7-18-06, 9:49 am

Luis Posada Carriles, notorious Venezuelan criminal and former CIA agent, responsible for dozens of terrorist attacks, is currently on remand in a prison in El Paso, Texas.

The US Justice Department refuses to judge him for crimes which he has committed, and his detention is solely because of irregularities in his stay on US territory. Washington also refuses to extradite him to Venezuela, thus violating no less than three international anti-terrorist treaties signed by the two countries.

However, Luis Posada Carriles has caused the death of more than a hundred people over four decades of terror. For example, he was responsible for the assassination of the Italian citizen Fabio di Celmo in a bomb attack on 4th September 1997 on the Copacabana Hotel in Havana.

Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, the Salvadorian terrorist who planted the bomb, was arrested the same day and stated that he had been recruited on 12th June 1997 and trained by the Salvadorian Francisco Chavez Abarca, under the direction of Luis Posada Carriles and with his financial support.

On 12th July 1998, in an interview with the New York Times journalists Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rother, Luis Posada Carriles admitted that he was the brains behind the attack which cost the young Italian his life, while also admitting that he was financed by the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF).

He cynically confirmed that Fabio di Celmo 'was in the wrong place at the wrong time'. He refused to express any regret, telling the journalists that he had no problems with his conscience and that he slept 'like a baby'.

In September 1999, the U.N. Commision on Human Rights' special rapporteur on the use of mercenaries confirmed Luis Posada Carriles' responsibility for the death of Fabio di Celmo, based on his interviews with CBS and the New York Times.

The Italian people and justice system must insist that their government demand the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles in order that he can be put on trial for the assassination of Fabio di Celmo. The memory of all victims of terrorism demands that justice triumph over impunity.



Nadine Gordimer, Salim Lamrani, Noam Chomsky, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Gianni Minà, José Saramago.