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Campaign
to release Cuban-American terrorists
• With
funding from Miami, the Panamanian mass media is
promoting the release of Luis Posada Carriles and
three other Cuban-American terrorists charged with
attempting to blow up the auditorium of Panama City
University during a political meeting • Posada
Carriles, author of the sabotage of a Cubana
passenger flight over Barbados in which 73 people
died, escaped from jail in Venezuela with the help
of the Cuban-American National Foundation, and
continued perpetrating various terrorist crimes
BY
LAZARO BARREDO MEDINA
 LAST
Saturday, Panamanian television’s Channel 4
transmitted an extensive report on the
"injustice" being committed in the case of
Luis Posada Carriles "the persecuted politician
of the Castro regime," an old man suffering
from various illnesses who will have to wait, as the
presenter stated at the end of the documentary,
"for the conclusion of the legal procedure
delayed by the prosecuting party."
The
previous day, La Prensa daily from Panama
City published a large photo occupying the top half
of Page two, of a smiling President Mireya
Moscoso,
accompanied by Concepción Corro, the director of
prisons, contemplating a painting in an exhibition
of work by inmates of various penitentiaries in the
country, in an event organized by the Ministry of
Government and Justice to initiate the commemoration
of the Centenary of the Republic.
The
text in La Prensa commented that President
Mireya Moscoso "was surprised to see a work by
Luis Posada Carriles, currently detained in El
Renacer prison, charged with an attempted
assassination attempt on Fidel Castro, the president
of Cuba, when the leader was participating here at
the Presidents’ Summit in November 2000."
It was
said that the Panamanian president had gone to El
Renacer prison to open the exhibition.
Last
Wednesday, Rogelio Cruz, Luis Posada Carriles’
defense lawyer, publicly announced a decision to
present a habeas corpus before the Supreme Court of
Justice for the fourth time "to accelerate the
trial or end the preventive custody " of the
four terrorists charged with involvement in the
attempt.
The
former Panamanian public prosecutor stated that the
petition is within a letter that Pedro Remón Rodríguez
— one of the four — sent this week from the
prison on behalf of the three others detained with
Posada Carriles, invoking humanitarian reasons of
age and the American Human Rights Convention, which
states that any person charged with a crime has the
right to stand trial promptly or be released,
without prejudicing the legal proceedings, Cruz
explained.
Curiously
enough, a few days ago journalist Mayín Correa,
former mayor of Panama City and a close friend of
the main Miami terrorist capos was furiously
speaking out against Cuba on Panamanian radio (for
which she offered its microphones to her
"sister" Ninoska Pérez) with insulting
verbal attacks on the Revolution and its ambassador
in that country, Carlos Zamora.
For
many persons in on national politics, this whole
atmosphere is a classic method of softening up
public opinion, taking advantage of the anti-Cuba
climate produced by the imprisonment of the
mercenaries in the service of the United States, the
death penalty served on three notorious criminals
who hijacked the Baraguá ferry and, above all, the
overplayed incident of certain "rafters"
off the Miami coast who, by an amazing coincidence,
encountered a U.S. coastguard at the moment when a
cameraman, who proceeded to stage a great TV show
for CNN, happened to be on board. Those
"rafters" were offered "asylum"
in Panama.
The
maneuverings of lawyer Rogelio Cruz, who has
appealed again after having three applications for
habeas corpus denied in the Supreme Court, are
striking. Cruz has repeatedly told the media that he
was not going to appeal in order to avoid a further
drawing out of the trial, although in real terms he
said that because the magistrates’ arguments were
unobjectionable.
Why
has he changed his mind all of a sudden? Why is he
even running the risk of being accused of abuse in
the exercise of the defense?
As a
sacred institution of the Panamanian constitution,
habeas corpus cases exclusively determine whether an
individual’s detention was effected within the
demands and formalities established in both the
constitution and in law, without going any further
in relation to the basic aspects of the case, or
into aspects of the detainee’s guilt or innocence,
his or her degree of participation, or qualifying
the criminal conduct attributed to the person, as
that is the remit of the trial judge.
Less
than six months ago, on November 22, 2002, the
Supreme Court magistrates determined, as they had
noted on other occasions, that "in this
particular case, the conduct of the persons involved
in the crimes investigated reveals a high degree of
danger not only on account of the explosive
materials seized, but also on account of the police
records of those charged, a number of them linked to
terrorist activities."
And
the judges’ ruling continues: "It is for
those reasons that, in the view of this higher
instance, the measure of preventive custody
questioned is in proportion to the nature and
gravity of the penal charges against them."
Various
trustworthy sources in Panama City are convinced
that this new mafia maneuver entrusted to the lawyer
can only be explained by pressure from certain
political forces on the Panamanian government to rid
itself of the problem and take advantage of the
present juncture to find a way out for these four
"Cuban-Americans."
Others
have sounded the alarm at the coincidence of Rogelio
Cruz’ appeal and strong pressures on the Supreme
Court on the part of the U.S. government, whose
annual human rights report published in March
strongly attacked the Panamanian judicial system by
stating that it suffers from inefficiency,
corruption and political manipulation, while
recalling that, just a few days ago, the U.S.
ambassador, who was the political aide to the U.S.
Army’s Southern Command, met with Panamanian
magistrates to discuss various issues.
More
than a few experts cannot believe that the Supreme
Court would change its mind and come to an amicable
agreement in this case that has so much notoriety in
Panamanian society, because they argue that
accepting Rogelio Cruz’ appeal would have such
negative repercussions that it would be to throw
Panamanian judicial doctrine to the winds.
But
the greatest concern is derived from the recent
visit of President Moscoso to El Renacer prison,
combined with highly belligerent statements on Cuba,
which has led to the expectation and much
speculation, further fuelled by the possibility that
Moscoso might grant pardons within the framework of
the centenary celebrations.
A
certain person has confirmed that when she visited
El Renacer to look at the prisoners’ paintings,
the president greeted various inmates, including the
four terrorists, and a possible pardon was
mentioned.
Commenting
on that fact, one political figure said that if that
were the case it would also constitute an unwonted
legal aberration, because how can somebody who has
not been sentenced as yet be pardoned? And, far
worse, how can the Panamanian government abandon its
international commitment to try four criminals who
have affected the lives and interests of persons in
some 20 nations?
Everything
is still at the speculative stage, but after seeing
so many interrelated events within such a short
space of time, there is no doubt something of
something fishy in the works that now more than ever
would admit the possibility of an underhand scheme
in favor of impunity.
We
need to be on the alert to prevent such a colossal
injustice.
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Introducing
Héctor Pesquera — gangsters’ buddy, protector
of terrorists and FBI special agent
It
sounds like something out of a third-rate B-movie: Héctor
Pesquera, in the role of "incorruptible"
FBI chief for South Florida pays a friendly visit to
the Miami police chief, accompanied by Camilo
Padreda, ...
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The
lost illusions of Posada and
his accomplices
PANAMA CITY.-
Traumatized. There aren’t many other words to
describe Posada Carriles and his three henchmen on
leaving the court on Thursday, December 5 after
discovering the extent of the deceit practiced on
them over the months by their defense attorney drugs
lawyer Rogelio Cruz.
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The
DA’s illegalities
IF you make a
statement, I’ll prosecute you, was the District Attorney’s
threatening advice to Roberto Frómeta, a member of the
counterrevolutionary terrorist F-4 organization.
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