The recent decision by the US legal authorities to free Posada Carriles – a well-known international terrorist and confessed perpetrator of various crimes against the peoples of Latin America and in particular against the Cuban people – deserves the Portuguese Communist Party’s most vehement protest.
Posada Carriles is one of the most sinister individuals in the history of terrorism in Latin America, and in particular of US State terrorism – to which he is connected – against countries and peoples of Latin America. His involvement in numerous crimes against Latin American countries and progressive forces, over nearly half a century, has been proved beyond doubt. Among them, it is impossible not to recall the mid-flight explosion of the commercial flight of a Cubana de Aviación airplane in 1976, which killed all 73 passengers on board, and the various bombings against tourist facilities in Cuba.
The decision to free him has confirmed the Bush Administration's hypocrisy, as well as the true meaning of the so-called “war on terrorism” that it invokes to justify the crimes which it continues to perpetrate in many places of the world, namely in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The freeing of Posada Carriles and the refusal to extradite him to Venezuela are, in themselves, proof of the complicity and of the mutual dependence between the terrorist and the Bush Administration, the CIA and the anti-Cuban Miami mafia. The US administration seeks, with the freeing of Posada Carriles, to buy off his silence, but his role in the State terrorism operations carried out by the CIA in Latin America will only become better known and evident as a result of this decision. In the same way, the continued detention of the five Cuban citizens ilegally detained in the USA will not silence their voices and the voice of all those who have exposed and will continue to expose the criminal nature of the US policy against Cuba and its people.
The PCP – recalling its recent stand on the developments surrounding the so-called common European Union policy as regards Cuba; recalling the importance of the recent visit by Cuba's Foreign Affairs Minister to Portugal for the strengthening of ties between Portugal and Cuba; drawing attention to the gravity of the threats recently made by Bush and by European Union officials against Cuba during international summits – demands from the Portuguese Government that, in accordance with the principles laid down in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, it take a clear stand in condemning the freeing of Posada Carriles and demanding his extradition to Venezuela. At the same time, it demands that Portugal acts within the international institutions against the increasing threats and measures of interference against Cuba, of which the liberation of Posada Carriles is but one example.
The PCP expresses its solidarity with, and joins its voice to that of all those who, in Cuba and other countries of Latin America, express their indignation for the freeing of Posada Carriles and very much in particular with the families and friends of the victims of the attacks carried out by the terrorist. It reiterates the solidarity of the Portuguese Communist Party with the people of Cuba and with its Socialist revolution.
