US shields convicted terrorist
More twists and turns as the US administration attempts to ensure its protégé, Luis Posada Carriles, continues to evade justice. Since his illegal entry into the United States in April 2005, Venezuela has been seeking the extradition of anti-Cuban terrorist Posada to face charges for blowing up a Cubana airline in 1976, killing all 73 civilians on board. At the time, Posada had already been on the CIA payroll for 13 years and the FBI was fully aware of the bomb plot.
Posada has made it clear that, if put on trial, he will reveal the full extent of US collusion in his murderous activities. Conveniently, therefore, the US administration has just ‘discovered’ that Posada lied about his illegal entry (an accusation made at the time by the Cuban government and angrily refuted by then Under-Secretary for Latin America Roger Noriega as being ‘entirely without substance’), allowing seven minor immigration charges to be brought against him – and avoiding, for the time being, extradition to Venezuela.
At the same time, evidence has emerged that all files held on Posada by Miami FBI were shredded in 2003 on the orders of the then South Florida FBI chief Hector Pesquera (a leading prosecutor of the Cuban 5), to avoid handing them over to the Panamanian authorities as evidence in Posada’s trial for the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro in 2000. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs Otto Reich met with then President of Panama, Moscoso in 2003 and 2004 to ensure a speedy, little-reported trial, light sentences for those involved and, within six months, a free pardon for the convicts from the outgoing president.
On 17 January Posada was transferred to Otero County prison in New Mexico from an immigration detention centre in Texas. His lawyers are demanding his release and the US authorities have been given until 1 February to convince a court he should continue to be held indefinitely.
Close down Guantanamo torture camp
On 11 January, demonstrations all over the world marked the fifth anniversary of the opening of the notorious US torture camps in Guantanamo Bay, in illegally-occupied Cuba. In Cuba, former detainee Shafiq Rasul from Britain, the mother of detained British resident Omar Deghayes, and Cindy Sheehan, mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq, were amongst those who marched right up to the border in Guantanamo to demand the camp be closed down and all the prisoners freed.
Cuban literacy campaign can do it
Cuba’s successful model for spreading literacy amongst the poorest and most disadvantaged – the ‘I can do it’ campaign, enthusiastically embraced by educators as far apart as New Zealand and the Caribbean – was launched in Bolivia a year ago, and has already taught over 200,000 Bolivians to read and write in Spanish. In November, it was extended to the indigenous languages of the country – Ayamara and Quechua, with Guarani to come. By 2008, Bolivia expects 1.2 million more Bolivians to become literate. Last year, Venezuela declared itself free of illiteracy, using the Cuban method.
Infant mortality rate reaches all-time low
Cuba’s infant mortality rates – a solid indicator of the overall health of the population – dropped to the lowest rate in the country’s history last year. The figure for 2006 was 5.3 per 1,000 live births; of the countries in South America, only comparatively developed Chile (9) and Costa Rica (9.7) come near. More remarkable still is that the figure is spread evenly across the country, in contrast to the vast gulf between rich and poor evident in imperialist countries. In the developed world, only Latvia has an infant mortality rate worse than the US’s 5 per 1,000 live births, but this average masks the grim reality that for black people in the US the rate soars to 9.3. The country with the highest rate of infant mortality in the world is Angola, with 185 per 1,000 live births.
Cat Alison
FRFI 195 February / March 2007
