Luis Posada Carilles
SUMMARY OF THE MAIN TERRORIST ACTIONS AGAINST CUBA (1990-2000)
From 1959 on, counter-revolutionary groups created and directed by the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have carried out countless terrorist
activities costing Cuba valuable lives and vast amounts of resources.
Encouraged by the fall of the socialist camp at the beginning of the 90's,
these groups have intensified their violent actions against the Cuban people
and its leaders from U.S. territory and from other bases of operations in
Central America.
Listed below are some of the most infamous of these actions callously
executed against the Cuban people:
July 17, 1990: Following the intensive lobbying by Florida Republican
Congresspersons, Ileana Ross and Connie Mack, U.S. President George H. Bush
releases well-known terrorist Orlando Bosch from jail. Bosch is the man
chiefly responsible for the October 1976 blasting of a Cuban civil airplane
in mid-flight, thereby killing all 73 people on board.
October 14, 1990: Two armed terrorists sneak into Santa Cruz Del Norte as
part of an action concocted in Miami. They are following orders to carry out
violent actions. Their weapons and false documents supplied in Miami are
confiscated by Cuban authorities. They also carry literature urging people
to join what they call "The Cuban Liberation Army" headed by Higinio Diaz
Anne, who had supplied them with money and propaganda material prior to
their departure from Miami.
May 15, 1991: Jose Basulto, an ex-Bay of Pigs mercenary, well-known
terrorist and CIA agent, establishes the so-called Brothers to the Rescue.
He asks President George H. Bush for three U.S. Air Force type 0-2 planes,
the military version of the Cessna which had been used in the war against
the Salvadoran people.
Congresswoman Ileana Ross heavily lobbies until the three planes are
obtained. A photo of the planes received by this counter-revolutionary group
appears in the press for the first time in a July 19,1991 article by the
publisher of the Miami Herald, who also actually flies with Brothers to the
Rescue. The letters USAF (United States Air Force) are clearly visible on
the planes.
September 17, l991: Two counter-revolutionaries from Miami infiltrate Cuba.
Their mission is to sabotage tourist shops in order to spread terror amongst
foreign visitors. Their weapons and a radio transmitter are confiscated.
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December 29, 1991: Three terrorists from the so-called Commandos L Group in
Miami enter Cuba illegally. Their weapons and other war materiel are
confiscated.
These three had received insurgency training with 50 or 60 other men in a
training camp on 168th Street in Miami.
May 8, 1992: Cuba files a complaint with the United Nations concerning
terrorist activities expressly organized to harm its territory. At Cuba's
request, a June 23, 1989 decision of the U.S. Department of Justice is
circulated as an official Security Council document.
The decision states that Orlando Bosch is banned from entering U.S.
territory, citing substantial proof of his past and present terrorist
activities, including the 1976 blasting of a Cuban civil aviation plane in
mid-flight. Today, this individual freely walks the streets of Miami after
George H. Bush grants him a presidential pardon.
July 4, 1992: A group of terrorists sets out from the United States in order
to attack economic targets along the Havana coastline. Once they are
detected by Cuban patrol boats, they move to waters off Varadero, where the
U.S. Coast Guard rescues them after their boat suffers a mechanical failure.
The FBI releases them after it confiscates their supply of weapons, and maps
and videos they had made during their journey.
July, 1992: An operation to infiltrate a U.S.-based terrorist into Cuba,
served with the mission of sabotaging an economic target in Villa Clara
province, fails. The terrorist is carrying weapons and explosives needed for
the job and is to be assisted by Brothers to the Rescue who would keep him
informed as to the position of the U.S. Coast Guard.
September 9, 1992: The FBI arrests a Cuban-born terrorist for illegal
possession of firearms and violation of the Law of Neutrality. He is
released without charges.
October 7, 1992: An armed attack against the Melia Varadero Hotel is
perpetrated from a vessel manned by four Miami terrorists who are later
arrested, questioned by the FBI, then released.
