Castro Challenges Region Over Alleged Terrorist’s Flight

HAVANA (EFE) – Cuban PresidentFidel Castro is calling on the governmentsof Guatemala and Honduras to revealwhat they know of the whereabouts ofanti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles,accused of terrorism in Cuba.“Guatemala and Honduras, I beg younot to hold back from explaining whatyou know of Posada Carriles’ comingsand goings,” Castro said last week duringhis seventh televised speech in just over aweek to demand the CIA-linked anti-Castroite be brought to trial.“It would be good to ask both governmentswhether the monster was there ornot, and how it was possible not to findhim despite the stench and the nauseatingsmell of death he carries about him,”Castro said.Last week, Posada’s attorneyrequested U.S. asylum for his client,who apparently entered the UnitedStates illegally a month ago by way ofthe Mexican border.The 77-year-old Posada is wanted bythe Cuban government for allegedly planningto kill Castro, and carrying out the1990s bombings of several hotels on theisland that killed an Italian tourist andwounded several others.Venezuela also wants Posada for hisalleged role in a 1976 bombing of aCuban jetliner, an attack in which 73 peoplewere killed.Posada’s alleged presence in theUnited States “constitutes a very seriouscrime, and I again urge you to capturehim immediately,” Castro said.Posada and three other anti-Castromilitants – Guillermo Novo, PedroRemon and Gaspar Jimenez – were convictedlast year in Panama of “endangeringpublic safety” through their plot to killthe Cuban dictator at the November 2000Latin American-Iberian Summit inPanama City (TT, Nov. 24, 2000).The men were serving seven- andeight-year prison sentences when allfour were pardoned in late August 2004by outgoing Panamanian PresidentMireya Moscoso, sparking a temporarysuspension of diplomatic relationsbetween Panama and Cuba (TT, Aug. 27,2004).