Hundreds gathered over the weekend for an anti-terrorism conference in Cuba, but not to talk about al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.
The Latin American personalities attending the event instead focused on their own shared nemesis: the US government.
For decades, participants said, the US been behind efforts to suppress leftist movements in Latin America, from the backing of the region's violent, right-wing military dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s to current meddling in the politics of liberal-led countries.
The policy, they said, has emerged again with the current handling of a Cuban militant wanted in Venezuela for an airliner bombing -- the issue that spawned the conference, originally a three-day event that host Cuban President Fidel Castro extended to run a fourth day yesterday.
"In reality, we are fighting for the independence of the hemisphere, for the end of the dominance over our hemisphere," Castro told the audience.
Delegates to the Havana conference included some of Latin America's best known, with speakers including ex-Salvadoran guerrilla leader Shafick Handal, former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.
The event was aimed at drumming up international support for the extradition of the anti-Castro militant, Luis Posada Carriles.
Yet much of the conference was spent addressing the history of violence in the region under Operation Condor, a joint plan by the South American military regimes then in power to kidnap alleged subversives hiding out in each other's countries and send them home, where they were sometimes secretly tortured and executed.
Victims of the anti-communist campaign, under which tens of thousands of activists were "disappeared," recounted for conference participants their tales of torture and losing loved ones.
"It's been very difficult to listen to," said participant Waldo Leyva, a Cuban writer. "We've heard things that sound unreal, things that it's hard to believe human beings did."
The US government's backing of the dictatorships, and its alleged involvement in the plan and the training of many South American generals to carry it out, were enumerated and condemned at the conference.
"The militaries and intelligence services of all those countries plus the CIA and FBI ... were cooperating in grabbing people out of classrooms, out of their homes, right off the sidewalk at bus stops, and disappearing them," said James Cockcroft, a US author and university professor attending the event.
"If the US public knew this they would be absolutely shocked ... and they would want some justice," said Cockcroft, who has written dozens of books on Latin America. "If this was done to Americans, they would be yelling bloody murder."
Cockcroft said the purpose of the conference was clear in its title, Against Terrorism For Truth and Justice.
"If we circulate the truth, there's at least some hope we might get a little justice," he said.
Cockcroft said he also hoped the event would help energize people in the US fighting for Posada's extradition to Venezuela. Groups are expected to hold protests on June 13, the day the militant faces an immigration hearing in El Paso, Texas, where he is being held after slipping into the US illegally earlier this year.
Posada, a former CIA operative and naturalized Venezuelan, has devoted most of his life to overthrowing Castro's government.
Venezuela wants to try him on murder charges for the bombing of a Cubana Airlines plane that exploded after taking off from Barbados, killing 73 people. Posada is accused of plotting the attack while in Caracas and escaping from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 as prosecutors were preparing to appeal his acquittal. He has denied any link to the bombing.
The US government last month rejected Venezuela's request for Posada's provisional arrest -- a first step that could lead to his extradition -- on grounds of insufficient information. The South American nation is preparing a more detailed request.
The case has provoked outrage in the region, where some accuse the administration of US President George W. Bush of hypocrisy in its war on terrorism.
"What is the reason they're protecting this terrorist?" questioned Leyva, the Cuban writer. "This guy is the bin Laden of Latin America!"
Cuba also accuses Posada and three others of trying to assassinate Castro in 2000 during a presidential summit in Panama. They were arrested and convicted of lesser chargers, then pardoned last August by outgoing Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was