October 19, 1992: Three Miami-based counter-revolutionaries enter Cuba
illegally, carrying weapons and military equipment that are confiscated. At
the same time, three other terrorists are arrested in the Bahamas carrying
weapons and explosives, apparently destined for Cuba. These weapons are also
seized. This particular group had left Miami on October 17.
January, 1993: Five terrorists on board a vessel armed with heavy machine
guns and other weapons are arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard as they head
toward the Cuban coastline. They are quickly released.
January 7, 1993: During a press conference in Miami, Tony Bryant, leader of
the terrorist group "Commandos L" openly announces plans to carry out more
attacks against targets in Cuba. He makes a point of naming hotels as a
prime target. He is quoted as saying, "From now on we are at war with Cuba,"
and warns foreign tourists to stay away from Cuba.
April 2, 1993: Seven miles north of Matanzas, the tanker ship Mikonos
sailing under a Cypriot flag, is fired upon from a vessel manned by
Cuban-born U.S.-based terrorists.
May 18, 1993: Another violation of Cuban airspace is incurred by a plane
registered to Brothers to the Rescue bearing the number N8447.
May 21, 1993: Nine terrorists are arrested by the U.S. Customs Service who
board a vessel as they prepare to sail for Cuba in order to launch attacks
on that country. Their weapons and explosives are seized. On August 21,
Judge Lawrence King dismisses charges against them.
May, 1993: Brothers to the Rescue plan to blow up a high-tension pylon near
San Nicolas de Bari in Havana province.
October, 1993: Brothers to the Rescue publicly encourages attempts on the
life of President Fidel Castro and continues to incite violence against
Cuba. The Brothers confirm their readiness to accept the risk that could
come with this commitment. Andres Nazario Sargen, head of terrorist group
ALPHA 66, publicly announces in the U.S. that his organization had recently
carried out five illegal operations against Cuba.
October 18, 1993: A terrorist living in the U.S. is arrested upon his
arrival in Cuba.
His orders were to carry out acts of violence on Cuban soil.
November 7, 1993: During a press conference in Miami, Humberto Perez,
spokesperson for ALPHA 66, threatens that his war against Cuba would soon be
extended to any tourist visiting the island. "We consider anyone staying in
a Cuban hotel to be an enemy," he states.
1993: A Cuban citizen visiting in the United States is recruited by a
terrorist organization to carry out sabotage in Cuba against the tourism and
agricultural sectors. He is supplied with some of the materials required for
such actions and is offered the sum of $20,000 in U.S. funds.
March 11, 1994: A terrorist group from Miami fires on the Guitart Cayo Coco
Hotel.
April 17, 1994: Planes owned by Brothers to the Rescue fly at extremely low
altitudes over Havana and drop smoke bombs. In the following months of 1994,
the same group carries out at least seven other similar violations of Cuban
airspace.
September 4, 1994: Two U.S.-based terrorists infiltrate the area around
Caibarien, Villa Clara, charged with a mission of carrying out sabotage in
that province. A number of weapons and large amounts of military equipment
are seized.
October 6, 1994: Another armed group fires automatic weapons at the Guitart
Cayo Coco Hotel from a boat that had embarked from Florida.
October 15, 1994: A group of armed terrorists coming from the United States
land on the causeway to Cayo Santa Maria near Caibarien, Villa Clara, and
murder a Cuban, Arcelio Rodriguez Garcia.
October, 1994: Brothers to the Rescue uses one of its planes to train
members of a Florida-based counter-revolutionary organization. They plan to
carry out acts of sabotage on the Cienfuegos oil refinery. In November of
the same year, they also plan to make an attempt on the life of President
Fidel Castro and other leaders of the Revolution and to continue arms and
explosives smuggling into Cuba.
November, 1994: Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and five of his accomplices
smuggle weapons into Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, during the Fourth
Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in order to make an
attempt on the life of President Fidel Castro. However, the security belt
keeps him at a distance, thus thwarting the assassination plot. Posada
Carriles later tells the New York Times, "I was standing behind some
journalists and I saw Castro's friend, Garcia Marquez, but I could only see
Castro from a long way away."
