Statement of Ambassador Alvarez on Posada Carriles'Case

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - Sep 28, 2005
http://www.embavenez-us.org/news.php?nid=1795


Statement of Ambassador Alvarez on Posada Carriles'Case

EMBASSY OF THE BOLIVARIAN
REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA

September 28, 2005

STATEMENT OF AMBASSADOR BERNARDO ALVAREZ

1. Luis Posada Carriles is the Osama Bin Laden of Latin America. A
terrorist. A man who is responsible for the blowing up of a civilian
airplane with 73 passengers aboard. Recruited by the CIA in 1962, his
is a curriculum of terror that includes murder, attempted murder,
torture and sabotage over four decades.

2. Posada reportedly entered the United States in March of 2005.
Rather than immediately detain him, the Department of Homeland
Security allowed him to freely walk the streets of Miami and paint
canvases in a luxury apartment in Miami for weeks.

3. While Posada was still free in Miami (on May 13, 2005), Venezuela
formally requested that the United States detain him for the purpose
of extraditing him to Venezuela to stand trial for 73 counts of murder
involving the downing of a passenger airplane in 1976. The United
States has yet to place an extradition detainer on him.

4. Four days later, Posada called a bizarre press conference in Miami
and bragged that the DHS was not looking for him. Having no other
option in the face of the embarrassing declarations made by Posada,
DHS detained him after the press conference and gingerly escorted him
in a golf cart as if he were a retiree who needed help to get around
the golf course. Television images show that he was not even
handcuffed by DHS agents. Ask anyone who has been arrested with DHS
agents if Posada´s treatment at all resembles their own.

5. In a statement issued a few hours after his detention in South
Florida on May 17, the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement Agency
(ICE) of the Department of Homeland Security said that ICE would not
deport Posada to Cuba or (in a veiled reference to Venezuela) to a
country acting on behalf of Cuba.

6. Incredibly, ICE announced the United States governments intentions
concerning this terrorist before the extradition or the immigration
cases had even begun.

7. On June 10, 2005 Venezuela renewed its request for the preventive
detention of Posada for the purpose of extradition. Rather than
placing an extradition detainer on him, the DOJ tabled the request and
has yet to act on it.

8. On June 15, 2005 Venezuela formally requested the extradition of
Posada Carriles, with voluminous documentary evidence in support of
the request. Although the Department of State referred the case to
lawyers at the Department of Justice to prosecute the extradition
request more than three months ago, DOJ lawyers have yet to file it
with the federal district court.

9. Rather than to respect the extradition treaties it has signed over
the years, the United States chose to treat Posada Carriles´case as a
mere immigration matter and charged him only with illegal entry into
the country.

10. Throughout the life of the immigration case before Judge Abbott,
DHS was more concerned with the appearance of prosecution rather than
with prosecution itself. DHS failed to cross-examine Posada´s only
witness, Joaquín Chaffardet, or to point out to the Judge that
Chaffardet is a biased witnessed who has been Posada´s close associate
for almost forty years. Instead Chaffardet was allowed to testify as
if he were an objective expert on human rights condition in Venezuela.

11. DHS called no witnesses submitted no evidence and virtually winked
at defense counsel and at the Judge about the U.S. governments
preference that Posada be granted Convention Against Torture relief.

12. There isnt a shred of evidence that Posada would be tortured in
Venezuela. On the contrary, as our Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez
stated last week, Venezuela is prepared to offer him a house made of
gold and feed him caviar every day if he is extradited to stand trial
in Venezuela.

13. Indeed, if we examine our respective records on torture, a
prisoner is more likely to be tortured in the custody of the U.S.
government than in the custody of Venezuelan officials.

14. There is a cynical double standard at work here fighting an a la
carte war on terror. On the one hand, the United States presents
itself to the world as the leader of a global war against terrorism,
invades countries it accuses of terrorism and restricts the civil
rights of Americans in order to combat terrorism. On the other hand,
when it comes to its own terrorist whom it has recruited and coddled
for years the United States refuses to allow that he is tried for some
of the heinous crimes he has committed.

15. The only way out of this double standard is for the United States
to immediately proceed with the extradition case. The Government must
present our extradition request to the appropriate federal judge with
no further delay. The victims of Posadas crime have waited long
enough.

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