THE double standard of the U.S. government continues. The Cuban Five, in jail; Luis Posada Carriles and now another notorious terrorist, Santiago Álvarez Fernández-Magriñá, free on the streets of Miami.

Álvarez was released from federal prison on Wednesday after completing a sentence of not even four years in jail. He was imprisoned for stockpiling hundred of weapons and munitions in south Florida and for obstructing justice for refusing to testify against his friend and partner, the international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Álvarez plead guilty to having an illegal stockpile of weapons that were found in 2005 when federal authorities raided a luxury apartment of his in Broward County in North Miami.

Álvarez also pleaded guilty to obstructing justice for refusing to testify about his role in helping Posada Carriles illegally enter the United States in the fall of 2005.

Despite the weapons confiscated, the district attorney’s office decided not to bring terrorism charges against Álvarez and the judge sentenced him to four years in jail. The federal judge, James Cohn, reduced the sentence in exchange for the voluntary delivery of another consignment of weapons that the police had not found in the previous raid.

Apart from the initial weapons for which he was detained, Álvarez turned over to the federal authorities 30 automatic and semiautomatic machine guns, a rocket launcher, various grenades, 200 pounds of dynamite, 14 pounds of the explosive C-4, and 4,000 feet of cable for detonations. It was an unprecedented number of weapons in southern Florida, all destined for committing acts of terrorism against Cuba.

This murderer was one of the founders of the terrorist organization Alfa 66 and one of the criminals that attacked a small town in Villa Clara province in April of 2001. He was also a major accomplice to Posada in planning the failed assassination attempt against the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, in Panama in 2000.

His history stretches back even father: Santiago Álvarez enrolled as a mercenary in the 2506 Brigade that invaded the Bay of Pigs in 1961. These are the real terrorists that the United States shelters and protects. (SE)