November 11, 1994: Four terrorists are arrested in Varadero, Matanzas. After
sneaking into Cuba, they are relieved of weapons and munitions.
March 2, 1995: Two terrorists from the United States sneak onto the coast of
Cuba near Puerto Padre, Las Tunas. They are carrying 51 pounds of C-4
explosives and other munitions.
April 4, 1995: A C-337 light plane violates Cuban airspace north of Havana
between Santa Fe and Guanabo beach.
May 20, 1995: The Guitart Cayo Coco Hotel is once again attacked by
terrorists manning a fast launch that had come from the United States.
July 12, l995: Three terrorists are arrested in the United States as they
are preparing to sneak into Cuba with a plan of executing an act of
provocation just off the Cuban coast. Despite confiscation of their weapons
and explosives, U.S. authorities release them.
July 13, 1995: A plot organized by Brothers to the Rescue employs eleven
vessels, six light planes, and two helicopters. They leave the U.S. and
illegally enter Cuban territorial waters and airspace. One of the light
planes blatantly flies over the heart of Havana and showers the city with
propaganda leaflets.
December 16, 1995: Two terrorists are arrested in the U.S. as they ready
themselves to sneak into Cuba through Pinar del Rio in order to carry out
subversive actions. U.S. authorities confiscate their weapons and explosives
and release them.
January 9, 1996: Two light planes depart from Opa-locka Airport in Florida
and violate Cuban airspace.
January 12, 1996: A Cuban immigrant from the U.S. is arrested while trying
to transport explosives from the city of Havana to Pinar del Rio.
January 13, 1996: Several Brothers to the Rescue planes violate Cuban
airspace over the city of Havana. Later, terrorist Basulto scoffs, "They say
I was flying over Cuban airspace, something everybody knows and which I have
never denied."
January 23, 1996: U.S. authorities intercept a vessel in Marathon Key
heading for Cuba with five armed terrorists on board. The FBI releases the
five that very same day.
February 11, 1996: After firing upon the Cuban coastline, a vessel coming
from the U.S. carrying three terrorists, is captured by the Cuban Coastguard
Patrol.
February 24, 1996: Brothers to the Rescue launch a new foray. Three light
planes violate Cuban airspace directly over the heart of Havana and two of
them are shot down. In the 20 months prior to this incident, there had been
at least 25 other violations of Cuban airspace.
June 26, 1996: During a session of the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), the Chairman of the Investigating Committee
acknowledges that at least one of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in
Opa-locka Airport, Florida, still has the insignia of the U.S. Air Force on
it. He testifies, "The F is a little pale; it looks as if it is beginning to
fade, but you can still see it."
August 21, 1996: A U.S. citizen is arrested in Cuba. He had clandestinely
brought military equipment into the country and was planning to carry out
terrorist actions on Cuban soil.
September 16, 1996: A person is arrested when he is caught sneaking into
Cuba through Punta Alegre, Ciego de Avila, on a boat carrying weapons and a
great deal of military equipment.
October 21, 1996: An SS-RR light plane, registration number N3093, owned by
the U.S. State Department, sprays a substance containing the pesticide Thrip
Palmi Karny as it flies over the Giron international corridor about 25 to 30
kilometres south of Varadero.
November 16, 1996: Miami television carries a live interview with Luis
Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch. They reaffirm their intentions of
continuing with their terrorist activities against Cuba.
April 12, 1997: An explosive device is detonated in the Melia Cohiba Hotel
in the city of Havana.
April 30, 1997: Another explosive device is discovered in the Melia Cohiba
Hotel.
July 12, 1997: Bombs explode in the Capri and Nacional Hotels.
August 11, 1997: The Miami press publish a statement from the Cuban American
National Foundation (CANF) which pledges unconditional support to the
terrorist bomb attacks against civilian and tourist targets in Cuba. The
chairman of this organization claims, "We do not think of these as terrorist
actions," and went on to say, ".any action against Cuba is legitimate."
