Send a letter to Bush calling for Posada's extradition
Campaign News | Friday, 20 May 2005
Washington conference demands Posada be extradited
The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five is participating in the campaign organized by the anti-war coalition A.N.S.W.E.R. to demand
no asylum to anti-Cuba terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Below is a report on the press conference that the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition organized announcing that more than 20,000 letters have been sent to Bush and Congress. We urge everyone to send a letter to Bush through the website:
www.answercoalition.org
Washington conference demands Posada be extradited
A major press conference to demand the immediate arrest and extradition of Luis Posada Carriles was held in Washington DC's National Press Club, Friday, May 13. It was sponsored by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition.
Featured speakers were Wayne Smith, former chief of the U.S. Interests
Section, Havana; Brian Becker, coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition; Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the National Lawyers Guild and Partnership for Civil Justice; and Trevor and Kenwick Persaud, the brothers of Raymond Persaud, Guyanese youth was killed in the 1976 Cubana plane bombing perpetrated by Posada. Gloria La Riva presented video documentation of family members of Posada's victims from the Cubana plane bombing. She interviewed them in Cuba in early May.
Becker spoke of the national campaign launched by A.N.S.W.E.R. to put pressure on the Bush administration. "The U.S. government according to international law has an affirmative obligation to take Posada, to arrest and extradite him to Venezuela where he has been charged with a grievous crime. The Bush administration might want to sweep this case away and find some third way, but justice requires only one way.
Justice requires that Luis Posada Carriles be extradited to Venezuela, to stand trial for the bombing of Cubana flight 455."
He announced to the press the success of the ANSWER campaign to push for extradition. "On the ANSWER website we have an easy-to-use mechanism so that people can send a standard or customized letter to the President and members of Congress, to register with elected officials the widespread opposition to granting of asylum.
"The purpose of it is a tactic that we borrow from the civil rights and anti-war movement. We see that for the first time members of Congress are starting to demand that he not be given asylum."
Wayne Smith explained the Bush family's links with the right-wing Cuban exile groups. "Jeb Bush was working on the re-election campaign of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and was part of the campaign to allow Orlando Bosch to remain in the United States. George H.W. Bush, then president, approves the pardon and allows Bosch to remain.
"Posada has never expressed any regret of the bombing of the airliner. He continues to say there were no innocent people, he has never renounced terrorism."
After reviewing Posada's extensive history of crimes in Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador and in Cuba, Smith said, "What is the position of the U.S. government? History repeats itself, but after different circumstances. We are supposedly in an all-out war to combat terrorism. How can we harbor Posada Carriles and maintain any credibility? Bush on September 19, 2001 said anyone who harbors terrorists encourages terrorism.
He said on September 23 if you harbor a terrorist you are just as guilty as a terrorist. What is the U.S. government going to do?"
Trevor and Kenrick Persaud came from New York City to speak on behalf of their family. Their brother Raymond, who was 19 years old, died on the Cubana flight.
Trevor said, "My brother worked hard to get where he wanted to go. He excelled at his high school, he won a scholarship which was quite an accomplishment, because it was very competitive to get a scholarship to study medicine.
"He was on his lifelong dream, to be a doctor. There were five other students from Guyana on that plane. I'm here to say it is not a faceless crime, our whole lives were disrupted. After the crime, there was no body, no funeral, for a long time there was no closure in the process. Not having a funeral, we never had closure. A gentleman in Cuba said his father was in the plane, and he always had the feeling that his father got off the plane, because no body was ever recovered.
"Over the years you come to terms with it, 29 years later, this has come up back again. My mom just saw an article in New York, she called my sister. Here we are. This man deserves to be extradited and be tried for his crimes."
Kenrick: "I was here in 1976 when this incident happened off the coast. Growing up with Raymond, he was very studious. My father pushed education in him, he aspired to become a doctor, he reached for the stars. My father was obsessed with the bombing, because Raymond was his favorite son. Raymond would have made us all very proud. Our father passed away two years ago. He collected clippings, until he passed away. He was going to write a book in conjunction with the World Trade Center bombing. My mother still grieves over what happened 29 years ago.
"There were no more dreams for our brother, they went down in the ocean. As far as Posada, I think he should be extradited to Venezuela. He should not be granted asylum."
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, gave legal background to the asylum issue. "The Bush administration has been trying to avoid the Posada situation by claiming we don't know if he is here. Posada's own attorney has sought asylum for him. The asylum request presumably was made in traditional fashion on a formal asylum request, in I-589. Presumably that request is in the possession of the U.S. government.
The government then has an obligation to call anyone asking for asylum in for an interview. If they are looking for him, all they have to do is call him. If he fails to appear, he would not be granted asylum.
"As anyone can recognize, there is no way that Posada can be eligible for asylum by any standards. He would be barred from being granting asylum, because the first primary bar for inadmissibility is if any person has engaged in or incited terrorist activities. Without question, Posada meets these standards. He would be considered inadmissible.
"That would put Bush in the situation that goes back to the question, what is a terrorist?.Posada has bragged about his conduct in murder. He has been linked to the most awful and sick crimes, and yet for the Bush administration, this is not troubling.
If Bush is so plainly harboring Posada, he is equally culpable and plainly responsible for the crime of Posada and his colleagues."
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Washington-area minister, said, "As a pastor, and for many clergy, we approach life so that principles are principles. When you don't have principles, you engage in situational ethics. That means, all of a sudden, not to pursue terrorism when it is against someone who you have made an enemy, that is a lack of principles.
"If we are opposed to terrorism, then we have to be opposed to terrorism everywhere. We cannot exempt certain personalities and individuals just because they fit into some political plan.
"If you stand against terrorism in one place, you have to stand against terrorism across the board. We have to reject this situational ethics that lacks any kind of morality. If Posada is in the United States, he needs to be brought to justice."
La Riva brought video testimony from the Cuban families of Posada's
victims. Lilia Pérez Rodríguez was only two years old when her father, plane captain Wilfredo Pérez Pérez died. "I never knew what it was like to know the love of a father. . I only remember his voice when he was speaking to the control tower. I have to live with that."
The voice box shows the pilots were valiantly struggling to save the plane and passengers. Pérez's father can be heard in the recording.
The struggle of the five Cuban political prisoners, held in the United States prisons for opposing the Miami terrorism, was highlighted by La Riva. She called on the media present to investigate and cover the case of the "Cuban Five," whose struggle is directly linked to the fight against terrorism.
Among the press that attended were Agence France-Presse (AFP), Reuters, ABC network for ABC News Nightline, Associated Press, Scripps Howard, Venezuela TV, The Miami Herald, Sun Sentinel, Final Call, Cox Newspapers, Televisa, NOTIMEX - Mexican News Agency, the German Press Agency, Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), Illustrator, El Tiempo Latino, PALM, and other media. There was an extensive discussion and question-and-answer period
