Posada entered the U.S. via drug traffickers’ maritime route
• Reveals Mexican journalist Renán Castro, of the Por Esto newspaper, whom Fidel described as very brave for his statement • ‘We demand that the truth be known, because that truth will end up sinking them,’ the Cuban leader affirms

BY RAISA PAGES – Granma International staff writer –

POSADA Carriles used the same maritime route used by drug traffickers to ship cocaine to the United States, revealed Renán Castro, news editor of the daily Por Esto of Yucatán and Quintana Roo, who spoke during the anti-terrorism forum held in Havana.

The notorious murderer was protected in Guatemala, Belize and Mexico by drug traffickers from the Central American cartel led by the capo Otto Herrera García. The latter is linked to criminal associations in Mexico led by Ismael Elmayo Cambala and Joaquín el Capo Guzman, who in turn are linked to the Cuban-American mafia based in Cancún. They were the ones who provided all the logistics for Posada Carriles so that he could remain for more than one week in Mexican territory, the journalist affirmed.

The terrorist’s path through Quintana Roo, besides demonstrating the legal protection provided by the Mexican government for his entry into the United States on the Santrina shrimping boat, also has behind it the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) in Mexico, he noted.

That is just the tip of the iceberg of an operation that poses a danger to all of the nations in the region, particularly Cuba and Mexico, Renán Castro emphasized.

Posada Carriles was supported by Juan Carlos "El Profe" Puyerol, a notorious trafficker of Cubans who arrive in Mexico illegally, the journalist explained. For more than seven years, Puyerol has led a powerful ring linked to a group of Cuban-born drug traffickers known as the Marielitos, who maintain close relations with the CANF based in Miami, Florida.

The Marielitos drug traffickers are currently controlling the market in the Cancun hotel zone, where they have their base of operations and maintain links with other illegal gangs, Renán Castro said.

He emphasized that the most serious aspect of all of this is if the Santrina had not run aground on El Farito reef, Posada’s presence in Mexican territory never would have been known. While the Mexican intelligence services had knowledge of the operation, they denied it because of the implication of drug traffickers in sheltering Posada Carriles.

The CANF has maintained ties with Colombian drug traffickers in order to finance subversive actions against Cuba’s revolutionary government since the 1980s. Something similar is brewing in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, all under the protection of the Mexican authorities. They have ignored their intelligence agencies regarding this situation, given that an estimated 40% of investments there come from money laundering.

The Mexican journalist noted that in Mexican territory, the same type of protection as that received by Posada was given to Guatemalan-born drug trafficker Otto Herrera García, who escaped a week ago from a prison located south of Mexico City, and who maintains close relations with the Mexican drug capos.

Even more serious is the CANF participation in ensuring that every week, 55-100 Cubans arrive in Quintana Roo and are then transferred illegally into the U.S. When those immigrants don’t have relatives in Miami to pay their expenses, they are used to carry drugs into US territory. "We must be alert to this situation that is brewing," he warned. "It could be a new center of operations for destabilizing the Cuban government."

President Fidel Castro noted that the journalist had made a very serious accusation. "The silence maintained for two months by the US authorities regarding Posada Carriles, while they dithered and didn’t know how to respond, is all part of the clamor of lies with which the US government expresses itself," he commented.

The Mexican journalist explained that Posada Carriles was already in Isla Mujeres by March 7-8, although Por Esto did not find out about the Santrina’s presence until the 14th. "I am not making this up; it is confirmed in secret investigations by the Mexican intelligence services." That is why the Mexican authorities do not want to officially admit the presence of Posada Carriles in that country, he noted.

Renán Castro explained that he had access to papers documenting a meeting during March 7-8 between Posada Carriles and a Cuban counterrevolutionary in the city of Cancun. Subsequently, he added, the terrorist traveled to Isla Mujeres on a ferry that makes 10-minute trips between the two places.

Fidel clarified that the boat ran aground on March 14, which Renán confirmed, saying that it was that day that a report appeared regarding the Santrina running aground on the El Farito reef.

The Cuban president affirmed that boat had a list of bandits including Santiago Alvarez, proven to have participated in sending mercenaries to Cuba to plant bombs in tourist facilities, like the planned attack on the Tropicana nightclub in Havana.

The Cuban president stated that those groups carry out their terrorist activities not with CANF money, but with US government funds, because that organization is a front that they use for actions against Cuba. CANF representatives are constantly being received at the White House, where they maintain a virtually "amorous" relationship with the US administration, he commented ironically.

Fidel affirmed that Renán Castro is "very brave" to reveal that the Santrina is also used for drug trafficking, which is serious, "but even more serious is what they did in transporting terrorists to the United States, with the façade of the boat belonging to an environmental foundation.

"The US authorities have to be forced to say how he got in, to expose them," he said. "Their hands and feet are tied, and when wild animals are in that situation, they become dangerous," he warned.

"This meeting is very important because there are a lot of people around who know things and want to tell us about them," he noted. "We are going to be the magnet of information, the magnet of the ‘Deep Throats.’"

Fidel pointed out that international public opinion is the best protection for people like journalist Rená Castro, who are in danger for making the revelations that have been made during the anti-terrorist forum. "These revelations are very important, because they put a brake on the actions that are being hatched," he reiterated.

"It remains to be seen who is more of a terrorist: Orlando Bosch, Posada Carriles, Contreras, that whole plague of murderers; or the officials and government that adopted them, financed them, directed them and ordered them to commit those atrocities," he said.

The Mexican journalist provided further details, including the date Posada Carriles left the country via maritime route. When this murderer publicized his version of how he arrived in the U.S., he followed a route that is used to transport illegal Cuban immigrants via the Yucatan peninsula, which goes from Cancun to the city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, in northern Mexico, and to Matamoros, Tamahualipas. That is the route of the drug traffickers and person traffickers, he affirmed.

Posada’s version of going over land was to cover up for his buddies, José Pujols, captain of the Santrina, and Santiago Alvarez, who helped him get into the U.S.

Renán Castro noted that the confidential report "to which I had access, and which the Mexican government has in its possession, was the same one that provided me with the route he followed to enter Mexico, and which confirms that Posada Carriles exited the country via maritime route aboard the Santrina," he affirmed.

The Mexican authorities know everything, which is why there were contradictions in initial statements by the Mexican foreign minister, who at first categorically denied that Posada had been in Mexico.

Renán Castro noted that the paper revealed in an article what the US authorities wanted to do when the terrorist reached the detention center in El Paso, Texas. He detailed the US plans to extradite Posada to a Mexican jail, that would result in his disappearance or death, because the Mexican penitentiary system is one of the least secure in the world. "In the last three months, three drug capos have been killed in my country’s jails," he said.

Making him disappear would have made things easier for the U.S. by ending this farce that they have staged, but the exposure stopped their plans, the journalist said.

"We know quite well how everything happened; we have connected a lot of dots, and I say that with great confidence, which is why we demand that the truth be known, because that truth will end up sinking them," Fidel affirmed.

"We will learn the whole truth, and that will be very demoralizing for them, and they will have to answer to public opinion," the Cuban president emphasized.