August 22, 1997: A bomb explodes in the Sol Palmeras Hotel in Varadero.
September 4, 1997: Several bombs explode in the Triton, Chateau Miramar and
Copacabana Hotels. The explosion in the latter kills Fabio Di Celmo, a young
Italian tourist. On the same day, another bomb explodes at La Bodeguita del
Medio restaurant. (CNN story 1 / CNN story 2
September 10, 1997: The Cuban Government announces the arrest of Salvadoran
national, Raul Cruz Leon, the person responsible for placing six of the
bombs that exploded in various hotels in the Cuban capital, including the
one that killed Italian tourist, Fabio Di Celmo. Cruz Leon admits that he
had been paid $4,500 in U.S. funds for each bomb.
October 19, 1997: An explosive device is found in a tourist van.
October 27, 1997: The U.S. Coast Guard intercepts a vessel west of Puerto
Rico. They confiscate two high velocity .50 calibre rifles with their
tripods, night vision gear, military uniforms and communications equipment.
These sophisticated weapons, strictly military in nature, are designed for
long range attacks on vehicles and aircraft.
One person on the vessel admits that his mission was to assassinate
President Fidel Castro at the time that he would arrive on Margarita Island,
Venezuela, on November 7, 1997, to attend the Ibero-American Summit.
U.S. authorities discover that the vessel had been registered by a Florida
company whose chief executive officer, manager and secretary/treasurer is
Jose Antonio Llama, a director of CANF and a Bay of Pigs mercenary. One of
the rifles is registered in the name of Jose Francisco Hernandez, CANF
co-chairman. Futhermore, it is discovered that the other rifle had been
purchased by a member of Brigade 2506 in 1994.
The four crew members on the vessel are identified as: a well-known CIA
agent, the captain of a CIA boat used by Florida infiltration teams sneaking
into Cuba, the chairman of a New Jersey counter-revolutionary group, and a
member of Alpha 66.
Despite their confessions and indisputable evidence of the illegal
possession of arms, false testimony and arms smuggling, these terrorists are
acquitted by a U.S. Federal Court of Law in December, 1999, after a flawed
trial.
October 30, 1997: An explosive device is discovered hidden in a kiosk just
outside of Terminal 2 at the Jose Marti International Airport in the city of
Havana. Two men, originally from El Salvador and three others, originally
from Guatemala, would later be arrested for crimes against tourist
facilities. All of them are shown to have links with terrorist Luis Posada
Carriles.
November 16, 1997: Following a two-month investigation, a Florida newspaper
reports that the series of bomb explosions in Havana were bankrolled and
directed by Miami anti-Cuban groups. In particular, they note that Luis
Posada Carriles, a fugitive from justice for having blown up a Cuban plane
in 1976, was at the heart of the operation.
May, 1998: Two terrorists sneak into Santa Lucia, Pinar del Rio. They had
embarked from the U.S. with an enormous cache of weapons and war materiel.
June 16, 1998: After several meetings in which the Cuban Government provides
the FBI and other U.S. government agencies with information about terrorist
activities concocted in the U.S. against Cuba, an official U.S. delegation
travels to Havana, including two very highly-placed FBI officials. They are
presented with precise details, films, recordings and other irrefutable
material evidence on the activities of 40 terrorists who operate out of the
U.S. in missions of espionage against Cuba.
July 12, 1998: An article in the New York Times reports a statement made by
Cuban American, Antonio Jorge Alvarez, in which he complains that the FBI
neglected to investigate the validity of information he had previously
imparted to them concerning a proposed assassination attempt on the life of
Fidel Castro to take place during the Ibero-American Summit in Venezuela.
According to the New York Times, Alvarez had provided the FBI with
information that Posada Carriles, together with accomplices who were working
in Alvarez' factory in Guatemala, were preparing this assassination mission
as well as the bomb explosions in Havana. Alvarez says, "I risked my
business and my life and they (FBI) did nothing."
