,” Pilar recalled.
Virgen was just 16 years old when she died in a
mid-flight terrorist attack on a Cubana Airlines
passenger plane in 1976, together with all the 73
people on board.
Immigration Judge William Abbott denied bail on July
25 to Luis Posada Carriles, a fugitive from
Venezuelan justice since 1985, accused of organizing
the sabotage of the plane, which had just taken off.
Posada is being held in a federal detention center
in El Paso, Texas, accused of having entered the
United States illegally from Mexico, and has applied
for political asylum. However, Judge Abbott has
stated that in studying the case, he will consider
whether Posada ever participated in any terrorist
actions at any time.
Documents released by the CIA recently indicated
that the agency trained Posada in demolition and
that he was eventually promoted to second
lieutenant, and a member of the U.S. Army from March
1963 to March 1964 in Fort Benning, Georgia.
According to Abbott, if Posada was involved in a
terrorist action, it does not matter “who helped
it,” referring to the U.S. government. He added that
he would ask for opinions on that matter from state
prosecutors and from the defendant’s lawyer.
Almost 30 years have passed since the act of
terrorism in which Virgen was killed, along with the
other members of Cuba’s fencing team, just crowned
as Central American champions, as Pilar speaks with
Granma International. “I can’t believe that
they might let him go. I want him to be brought to
trial, wherever, in Venezuela, in the United States,
or in an international court, but he must stand
trial.”
As
she remembered her sister, she said in a tremulous
voice, “Virgen was mischievous and fun. She was the
youngest, we used to spoil her. She was just a
girl!”
The
two sisters used to practice foil fencing, but
Virgen was talented and represented Cuba in the
Central American Games held that year in Caracas.
The 24 Cuban fencers were returning home on the
flight, all with gold medals. Virgen won the bronze
in the individual competition and the gold for the
team competition, together with Nancy Uranga, Inés
Luaces and Milagros Peláez.
August 29 is the date set for Posada’s trial in the
United States, and Venezuela is demanding his
extradition to that country, where he had been on
trial for the act of sabotage.
Pilar spoke with Granma International in her
apartment in Havana’s Casino Deportivo neighborhood.
“I don’t want revenge, I’m only asking for justice.”
Nervous but serene, she explained that no words can
express the pain she feels. “You have to feel it
yourself to know. It’s hard to explain that
feeling.”
“Sometimes I feel full of hate, but it is worse when
I feel powerless,” she added, noting how former
Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso granted pardon
in 2004 to Posada Carriles, who had been jailed in
that country in 2000, after Cuban President Fidel
Castro accused him of attempting his assassination.
According to U.S. columnists, Posada Carriles is a
case that is putting pressure on President George
Bush: if he grants refuge to the extremist, his
commitment to combating terrorism will be
questioned, and if he does not, it will affect his
conservative electorate in Florida.
Virgen’s body was never found. Pilar recounts how
she had to take her mother Adis García to the
hospital from the national funeral for the victims
in Plaza de la Revolución. “My mother never
recovered. She fell into a depression. She couldn’t
even hear anyone talk about it, she would start
crying and couldn’t stop.”
Pilar’s career in sports also was cut short. “My
only concern was looking after my mom. On more than
one occasion, she would pass sleepless nights
thinking about Virgen’s last moments.”
A
lot of uncertainty surrounded that flight. “I
remember that they traveled a first time and stopped
over in Jamaica, but since there was no connection
to Venezuela, they came back to Cuba. And Virgen
came home with a white flower that a man had given
her in Kingston Airport. She told my mom, ‘look, how
pretty!’ and my mom told her, ‘but why did you take
that, it’s bad luck to accept white flowers!’”
“Virgen answered, ‘you and your superstitions, come
off it!’ And the next day, she took the flight to
Caracas.” |
