Compatriots

At a time when we share the profound pain of relatives and the American people, because of the massacre of young students at Virginia Tech, we are faced with the horrendous and outrageous decision of the United States government to release on bail the notorious international assassin and terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

We are filled with indignation that this assassin, protected by the American authorities, is able to return safe and sound to Miami, the lair of terrorists who for more than 40 years have committed numerous crimes against our people.

Once again, the senselessness and impunity overtakes reason, truth and justice.

The news communicated yesterday by the world press has plunged us again into mourning and it reminds us of those terrible bitter moments we lived through in October 1976, while we were children we suddenly lost relatives as the result of the abominable crime committed by Posada and Bosch against innocent civilians when they exploded a bomb on board the Cubana airliner in mid-flight off the coast of Barbados.

Today we would like to alert the world to the danger posed by the liberation of the worst assassin in the western hemisphere.

This repugnant henchman was recruited and trained by the CIA to carry out horrible terrorist acts against Cuba, together with the other terrorist Orlando Bosch who is freely strolling through the Miami streets, protected by the amnesty granted him by Bush Sr. when he was president of the United States.

Luis Posada Carriles participated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, in Operation Condor and was the organizer and intellectual author of the sabotage and explosion on board of the Cuban Airlines plane in mid flight, taking the toll of 73 lives on October 6, 1976. Assisted by the CIA, he escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985, and immediately got involved in the dirty war against Nicaragua.

A well-known drug dealer, he was responsible for sending drugs to the United States. He gave invaluable service to the Cuban-American Foundation with a series of terrorist acts committed against tourist facilities in Havana during the 90’s. He was actively involved in plans to assassinate our Commander in Chief.

The decision to allow Posada Carriles to go free in Miami is the clearest demonstration of the double moral standards of the American government: they free a terrorist while they keep five anti-terrorist heros cruelly and unjustly incarcerated.

We, the relatives of the victims of terrorism are totally astounded by so much cynicism. The government of the United States has mocked our agreements and treaties that oblige them to judge Posada Carriles as a terrorist. On May 11, Posada appeared in court accused only of lying; what infamy, what mockery of international public opinion, of the American people and of the relatives of the victims of the crimes committed by this assassin who ought to be immediately sent back to prison, that is our demand.

We can never forget his defiant words, saying that he regretted nothing and that if he were to be born again he would do exactly the same. When he was interviewed about the bomb that he ordered to be blown up in the Copacabana Hotel, which ended the life of Fabio Di Celmo, he spoke with complete disdain for life: the young Italian "was in the wrong place at the wrong time".

Those words uttered by this infamous assassin were inconceivably repeated by President Bush, when he referred to the young students massacred at Virginia Tech as having been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This vigil which we begin today is to alert the world about the responsibility of the Bush administration in the liberation and harbouring of the terrorist Posada Carriles, to demand that the assassin be returned to prison, that he be judged for what he is: a notorious terrorist or that he be extradited to Venezuela; there is no other alternative, the people are anxious that justice be done.

At this moment of indignation we remember the poem "I Ask for Punishment" by the unforgettable poet Pablo Neruda.

FOR THOSE WHO SPILLED BLOOD IN OUR COUNTRY, I ASK FOR PUNISHMENT

FOR THE EXECUTIONER WHO SENT US MURDER, I ASK FOR PUNISHMENT

FOR THOSE WHO PROSPERED FROM OUR SLAUGHTER, I ASK FOR PUNISHMENT

FOR HE WHO GAVE THE ORDER THAT CAUSED OUR AGONY, I ASK FOR PUNISHMENT

FOR THOSE THAT DEFENDED THIS CRIME, I ASK FOR PUNISHMENT.