July 12 and 13, 1998: In an interview with the New York Times, Luis Posada
Carriles admits to having organized the bomb campaign against Cuban tourist
centres. He also acknowledges that the leaders of CANF had bankrolled his
operations and that its chairman, Jorge Mas Canosa, was personally in charge
of overseeing the flow of funds and logistic support to those operations. He
says, "Jorge Mas Canosa controlled everything. Whenever I needed money he
would say that he would give me $5,000 -- $10,000 - or even $l5,000 (US
funds) and he did!"
Posada also admits to having paid Raul Cruz Leon to place the bombs in
Havana hotels. Referring to the young Italian tourist killed by one of these
bombs, he blithely tells the New York Times,".He was sitting in the wrong
place at the wrong time."
In compiling these reports, the New York Times used CIA and FBI files,
testimony from more than 100 people and more than 13 hours of recorded
interviews with Posada Carriles as well as documents personally signed by
him.
July 23, 1998: The Miami press publishes an article entitled: IN THE UNITED
STATES, ANTI-CASTRO PLOTS RARELY LEAD TO JAIL. The article mentions several
cases, such as the 1990 acquittal of 6 terrorists who took guns and weapons
to Nicaragua for an attempt on the life of the Cuban President. It also
mentions the Rodolfo Frometa and Fausto Marimoms acquittals concerning
charges of planning to use Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons
in terrorist attacks.
The article also quotes statements attributed to a well-known terrorist
named Tony Bryant, who said that in 1989, the FBI intercepted him in a boat
loaded with weapons and explosives and let him go. He added to his statement
that he had been intercepted in two of his missions against Cuba, but the
FBI never did anything to him.
August 2, 1998: In an interview for the program "Opposing Points of View"
for CBS News, Posada Carriles says that he intends to launch more attacks on
Cuban facilities, either inside or outside the island.
August, 1998: Even before President Fidel Castro's announcement that the
Cuban President would be attending the Summit of Heads of State and
Government of CARIFORUM in the Dominican Republic, several Cuban-born
terrorists plot an attempt on his life to be carried out some time between
August 20 and 25. To that end, Posada Carriles arranges a meeting in the
Guatemala City Holiday Inn one month before the summit to plan on how to get
weapons and explosives into Santo Domingo.
September 12, 1998: In desperation, hoping to anticipate the timetables of
these relentless, illegal attacks on the Cuban people by Cuban-American
right-wing extremist groups, Cubans enter the U.S. on a fact-finding mission
in order to monitor the movements of these terrorist groups.
The Cuban government shares the incriminating evidence with the FBI. Three
months later, abetted by these influential, well-financed Cuban-American
extremist groups, the FBI arrests the Cubans.
The case has attracted the attention and participation of human rights
lawyers in the U.S. and other countries and is now languishing in the U.S.
court system.
November 17, 2000: A group of terrorists led by Posada Carriles is arrested
in Panama. These terrorists have entered Panama with false documents in
order to conduct yet another attempt on the life of Fidel Castro during the
10th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government. Their weapons,
explosives, a sketch of Fidel Castro's proposed route as well as an agenda
of public meetings are seized. The Cuban American National Foundation is
financing the team of lawyers defending the terrorists.
April 26, 200l: Three terrorists from the Commandos Groups, F-45 and Alpha
66, attempt to land on the north coast of Villa Clara province. They fire
shots at the Cuban Coastguard which has spotted them. Four AKM rifles, one
M-3 rifle with a silencer, three hand guns, a great deal of material such as
night vision equipment and communications equipment are confiscated by Cuban
authorities. This equipment was meant to carry out sabotage and terrorist
action on Cuban soil.
In addition to the plots listed above, Cuban authorities have learned of 16
other plots to assassinate the President of Cuba, 8 plots to assassinate
other leaders of the Revolution and 140 other terrorist plots hatched
between 1990 and 2001. All of these plots were discouraged and prevented by
the diligent work of the Cuban Security and Intelligence Services.