Cubana Flight 455
Encyclopedia
Cubana Flight 455 was a Cuba
n flight from Barbados
to Jamaica
that was brought down by a terrorist attack
on October 6, 1976. All 78 people on board the Douglas DC-8
aircraft were killed in what was then the deadliest terrorist airline attack in the Western hemisphere. Two time bombs were used, variously described as dynamite
or C-4
.
Evidence implicated several CIA-linked anti-Castro
Cuban exile
s and members of the Venezuela
n secret police
DISIP
. Political complications quickly arose when Cuba
accused the US government of being an accomplice to the attack. CIA documents released in 2005 indicate that the agency "had concrete advance intelligence, as early as June 1976, on plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups to bomb a Cubana airliner." Former CIA operative Posada Carriles denies involvement but provides many details of the incident in his book "Caminos del Guerrero" (Way of the Warrior).
Four men were arrested in connection with the bombing and a trial was held in Venezuela: Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano were sentenced to 20-year prison terms; Orlando Bosch
was acquitted because of technical defects in the prosecution evidence, and lived in Miami, Florida
until he died on the 27th of April, 2011; and Luis Posada Carriles
was held for eight years while awaiting a final sentence, but eventually fled. He later entered the United States
, where he was held on charges of entering the country illegally but released on April 19, 2007.
(CORU) was founded at a meeting in the Dominican Republic
, uniting five anti-Castro Cuban exile groups, including Alpha 66
and Omega 7
. For three months prior to the bombing of Flight 455, CORU waged a campaign of violence against links between several Caribbean countries which had established links with Cuba. In July, the same flight had been targeted by a suitcase bomb in Jamaica, which exploded shortly before being loaded onto the plane. Other attacks in the summer included bombings of a number of offices of airlines carrying out business with Cubana, including the offices of the BWIA West Indies Airlines in Barbados, of Air Panama
in Colombia, and of Iberia
and Nanaco Line in Costa Rica. Other attacks included the murder of a Cuban official in Mexico and two in Argentina, the September assassination of Orlando Letelier
in Washington, D.C., and "a mysterious fire in Guyana [which] destroyed a large quantity of Cuban-supplied fishing equipment."
's Flight CU-455, which was scheduled to fly from Guyana
to Havana
, Cuba
via Trinidad
, Barbados
, and Kingston
. They rejected the offer of an earlier flight with British West Indies Airways (BWIA). With a member of the Cuban fencing team waiting for the Cubana flight assisting with interpretation, the pair were able to insist on boarding the later Cubana flight. The pair left the flight at Barbados, and later returned to Trinidad.
) and at an altitude of 18,000 feet, two bombs exploded on board. One was located in the aircraft's rear lavatory, and another in the midsection of the passenger cabin. The former ultimately destroyed the aircraft's control cables, while the latter created a hole in the aircraft and started a fire.
The plane went into a rapid descent, while the pilots unsuccessfully tried to return the plane to Seawell Airport. The captain, Wilfredo Pérez Pérez, radioed to the control tower: "We have an explosion aboard, we are descending immediately! ... We have fire on board! We are requesting immediate landing! We have a total emergency!" Realizing a successful landing was no longer possible, it appears that the pilot turned the craft away from the beach and towards the Atlantic Ocean, saving the lives of many tourists. This occurred about eight kilometres short of the airport.
All 73 passengers and 5 crew aboard the plane died: the passengers comprised 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese, and five North Koreans. Among the dead were all 24 members of the 1975 national Cuban fencing
team that had just won all the gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championships
; many were teenagers. Several officials of the Cuban government were also aboard the plane: Manuel Permuy Hernández, director of the National Institute of Sports (INDER); Jorge de la Nuez Suárez, secretary for the shrimp fleet; Alfonso González, National Commissioner of firearm sports; and Domingo Chacón Coello, an agent from the Interior Ministry http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/caso-avion-cubano-4.pdf. The 11 Guyanese passengers included five travelling to Cuba to study medicine, and the young wife of a Guyanese diplomat. The five Koreans were government officials and a cameraman.
Lugo and Ricardo confessed, and declared to be acting under the orders of Luis Posada Carriles. Their testimony, along with other evidence, implicated Posada and another Venezuelan, Orlando Bosch
.
