Hemispheric security with a special focus on countering terrorism, reducing poverty and other major social issues that contribute to political stability and which undermine good governance, would have formed part of yesterday's Rio Group Summit in the Guyanese capital, Georgetown.

Rickey Singh

We should know by today the key decisions reached from the official communiqué expected from the 20-nation summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders, whose deliberations had been preceded by a series of technical and ministerial meetings.

The Rio Summit was concluding in Georgetown five days ahead of President George Bush's one-week tour of five Latin American states starting on Thursday, March 8.

This journey takes him to Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala and Uruguay with favourite topics of his like "war on terrorism", "democracy" and "social justice" on his work agenda.

It is ironic, though by no means surprising, that President Bush would want to discuss co-ordinated responses in the battle against "terrorism" while his administration maintains a policy of benign neglect, to say the least, in relation to one of the most notorious terrorists currently in the USA and wanted for the single most horrific terrorist act in the modern history of the Caribbean.

The wanted man is the Cuban émigré, Luis Posada Carriles, who has been implicated as playing a key role in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana passenger aircraft off Barbados, killing all 73 people on board.

Two years ago, Caricom made a passionate call for Posadad to be brought to justice for his role in the Cubana tragedy, consistent with the war against terrorism. Both Cuba and Venezuela are also still waiting on the US Government for the extradition of Posada to face trial for that unprecedented criminal act in Caribbean air space.

Now, as arrangements were being finalised for last week's Rio Group Summit and this week's five-nation tour of Latin America by President Bush, an important development took place in a Miami court that further exposes the hypocrisy and contempt of the administration in Washington in its "war on terrorism" and observing the rule of law.

The development was last Tuesday's sentencing by a Miami district court judge of a Cuban-born university professor and his wife to five and three-year prison terms respectively for admitting to "spying" for Cuba.

Eleven days earlier, another Cuban, Luis Posada Carriles, who should be facing trial for causing 73 deaths by terrorism, was instead informed of charges of "lying" to US immigration. The contrast perhaps represents the latest example of the hypocrisy and the moral inconsistency, of the Washington administration.

This hypocrisy is well located in President Bush's policy and related attitudes of United States authorities in dealing with the documented case of the anti-Castro terrorist, Posada for his involvement in the Cubana tragedy off Barbados.

Contrasting crimes

More, later, of the now 77-year-old Posada:. First to the "spying" 61-year-old professor Carlos Alvarez of Florida International University.

He admitted in court to sharing, in collaboration with his wife, Elsa, information to Cuban intelligence on Cuban exiles living in Florida. Alvarez told judge Michael Moore that he was once part of "an underground movement" to topple the government of President Fidel Castro. Later, however, he chose to be "an advocate for dialogue" with the intention of helping to improve relations between Cuba and the USA.

According to information provided the prosecution by the political and intelligence arms of the United States Government, Alvarez had used the codename "David" while he and his 56 year-old wife Elsa (codenamed Deborah) were engaged in sharing information with Cuban intelligence to "influence dialogue".

In sentencing them, judge Moore correctly noted that: "a good motive is never an excuse for criminal conduct.." Well, Posada and his collaborators in crime must be laughing.

They would include officials of the Ronald Reagan administration, and also significant roles played by US Central Intelligence personnel who had trained, bankrolled and protected Posada over the years of sustained anti-Castro activities as documented in books, magazines and newspaper articles published in and out of the USA and found in archives.

Even before being facilitated in escaping from prison in Panama for his involvement in the attempted assassination of President Fidel Castro in that Central American state in 2004 during an official visit, Posada had earlier been assisted by US intelligence personnel in Caracas and anti-Castro Venezuelan elements to escape from jail while awaiting trial for his role in the 1976 Cubana tragedy.

Perhaps for that Cubana bombing tragedy, Posada also had "a good motive", to use words of judge Moore, since it was consistent with his driven CIA-sponsored commitment to get rid of a "dangerous enemy" of the Empire in the Western Hemisphere, namely the Castro government, that very government in Havana with which the other Cuban émigré, Alvarez, was an intelligence collaborator.

'Good motive'

Posada's "good motive" in his campaign against "Castrosim" had previously engaged him, as also documented, in bombing targets inside Cuba that resulted in deaths, injuries and destruction. Also, as an active collaborator with the CIA and the anti-Sandinistas "Contras" when he operated out of El Salvador under the codename "Ramon Medina" to help destabilise the then government in Nicaragua.

Now, however, while the governments in Havana and Caracas, as well as Caricom have been calling for him to face trial for his murderous role in the Cubana bombing tragedy, Posada is waiting to answer charges in a Texas court. But surprise, surprise, not for ANY of his terrorist activities.
No way. Simply for "lying" to immigration officials in his quest to become a citizen of the "greatest democracy" that has been his sanctuary, on and off, for a pretty long time.

It seems that in Bush's America, a Cuban émigré who engages in confessed intelligence collaboration with Castro's Cuba must pay the price, along with his wife, of imprisonment for their unlawful "spying" activities but the other Cuban émigré, Posada, a well-documented terrorist whose criminal activities have wasted many lives, can simply be prosecuted for "lying" in order to secure US citizenship and be at home with members of his family.

What utter hypocrisy, what deep contempt for our Caribbean governments calling for Posada to be tried for the Cubana tragedy. What mockery of the rule of law and Bush's own "war on terrorism".

Posada is due to face a jury on May 11 on charges of illegal entry into the USA (which one of them?) and "lying" to immigration personnel in his effort to secure US citizenship. What a political show - US-style!

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