Castro criticises US court decision to free Posada
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| Published on Thursday, April 12, 2007 |
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By Guillermo Parra-Bernal
CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg): Cuban leader Fidel Castro said a US judge was following orders from President George W. Bush when she ordered the release on bail of terror suspect Luis Posada Carriles.
Castro said the US government has ignored evidence Posada carried out terrorist attacks against Cuban property and citizens over the past thirty years, including the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976. Posada was released on April 6 by federal judge Kathleen Cardone after being held almost two years for allegedly lying on his immigration application to the US.
"Those instructions could have only come from the White House," Castro wrote in a speech distributed by the government in an e-mail. "It was President Bush himself who at every possible moment ignored the criminal and terrorist character of the accused."
The speech signals that Castro, 80, is emerging from convalescence to resume verbal attacks on his enemies after surgery in July. The article is the third appearing under his name to criticize the US in two weeks. On March 29, Castro accused Bush in writing of condemning billions of people to "premature death' by promoting the use of biofuels.
Cuban authorities have kept the nature of Castro's illness secret; the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported in December that he suffered from complications related to surgery. A group of six senior Communist Party members led by Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother, temporarily took over the Caribbean island's government.
On Wednesday, Venezuelan lawmakers lashed out at the El Paso, Texas judge's decision and reiterated a request that the US extradite Posada to the South American nation. Posada escaped from a Venezuelan jail and fled to Central America, where he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency before entering the US illegally.
"A serious accusation by the government of Cuba and Venezuela is weighing on that criminal for having committed crimes related to the bombing of the Cubana de Aviacion airliner in 1976," according to the text of the declaration signed by the lawmakers on Wednesday.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is Castro's staunchest ally in the hemisphere, providing his regime with cheap oil, financial aid and investment in housing and other industries.
Chavez has on several occasions threatened to cut diplomatic ties with the US unless Posada, a Cuban-born citizen of Venezuela, is turned over to Venezuela to face trial.
Venezuela is the fifth biggest supplier of crude oil to the US Castro became Cuban leader after an armed revolution that ousted former President Fulgencio Batista in January 1959. Since 1962, the US has maintained an economic embargo of the island nation located 90 miles south of Florida.
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