On 14 October 1976, Posada and Bosch were both arrested in Caracas
, Venezuela and the offices of Investigaciones Comerciales e Industriales C.A. (ICICA), a private investigator
's company owned by Posada, were raided. Weapons, explosives and a radio transmitter were found. Ricardo was an employee of ICICA at the time of the attack, while Lugo worked as a photographer for the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons.
On October 20, authorities of Trinidad, Cuba, Barbados, Guyana and Venezuela held a meeting in Port of Spain
, during which the decision was taken to hold the trial in Venezuela, since the four accused were citizens of that country. Shortly after, Lugo and Ricardo were deported to Venezuela.
In September 1980, a Venezuelan military judge acquitted all four men.
The prosecutor appealed, arguing that a military court was the wrong forum to try the case for two reasons: none of the men were military personnel in 1976, and the crime of qualified homicide or aggravated homicide cannot be tried by a military tribunal. The Military Court of Appeals agreed and surrendered jurisdiction, rendering the acquittal moot. The Judge ruled that the accused "are civilians and the crimes imputed to them are governed by the penal (and not the military) code... Civilians and common law crimes are not subject to the dispositions of the Code of Military Justice..."
On August 8, 1985, Venezuelan judge Alberto Perez Marcano of the 11th Penal Court convicted Lugo and Ricardo, sentencing them each to 20 years in prison. The judge reduced the penalty to its lowest limit "due to the
extenuating circumstance of no prior criminal records." Orlando Bosch was acquitted, because the evidence gathered by the Barbados authorities during the investigation could not be used in the Venezuela trial, as it was presented too late and had not been translated into Spanish.
Posada fled from the San Juan de los Morros penitentiary on the eve of the pronouncement of his sentence. He had been confined in this prison following two previous failed escape attempts. Allegations were made that Venezuelan authorities were bribed to help him escape. No verdict was entered against Posada because, according to the Venezuelan Penal Code, judicial proceedings cannot continue without the presence of the accused. The court issued an arrest warrant against him which is still pending .
Posada fled to Panama and then to the United States
. In April 2005, a new warrant for Posada's arrest in connection with the bombing was issued in Venezuela by the government of Hugo Chávez
. However, a U.S. immigration judge ruled that Posada should not be deported to Cuba or Venezuela because he could be subject to torture in those countries. In 2007, Congressman Bill Delahunt
and Jose Pertierra, an immigration lawyer representing the government of Venezuela, argued that Posada could be deported on the grounds that the U.S. was making an exception for Posada. Because, they argued, the U.S. practices extraordinary rendition
involving the seizure and transportation of suspected terrorists to Syria
and Egypt
, both of which practice torture, the U.S. could also deport Posada, a terrorist, to Cuba or Venezuela.
Freed from Venezuelan charges, Bosch went to the United States, assisted by US Ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich
; there, he was ultimately arrested for a parole violation. Bosch was pardoned of all American charges by President George H.W. Bush on July 18, 1990 at the request of his son Jeb Bush
, who later became Governor of Florida
; this pardon came despite objections by the then President's own defense department that Bosch was one of the most deadly terrorists working "within the hemisphere." Although many countries sought Bosch's extradition he remained free in the United States. The political pressure to grant Bosch a pardon was begun during the congressional campaign run by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
, herself a Cuban American, and overseen by her campaign manager Jeb Bush.
In 2005, Posada was held by U.S. authorities
in Texas
on the charge of illegal presence on national territory before the charges were dismissed on May 8, 2007. His release on bail on April 19, 2007, had elicited angry reactions from the Cuban and Venezuelan governments. The U.S. Justice Department
had urged the court to keep him in jail because he was "an admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks", a flight risk and a danger to the community.
On September 28, 2005, a U.S. immigration judge ruled that Posada cannot be deported because he faced the threat of torture in Venezuela.
, a Cuban-born naturalized Venezuelan, was the Director of Counterintelligence at Venezuela's FBI equivalent, the DISIP
, from 1967 to 1974. A U.S. Government document released through FOIA
also confirms Posada's status with the CIA: "Luis Posada, in whom CIA has an operational interest - Posada is receiving approximately $300 per month from CIA". Posada was heavily involved with right-wing anti-Castro groups, in particular the Cuban-American National Foundation
(CANF) and the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations
- CORU), led at the time by Orlando Bosch.
