Cubadebate

There was a party in Miami this Thursday 26th of August.  Three of the four confessed terrorists of Cuban origin who were pardoned by President Mireya Moscoso were feted by Cuban Americans who through galas and dinners had raised tens of thousands of dollars to free them from prison in Panama.   The press reports (as if it were a superfluous detail) that in Panama they were serving sentences of up to eight years in jail, after evidence that they meticulously planned the assassination of President Fidel Castro during the  IberAmerican Summit in November of 2000. Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, Pedro Remón y Guillermo Novo landed around nine in the morning at the small Opa-Locka airport in the outskirts of Miami.  According to wire services, they were received by American authorities, released and admitted into the United States. We don't know if the jubilant receiving committee included Orlando Bosch, the very famous terrorist who is free as a lark in Miami, despite the FBI having given him the terrifying title of the "most famous terrorist in the Western Hemisphere." He would be expected to be found at the bottom of the steps at Opa-Locka, where the press reported such testimony as "Castro will not be removed from power peacefully," one of Bosch's favorite phrases.  Bosch has readily admitted his participation in the blowing up of the Cubana Aviacion flight over Barbados in 1973.  One of his main partner's in the crime was Luis Posada Carriles, the fourth terrorist pardoned by Moscoso--whom, by the way, in her hurry to scurry her Cuban origin friends out of Panama, forgot to pardon the two Panamanians who were part of the team that planned the attempted assassination. The media tells us that Posada Carriles, who has to maintain himself clandestine because the pending legal causes that he has in several countries, landed on Thursday at the Ramón Villeda Morales airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.  FBI files reveal to us the terrorist history of Posada who learned his trade at the service of the CIA in Central America, and participated in the Iran-Contra scandal.  Moreover, in a long interview to the New York Times, he assumed responsibility for the sabotage against various tourist installations in 1997.  A young Italian tourist, Fabio di Celmo, was murdered by a bomb placed in the Hotel Copacabana in Habana. In its 27th of August edition, the Washington Post reports that law enforcement officials of the United States say that those who landed in South Florida are not three innocent elderly men, as Panamanian President has insisted.  Jiménez Escobedo helped kidnaped the Cuban consul in Mexico in 1977 and murdered another consular official, Artagnan Diaz.  Remón was the triggerman in the murder of another Cuban diplomat, Felix Garcia.  Novo was convicted for the murder of Orlando Letelier, an unprecedented crime in the history of the United States.  For the first time, a car bomb exploded in the North American capital, causing the death of the Chilean diplomat as well as that of the young North American Ronnie Moffit. The Post reports that the Bush Administration, while refusing to condemn the actions of the four criminals, denies its participation in their pardons which the paper calls "politically fortuitous."  Warming to the issue but careful not to get burned, the reporter Glenn Kessler tells us that his sources reveal that the three pardoned criminals who recently arrived in Miami had planned to use 33 pounds of explosives to assassinate Castro, but he forgave to explain that this act would take place while Fidel were speaking before thousands of students in the Panama University.  Kessler timidly criticized the arrival of these persons on U.S. soil, saying that it contrasts with Bush's stated commitment to a  global war against terrorism as his top priority. Press dispatches come and go, speculate and say, but none state that while these terrorists celebrate in Miami, five fighters against terrorism are still locked up in U.S. jails, and ignored by the media. Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, René González, Fernando González and  Antonio Guerrero, alerted Cuban authorities about the terrorist activities that were being organized from Miami.  They were then subjected to a shameful process that at the end of 2001 sentenced them to disturbingly long prison terms:  three of them to life sentences.  The jubilant welcome of the pardoned criminals in South Florida is consistent with the U.S. government's practices:  the U.S. conveniently protects and supports its criminal terrorists while intimidating those who truly combat terrorism. Is it a casual coincidence that these assassins are welcomed in Florida at the same time that Bush on Friday in Miami promised to help "democratize" Cuba?  Why hasn't the media vigorously asked the reasons why Washington terrorizes the American people by raising the alert to orange, warning them constantly about possible terrorist attacks to bridges, ports, lakes and cities, while it happily rewards three confessed terrorists on the outskirts of Miami? Why are terrorists on the street, while the antiterrorists are in jail? These facts ratify the necessity of Cuba to protect itself  from these individuals and show that it is impossible to celebrate a fair trial to antiterrorist fighters in a city as Miami that receives with open arms terrorists convicted of crimes committed even in the territory of the United States.