Cubadebate

On September 20th, 2001, when the generous and hard-working people of the United States were overcome with grief over the loss of thousands of their children following an abominable act of terrorism, during an address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American people, President George Bush declared: "Tonight we are a country awakened to danger..."

 The people of Cuba, sensitive to the pain of the relatives of the innocent victims of September 11 shared, as no other people in the world, in the grief and the feelings that gripped all US citizens at the time. As a nation, Cuba has not had a moment's rest in over half a century, shaken by the constant fear of enduring new acts of terrorism. Shockingly, the terrorists who have murdered over 3,478 Cubans walk the streets of Miami free of all care. One of them even boasts of his actions and declares that his crimes do not rob him of a wink of sleep.

This monster, responsible for the deaths of citizens in three different continents, is named Luis Posada Carriles. On May 8th, it will be a year since he was set free in the United States, a country that claims to be the leader of a crusade against terrorism.

The government of the United States fails to meet the treaties for the struggle against terrorism it has signed by failing to try Luis Posada Carriles as terrorist. The government of the United States violates the extradition treaty it signed with Venezuela in 1922 by ignoring the request of the sister nation of Venezuela to try this notorious terrorist and fugitive from justice in Venezuela.

There is no shortage of moral reasons to demand the trial of the monster who ended the lives of our relatives. We feel genuine pride at being the children of a revolution that has preached respect towards human life through example.

This past May 6th marked 10 years since our revolutionary government alerted the Clinton administration, through Nobel Prize laureate Gabrial Garcia Marquez, of terrorist plans targeting commercial airliners. This timely forewarning spared us the tears of new, orphaned children, children who would have cried, as we did, over the death of our parents.

It pains us to know that five anti-terrorist activists, responsible for this opportune and life-saving alert, are unjustly imprisoned in US jails.

It is absurd that the mastermind behind the worst crime against civil aviation ever to be perpetrated in the hemisphere should be free in Miami, while federal security organizations, conscious of the extreme danger he represents, have barred him from travelling in US commercial airliners.

Posada Carriles, a confessed murderer and active terrorist, is given the freedom denied the five Cuban anti-terrorist activists.

Today, before the international community, we affirm once again that we shall not rest a minute in our demand for justice and that this criminal, who shows no remorse over his terrorist past, be brought to justice.

We demand that the government of the United States, if it is unwilling to try the notorious terrorist, accept his extradition to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

We demand that, if it is unwilling to meet its international commitments, the government of the United States publicly recognize that Posada Carriles is a terrorist it is duty-bound to protect.

This past May 2nd, the Miami-based Cuban-American mafia feted the monster, whom they referred to, significantly, as the "Champion of Freedom".

Mr. Bush, put all hypocrisy aside and stop lying to your people. Acknowledge, once and for all, that Posada Carriles is your terrorist-for-hire, that you require his terrorist services. On September 20th, 2001, you stated that unchecked terror can not only tear down buildings but also threaten the stability of legitimate governments.

Mr. Bush, you should acknowledge, once and for all, that you need the type of terrorism your administration perpetrates against Cuba to go unchecked. We know the reasons behind this very well, you yourself admitted to them in a speech you delivered on October 24th last year, when you stated: "the key word in our future relations with Cuba is not ‘stability' but ‘freedom'."

More than three decades have elapsed since the abominable mid-air bombing of the civilian plane was perpetrated. Many of the fathers who survived their murdered children are no longer with us, having passed away with great pain in the hearts over the loss of their beloved child and the impunity that has surrounded the crime.

We make our Commander in Chief's recent declaration our own: "neither the living nor the dead" shall cease to demand that terrorist Luis Posada Carriles be brought to justice. Let no one harbour any doubts about this: humanity's thirst for justice is on our side.

WE DEMAND JUSTICE!