According to documents Posada stopped being a CIA asset in 1974, but that there remained "occasional contact" until June 1976, a few months before the bombing. CIA had concrete advance intelligence, as early as June 1976, on possible plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups to bomb a Cubana airliner, and the FBI's attache in Caracas had multiple contacts with one of the Venezuelans who placed the bomb on the plane, and provided him with a visa to the U.S. five days before the bombing, despite suspicions that he was engaged in terrorist activities at the direction of Luis Posada Carriles.
A declassified CIA document dated October 12, 1976, a few days after bombing, quotes Posada as saying, a few days after a plate fund-raising meeting for CORU held around September 15, "We are going to hit a Cuban airliner... Orlando has the details" (Source Comment: The identities of "We" and "Orlando" were not known at the time.)
A declassified FBI document dated October 21, 1976, quotes CORU member Secundino Carrera as stating that CORU "was responsible for the bombing of the Cubana Airlines DC-8 on October 6, 1976... this bombing and the resulting deaths were fully justified because CORU was at war with the Fidel Castro regime." Carrera also expressed his pleasure over the attention paid to the United States over the bombing, as it was taking attention off of himself and his associate. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB157/19761021.pdf
Documents released by the National Security Archive on May 3, 2007 reveal the links Posada had to the 1976 Cubana airline bombing and other terrorist attacks and plots, including a British West Indian Airways office in Barbados and the Guyanese Embassy in Trinidad. http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070503/APN/705031834
These provide additional proof of Posada's involvement in violent efforts to undermine Castro's socialist government, said Peter Kornbluh
, director of the National Security Archive
's Cuba Documentation Project. The Archive is an independent research organization located at George Washington University
.
and other Cuban and Venezuelan officials, including a visit during the CARICOM meeting in December 2005 during which Cuban officials called for Posada "to be brought to justice so as to bring closure to this egregious incident that caused so much pain to the people of the region." In 2008 an additional monument to the tragedy is also under construction in Georgetown, Guyana
. It is located at the junction of Camp and Lamaha streets.
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n flight from Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
that was brought down by a terrorist attack
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
on October 6, 1976. All 78 people on board the Douglas DC-8
Douglas DC-8
The Douglas DC-8 is a four-engined narrow-body passenger commercial jet airliner, manufactured from 1958 to 1972 by the Douglas Aircraft Company...
aircraft were killed in what was then the deadliest terrorist airline attack in the Western hemisphere. Two time bombs were used, variously described as dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
or C-4
C-4 (explosive)
C4 or Composition C4 is a common variety of the plastic explosive known as Composition C.-Composition and manufacture:C4 is made up of explosives, plastic binder, plasticizer and usually marker or odorizing taggant chemicals such as 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane to help detect the explosive and...
.
Evidence implicated several CIA-linked anti-Castro
Opposition to Fidel Castro
The Cuban dissident movement is a political movement in Cuba whose aim is "to replace the current regime with a more democratic form of government". According to Human Rights Watch, the Cuban government represses nearly all forms of political dissent....
Cuban exile
Cuban exile
The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century...
s and members of the Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
DISIP
Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención
thumb|250px|right|El Helicoide building in Caracas - old headquarters of SEBINSEBIN, the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia , is the premier intelligence agency in Venezuela...
. Political complications quickly arose when Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
accused the US government of being an accomplice to the attack. CIA documents released in 2005 indicate that the agency "had concrete advance intelligence, as early as June 1976, on plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups to bomb a Cubana airliner." Former CIA operative Posada Carriles denies involvement but provides many details of the incident in his book "Caminos del Guerrero" (Way of the Warrior).
