The Guardian 15 June, 2005
EU fails on terrorist Posada
Jean-Guy Allard
"How is it possible that the EU has not condemned Posada’s presence in the US?" asked Salim Lamrani, a researcher at the Sorbonne University during his participation in the international anti-terrorism conference in Cuba. "The European Union is an economic power, but not at the diplomatic level. It has always allied itself to positions taken by the United States, and there are many examples. The most resounding one is what we’re talking about right now, Luis Posada Carriles", Lamrani stated.
He recalled how the EU, "so prone to ally itself with every US position", took Washington’s side during the recent session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
"It joined Washington’s policy of aggression, and then adopted an anti-Cuba resolution that in reality serves to justify the aggressions and economic sanctions against the island, and at the same time — you can see the double standard that prevails in international matters — the EU refused not just to adopt a resolution for an impartial UN investigation of Guantánamo, but also bullied other countries so that they would not vote for that resolution."
"How is it possible that during this time of struggle against terrorism, the EU has not made one statement about the presence in the US of the biggest terrorist in this hemisphere?"
(See The Guardian, June 8).
"Why doesn’t it make a statement asking for a justification for the terrorist’s presence, asking that he be extradited to Venezuela? It hasn’t done anything, and that clearly shows that when it comes to Cuba, it is with the US policy of aggression."
The researcher described the concentration camps in Guantánamo as "one of the greatest scandals of our time". On the other hand, he commented that the international media acts within a predetermined framework that prevents it from addressing the main issues.
"How is it, in this time of the war on terrorism, that the case of the Cuban Five is not mentioned? Individuals who risked their lives to prevent terrorist acts against Cuba and to protect US citizens who could have been victims of those terrorists", he asked.
Mobilisation at Texas courthouse
A mobilisation to demand the extradition to Venezuela of Luis Posada Carriles took place June 13 outside the immigration court in El Paso, Texas, where the terrorist is to stand trial on the minimum charge of entering the United States illegally.
Demonstrators carried the same photos of victims of terrorist attacks that the Cuban people held aloft during the historic march in Havana on May 17. The protestors demanded the declassification of all of the documents related to the issue, as well as the release of the five Cuban heroes being held as political prisoners in the US, in the name of all of the martyrs of terrorism and their relatives.
In Los Angeles that same day, the son of former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier — who was assassinated by Posada — was due to bring a lawsuit against him and mobilisations were held in Washington outside the White House — where the biggest terrorist of them all, George W Bush, resides — and in San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Seattle and many other places.
The movement to bring the most notorious criminal in the Western hemisphere, to justice is growing. Throughout this campaign, some 30,000 people have written to the US Congress demanding Posada Carriles’ extradition, and 20 legislators have sent letters to the US president.
The monstrous acts of terror committed against the Latin American peoples show the indispensable need to promote an anti-imperialist perspective within the anti-war movement, says the organisers.
Acknowledgements to Granma