Posted
on Wed, Jul. 20, 2005
LUIS POSADA CARRILES CASE
Posada's lawyer claims lack of evidence
Lawyers for Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles
asked a judge to throw out the government's evidence
against Posada, claiming it's based on hearsay and
media reports.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY AND OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@herald.com
A lawyer for anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles
is asking an immigration judge to throw out the
U.S. government's case against his client, arguing
that it hangs on hearsay testimony that Posada masterminded
the bombing of Cuban tourist sites and other terrorist
acts.
Attorney Eduardo Soto is also fighting Posada's
deportation, saying that his client has had a relapse
of skin cancer and has a worsening heart condition.
U.S. immigration authorities declined to comment
on the motion.
Soto contends the case is tainted because it is
partly based on an interview Posada gave a New York
Times correspondent who likely will refuse to testify.
The Posada interview with The New York Times in
1998 is a key component in the U.S. government's
case to deny him asylum because Posada reportedly
acknowledged his involvement in the Havana blasts,
which killed an Italian tourist.
The
motion was filed in preparation for next Monday's
immigration hearing in El Paso, where Posada will
ask a judge to release him on bail. Soto said doctors
had recently discovered that Posada is suffering
from new manifestations of skin cancer and a heart
condition.
A key point for Soto has always been that Posada
has not been directly linked to an attack -- only
via hearsay from supposed accomplices who have been
convicted of attacks and have no credibility.
The closest link comes from Cuban investigative
records, which The Herald reviewed in Panama. The
records say that one of the Havana bombers linked
Posada to the terror attacks in Cuba. U.S. immigration
authorities don't cite the Cuban records found in
Panama, where Posada and three accomplices were
once accused of trying to kill Cuban President Fidel
Castro.
CONFESSIONS
The Cuban case files contain signed confessions
by one of the two convicted bombers -- Otto Rene
Rodriguez Llerena, who said Posada hired, paid and
trained him for the attacks. At the time, Rodriguez
said, Posada was using the alias Ignacio Medina.
''Medina visited him in his office and gave him
a passport with a plane ticket, a visa and a tourist
package for three nights at the Hotel Ambos Mundos,
a Casio calculator, a detonator, an interface, a
battery to put in a digital radio, a green nylon
bag with explosives and markings of where to set
the detonators,'' said the confession signed by
Rodriguez.
Matthew J. Archambeault, a lawyer in Soto's office,
called the Cuban investigation ''unreliable.'' Homeland
Security declined to comment.
Cuba sent the files to Panama, hoping that country
would extradite Posada to Cuba to stand trial, but
Panama refused.
Cuba has been widely condemned for its lack of an
independent legal system.
''It's a justice system that doesn't guarantee a
right to a fair trial, doesn't guarantee judicial
independence, and doesn't guarantee due process,''
said Joanne Mariner, deputy director of the Americas
division of Human Rights Watch, which monitors human
right abuses around the world.
Posada and three other Cuban exiles were convicted
in Panama of endangering the public because they
allegedly had explosives, but then-President Mireya
Moscoso pardoned them last year.
According to the Cuban files, Rodriguez told investigators
how Posada -- posing as Medina -- gave him instructions
on where to place and how to assemble the explosives.
''Medina proposed placing an explosive device in
one of the tourist sites in our country with the
goal of discrediting tourism,'' Rodriguez's purported
confession says. ``As payment, Medina told Rodriguez
he would be paid $1,000 plus the expenses of the
trip and he agreed to it.''
On Aug. 3, 1997, Rodriguez walked into the lobby
of the Hotel Melia Cohiba, slipped the bomb under
a couch and left. It exploded the next day, causing
damage but no injuries.
Rodriguez said he returned to El Salvador, and Medina
paid him $1,000, then sent him back to Cuba: ''Medina
gave him a briefcase with a false bottom, a pair
of shoes, a container of shampoo, a tube of toothpaste,
and a tube of deodorant all containing plastic explosives,''
the signed confession says.
Cuban authorities caught Rodriguez in June of 1998,
as he tried to smuggle the explosives. He was convicted
and sentenced to death by firing squad.
Also sentenced to death is Cruz. The Cuban government
said he planted four bombs at three Havana hotels
-- Chateau Miramar, Copacabana and Triton Hotel
-- and at the landmark Bodeguita del Medio restaurant
in colonial Havana. The Copacabana blast killed
Italian national Fabio DiCelmo.
ANOTHER MAN
After his arrest, Cruz told Cuban investigators
a man named Francisco Chavez Abarca hired him for
the attacks. Cruz Leon never met Posada, but a Herald
investigation discovered in 1997 links between Chavez
and Posada.
Posada, in the 1998 interview with The New York
Times, admitted a role in the bombings -- but he
has since refused to repeat his confession.
The Herald first linked Posada to the bombings in
a 1997 investigation, which found that he was the
key link between the Salvadoran bombers and South
Florida exiles who raised $15,000 for the operation.
Soto's motion said media reports included in the
government's package cannot be used in the case
because they cannot be corroborated.