Four men were arrested in connection with the bombing and a trial was held in Venezuela: Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano were sentenced to 20-year prison terms; Orlando Bosch
Orlando Bosch
Orlando Bosch Ávila was a Cuban exile militant, former Central Intelligence Agency-backed operative, and head of Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, which the FBI has described as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization". Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called...
was acquitted because of technical defects in the prosecution evidence, and lived in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
until he died on the 27th of April, 2011; and Luis Posada Carriles
Luis Posada Carriles
Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles is a Cuban-born Venezuelan anti-communist and former Central Intelligence Agency agent....
was held for eight years while awaiting a final sentence, but eventually fled. He later entered the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he was held on charges of entering the country illegally but released on April 19, 2007.
Background
On 11 June 1976 Coordination of United Revolutionary OrganizationsCoordination of United Revolutionary Organizations
Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations is an anti-Castro group founded by Cuban exiles Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, Guillermo Novo Sampoll and Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo....
(CORU) was founded at a meeting in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, uniting five anti-Castro Cuban exile groups, including Alpha 66
Alpha 66
Alpha 66 are an anti-communist terrorist organization, formed by Cuban exiles in Puerto Rico in 1961, in opposition to Fidel Castro. The founder and first leader, Nazario Sargen, was a former member of the 26th of July Movement organization led by Fidel Castro, suggesting that their politics may...
and Omega 7
Omega 7
Omega 7 was a small Cuban paramilitary group based in Florida and New York made up of Cuban exiles whose stated goal was to overthrow Fidel Castro. The group had less than 20 members....
. For three months prior to the bombing of Flight 455, CORU waged a campaign of violence against links between several Caribbean countries which had established links with Cuba. In July, the same flight had been targeted by a suitcase bomb in Jamaica, which exploded shortly before being loaded onto the plane. Other attacks in the summer included bombings of a number of offices of airlines carrying out business with Cubana, including the offices of the BWIA West Indies Airlines in Barbados, of Air Panama
Air Panamá Internacional
Air Panamá Internacional, also known as Air Panama International or just Air Panama, was a state owned airline from Panama that served as the flag carrier of the country between 1968 and 1989...
in Colombia, and of Iberia
Iberia
The name Iberia refers to three historical regions of the old world:* Iberian Peninsula, in Southwest Europe, location of modern-day Portugal and Spain** Prehistoric Iberia...
and Nanaco Line in Costa Rica. Other attacks included the murder of a Cuban official in Mexico and two in Argentina, the September assassination of Orlando Letelier
Orlando Letelier
Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean economist, Socialist politician and diplomat during the presidency of Socialist President Salvador Allende...
in Washington, D.C., and "a mysterious fire in Guyana [which] destroyed a large quantity of Cuban-supplied fishing equipment."
Preparations
On October 5, 1976, Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano left Caracas for Trinidad, arriving at 1 am. The following day they sought to board Cubana de AviaciónCubana de Aviación
Cubana de Aviación S.A., commonly known as Cubana, is Cuba's largest airline and flag carrier. The airline was founded on 8 October 1929, and has its corporate headquarters in Havana. Its main base is at José Martí International Airport...
's Flight CU-455, which was scheduled to fly from Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
to Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
via Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, and Kingston
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
. They rejected the offer of an earlier flight with British West Indies Airways (BWIA). With a member of the Cuban fencing team waiting for the Cubana flight assisting with interpretation, the pair were able to insist on boarding the later Cubana flight. The pair left the flight at Barbados, and later returned to Trinidad.
Crash
Eleven minutes after takeoff from Barbados's Seawell airport (now Grantley Adams International AirportGrantley Adams International Airport
Grantley Adams International Airport , is found in Seawell, Christ Church on the island of Barbados. The former name of the airport was Seawell Airport before being dedicated in honour of the first Premier of Barbados, Sir Grantley Herbert Adams in 1976. The airport's timezone is GMT –4, and is...
) and at an altitude of 18,000 feet, two bombs exploded on board. One was located in the aircraft's rear lavatory, and another in the midsection of the passenger cabin. The former ultimately destroyed the aircraft's control cables, while the latter created a hole in the aircraft and started a fire.
The plane went into a rapid descent, while the pilots unsuccessfully tried to return the plane to Seawell Airport. The captain, Wilfredo Pérez Pérez, radioed to the control tower: "We have an explosion aboard, we are descending immediately! ... We have fire on board! We are requesting immediate landing! We have a total emergency!" Realizing a successful landing was no longer possible, it appears that the pilot turned the craft away from the beach and towards the Atlantic Ocean, saving the lives of many tourists. This occurred about eight kilometres short of the airport.
