Posada Carrilles Acquitted of All Charges

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A US court which reserves the right to publish a list labelling nations as "sponsors of terrorism" declared international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles innocent on 11 charges of perjury, fraud and obstruction of justice during a trial before a jury in El Paso, Texas yesterday – a ruling which is unappeasable .

The jury, made up of seven women and five men, arrived at a verdict following a mere three hours of deliberations. The jury had been previously coached by Judge Kathleen Cardone – appointed by George W. Bush – who once again presides over proceedings which culminate with the acquittal of Posada Carriles.

"Every time a jury reviews a case, we cannot predict what it will decide, but we respect the jury's decision," Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Reardon affirmed. Reardon, attached to the Department of Justice's Counter-terrorism Section, was curiously deployed from Washington, while the government still refuses to acknowledge that Posada Carriles is a terrorist and to try him on such grounds, as per the international conventions the country has ratified.

Posada is still wanted by Venezuelan authorities on 73 charges of homicide since he re-appeared in Miami in 2005.

Upon acquitting Posada, the jury refused to acknowledge his illegal entry into the United States via the Miami River, aboard the Santrina shrimp boat – despite all of the evidence presented – and opted to believe the "coyote" tale spun by the accused.

It also implicitly refuses to recognize Posada's involvement in the bombings perpetrated in Cuba in 1997, which resulted in the death of young Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo.

A Batista police force collaborator, Posada was recruited by the CIA upon his arrival in the United States and incorporated into Operation 40, aimed at murdering supporters of the revolution during the Bay of Pigs invasion.

The CIA also recruited and trained him to conduct repressive campaigns in Venezuela, where he led the deadly DISIP "cleaning" squad operations, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where he was entrusted similar tasks.

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He was detained in Venezuela and charged with masterminding the bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner in 1976, which resulted in the deaths of 73 people. Posada escaped from prison with CIA help and was tasked with heading a drug and weapons trafficking operation, controlled from the Ilopango base in El Salvador.

In November of 2000, Posada was arrested in Panama following an attempt to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro during the Latin American Summit. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for terrorism. He was released in 2004 on a pardon granted by President Mireya Moscoso, then under pressure from the Cuban American terrorist organization and its protectors in Washington and Miami.

El Paso Diary: The Posada Trial from the start or  the last day

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By Jean-Guy Allard