On Friday, May 13, there was Press Conference in Washington DC to demand that the Bush administration immediately arrest Luis Posada Carriles and extradite him to Venezuela for the terrorist bombing of a Cubana Airlines plane on October 6, 1976. Substantial proof exists that Posada Carriles was directly involved in the planning and execution of the terrorist bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455, which killed 73 people.

The press conference took place on
Friday, May 13 at 9:30 am
in the Murrow Room of the National Press Club

Speakers at the press conference will include:

• Wayne Smith, former Chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, 1979-1982; Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy; Adjunct Professor, JohnsHopkinsUniversity; and longtime Cuba specialist.
• Trevor and Kenrick Persaud, brothers of Raymond Persaud, the young 19-year-old man who was killed in the terrorist bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455. Raymond was on his way from Guyana to Cuba to study medicine there. Trevor was 16 years old and Kenrick was 23 years old at the time of their brother’s death.
• Video Testimony of 11 Cuban family members of several victims of the Cubana bombing. Because of U.S. restrictions on travel to the United States from Cuba, award winning filmmaker Gloria La Riva traveled to Cuba to take testimony, May 2-3, 2005, of families of the Cubana captain, crew and fencing team. La Riva: “The families want justice for their loved ones. It is important that their voices be heard.”
• Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Partnership for Civil Justice and the National Lawyers Guild.
• Bobby Marsh, New York City resident whose fiancé Margaret Mattick died in the September 11, 2001WorldTradeCenter terrorist attack
• Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational Church
• Brian Becker, National Coordinator, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. He will speak about the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition's campaign on Posada’s case extradition to Venezuela, including a letter-writing blitz that has resulted so far in over 20,000 letters to Bush and Congress opposing asylum and demanding extradition.
• A written declaration by Livio and Giustino Di Celmo, whose brother and son, Fabio Di Celmo, died in the Copacabana Hotel bombing on Sept. 4, 1997, which Posada directed.