All 73 passengers and 5 crew aboard the plane died: the passengers comprised 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese, and five North Koreans. Among the dead were all 24 members of the 1975 national Cuban fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
team that had just won all the gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championships
Central American and Caribbean Championships
The Central American and Caribbean Championships is an international track and field athletics event organised by the Central American and Caribbean Athletic Confederation . Only athletes representing a member nation of the confederation may compete. Created in 1967, the event has been held every...
; many were teenagers. Several officials of the Cuban government were also aboard the plane: Manuel Permuy Hernández, director of the National Institute of Sports (INDER); Jorge de la Nuez Suárez, secretary for the shrimp fleet; Alfonso González, National Commissioner of firearm sports; and Domingo Chacón Coello, an agent from the Interior Ministry http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/caso-avion-cubano-4.pdf. The 11 Guyanese passengers included five travelling to Cuba to study medicine, and the young wife of a Guyanese diplomat. The five Koreans were government officials and a cameraman.
Arrests
Hours after the explosions, Trinidad authorities arrested Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo Lozano, two Venezuelan men who had boarded the plane in Trinidad and checked their baggage to Cuba but who had exited the plane in Barbados and flown back to Trinidad. Ricardo had been travelling with a false identity under the name of José Vázquez García.Lugo and Ricardo confessed, and declared to be acting under the orders of Luis Posada Carriles. Their testimony, along with other evidence, implicated Posada and another Venezuelan, Orlando Bosch
Orlando Bosch
Orlando Bosch Ávila was a Cuban exile militant, former Central Intelligence Agency-backed operative, and head of Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, which the FBI has described as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization". Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called...
.
On 14 October 1976, Posada and Bosch were both arrested in Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Venezuela and the offices of Investigaciones Comerciales e Industriales C.A. (ICICA), a private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
's company owned by Posada, were raided. Weapons, explosives and a radio transmitter were found. Ricardo was an employee of ICICA at the time of the attack, while Lugo worked as a photographer for the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons.
On October 20, authorities of Trinidad, Cuba, Barbados, Guyana and Venezuela held a meeting in Port of Spain
Port of Spain
Port of Spain, also written as Port-of-Spain, is the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the country's third-largest municipality, after San Fernando and Chaguanas. The city has a municipal population of 49,031 , a metropolitan population of 128,026 and a transient daily population...
, during which the decision was taken to hold the trial in Venezuela, since the four accused were citizens of that country. Shortly after, Lugo and Ricardo were deported to Venezuela.
Military trial
On August 25, 1977, Judge Delia Estava Moreno referred the case to a military tribunal, charging all four co-conspirators with treason.In September 1980, a Venezuelan military judge acquitted all four men.
The prosecutor appealed, arguing that a military court was the wrong forum to try the case for two reasons: none of the men were military personnel in 1976, and the crime of qualified homicide or aggravated homicide cannot be tried by a military tribunal. The Military Court of Appeals agreed and surrendered jurisdiction, rendering the acquittal moot. The Judge ruled that the accused "are civilians and the crimes imputed to them are governed by the penal (and not the military) code... Civilians and common law crimes are not subject to the dispositions of the Code of Military Justice..."
Civilian trial
The four were then charged with aggravated homicide and treason before a civilian court.On August 8, 1985, Venezuelan judge Alberto Perez Marcano of the 11th Penal Court convicted Lugo and Ricardo, sentencing them each to 20 years in prison. The judge reduced the penalty to its lowest limit "due to the
extenuating circumstance of no prior criminal records." Orlando Bosch was acquitted, because the evidence gathered by the Barbados authorities during the investigation could not be used in the Venezuela trial, as it was presented too late and had not been translated into Spanish.
Posada fled from the San Juan de los Morros penitentiary on the eve of the pronouncement of his sentence. He had been confined in this prison following two previous failed escape attempts. Allegations were made that Venezuelan authorities were bribed to help him escape. No verdict was entered against Posada because, according to the Venezuelan Penal Code, judicial proceedings cannot continue without the presence of the accused. The court issued an arrest warrant against him which is still pending .
