Cuba and Venezuela on Wednesday clashed with the US during a UN Security Council debate on terrorism over the case of Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative wanted for the 1976 downing of a Cuban airliner.
"Posada Carriles, who is rightly considered the most notorious terrorist of the Western Hemisphere, was released [by US justice] last year in spite of the fact that there was enough evidence linking him to some of the most infamous crimes of the 20th century," Cuban Ambassador to the UN Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz told the council.
He specifically referred to the 1976 downing of a Cuban airliner off Barbados as well as bombings in Havana hotels in 1997.
"Despite Posada Carriles's notorious hideous actions, the US government only charged him with minor migration crimes," Malmierca said.
"There is no doubt today that the true intention was to prevent the details of his criminal actions under CIA orders from becoming public ... The truth will not be concealed forever," he said.
TORTURE
US delegate Carolyn Willson responded by noting that her government was not in a position to extradite the Cuban-born Venezuelan to either Cuba or Venezuela as it was determined that "more likely than not that he would be tortured if he was so transferred."
This brought a scathing reply from Venezuelan Deputy Ambassador to the UN Aura Mahuampi Rodriguez de Ortiz, who accused Washington of protecting "a terrorist" as "a way to undermine justice."
"Venezuela simply cannot understand why the United States does not honor an extradition treaty," she said.
"This is the only thing Venezuela asks: Please comply with the commitments you have undertaken. We have presented our legitimate requests and all the necessary evidence to have the terrorist Posada arrested and extradited to our country," Rodriguez de Ortiz said.
Posada Carriles was arrested in 2005 on immigration charges, but was released in May last year after a federal judge in Texas dropped the indictment, saying the government tricked the former CIA contractor by using a citizenship interview to obtain evidence against him.
In an appeal of the decision, the US government insisted that "the record shows no deceit or trickery, nor outrageous conduct that justifies the extreme sanction of dismissal."
ACTIVITIES
Posada Carriles was jailed in Venezuela in 1976 for allegedly masterminding the downing of the Cuban jet. He escaped in 1985.
He was sentenced to eight years in jail in Panama for a 2000 bomb plot to assassinate former Cuban president Fidel Castro and was pardoned four years later.
Declassified US documents show that Posada Carriles worked for the CIA from 1965 to June 1976.
He also reportedly helped the US government ferry supplies to the Contra rebels who waged a bloody campaign to oust the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of