From the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
November 18, 2005

A powerful and moving full-page advertisement has appeared today, November 18, in the New York Times by Cuban families of the victims of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

The ad appears in the national edition on page A17. The headline says: “Should the United States harbor an international terrorist?” and contains an emotive letter from the families of victims who died in the Cubana plane flight 455, October 6, 1976 on a flight from Barbados to Cuba.

Luis Posada Carriles is widely recognized as the architect of that terrorist bombing that killed 73 innocent people. 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese and 5 North Koreans were murdered.
The letter in the advertisement is an appeal to the families of the victims of 9/11, who would understand the same grief and suffering that the Cubana flight victims’ families have endured for 29 years.

''October 6, 1976, was our September 11,'' the letter says. ``Help us keep a terrorist like Luis Posada Carriles, admitted murderer, from gaining protection and impunity in the country where so many people still cry for the victims of the terrorist act that brought down the twin towers on September 11.

''Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch Avila, two of the most dangerous terrorists of the western Hemisphere, are responsible for this monstrous act known as the Barbados crime, as well as other crimes. They have shamelessly acknowledged the crimes without remorse.''

There is other national coverage on this significant ad, including the Miami Herald.

Please be sure and get your copy of the New York Times, and distribute a copy of the ad to your friends, organizations and e-mail contacts. You can also visit the website of the ad sponsors, the Committee of Families of the Victims of the Cuban Airliner Bombing in Barbados. Write a letter to Bush to support their claim for justice: http://www.familiesforjustice.cu/

It is critical that the outrageous actions of the Bush administration, harboring Posada Carriles while it continues to persecute the Cuban Five anti-terrorists, be exposed. It is more urgent than ever that we demand Posada’s extradition to Venezuela and freedom for the Five Cuban Heroes.

Posada has been treated with kid gloves by the U.S. government since he sneaked into the United States in late March. That is no surprise given that he was a CIA agent for decades. Despite worldwide condemnation of his crimes and demands for his extradition to Venezuela, Homeland Security declined—on Oct. 26—to appeal the U.S. immigration judge’s refusal to deport Posada to Venezuela. An extradition request from the Venezuelan government is still active, but the U.S. government is ignoring it at this point.

As the Cuban families of the Barbados martyrs have shown with this ad, the struggle for justice is not over.