Aftermath
A different judge then ordered the case reviewed by a higher court. The Venezuelan government declined to appeal the case any further, and in November 1987 Bosch was freed. He had spent 11 years in jail despite having been acquitted twice. Lugo and Lozano were released in 1993 and continue to reside in Venezuela.Posada fled to Panama and then to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In April 2005, a new warrant for Posada's arrest in connection with the bombing was issued in Venezuela by the government of Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
. However, a U.S. immigration judge ruled that Posada should not be deported to Cuba or Venezuela because he could be subject to torture in those countries. In 2007, Congressman Bill Delahunt
Bill Delahunt
William D. Delahunt is a former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1997 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Delahunt did not seek re-election in 2010, and left Congress in January 2011. He was replaced by Norfolk County District Attorney Bill Keating...
and Jose Pertierra, an immigration lawyer representing the government of Venezuela, argued that Posada could be deported on the grounds that the U.S. was making an exception for Posada. Because, they argued, the U.S. practices extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
involving the seizure and transportation of suspected terrorists to Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, both of which practice torture, the U.S. could also deport Posada, a terrorist, to Cuba or Venezuela.
Freed from Venezuelan charges, Bosch went to the United States, assisted by US Ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich
Otto Reich
Otto Juan Reich , a Cuban-American, is former senior official in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush...
; there, he was ultimately arrested for a parole violation. Bosch was pardoned of all American charges by President George H.W. Bush on July 18, 1990 at the request of his son Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the second son of former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush; the younger brother of former President George W...
, who later became Governor of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
; this pardon came despite objections by the then President's own defense department that Bosch was one of the most deadly terrorists working "within the hemisphere." Although many countries sought Bosch's extradition he remained free in the United States. The political pressure to grant Bosch a pardon was begun during the congressional campaign run by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1989. She is a member of the Republican Party....
, herself a Cuban American, and overseen by her campaign manager Jeb Bush.
In 2005, Posada was held by U.S. authorities
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
on the charge of illegal presence on national territory before the charges were dismissed on May 8, 2007. His release on bail on April 19, 2007, had elicited angry reactions from the Cuban and Venezuelan governments. The U.S. Justice Department
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
had urged the court to keep him in jail because he was "an admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks", a flight risk and a danger to the community.
On September 28, 2005, a U.S. immigration judge ruled that Posada cannot be deported because he faced the threat of torture in Venezuela.
FBI and CIA knowledge
Luis Posada CarrilesLuis Posada Carriles
Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles is a Cuban-born Venezuelan anti-communist and former Central Intelligence Agency agent....
, a Cuban-born naturalized Venezuelan, was the Director of Counterintelligence at Venezuela's FBI equivalent, the DISIP
Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención
thumb|250px|right|El Helicoide building in Caracas - old headquarters of SEBINSEBIN, the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia , is the premier intelligence agency in Venezuela...
, from 1967 to 1974. A U.S. Government document released through FOIA
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Freedom of Information Act is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure...
also confirms Posada's status with the CIA: "Luis Posada, in whom CIA has an operational interest - Posada is receiving approximately $300 per month from CIA". Posada was heavily involved with right-wing anti-Castro groups, in particular the Cuban-American National Foundation
Cuban-American National Foundation
The Cuban American National Foundation is a Cuban exile organization. Established in Florida in 1981 by Jorge Mas Canosa and Raul Masvidal, CANF is an organization with numerous members in the United States and other countries...
(CANF) and the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations
Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations
Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations is an anti-Castro group founded by Cuban exiles Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, Guillermo Novo Sampoll and Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo....
- CORU), led at the time by Orlando Bosch.
According to documents Posada stopped being a CIA asset in 1974, but that there remained "occasional contact" until June 1976, a few months before the bombing. CIA had concrete advance intelligence, as early as June 1976, on possible plans by Cuban exile terrorist groups to bomb a Cubana airliner, and the FBI's attache in Caracas had multiple contacts with one of the Venezuelans who placed the bomb on the plane, and provided him with a visa to the U.S. five days before the bombing, despite suspicions that he was engaged in terrorist activities at the direction of Luis Posada Carriles.
A declassified CIA document dated October 12, 1976, a few days after bombing, quotes Posada as saying, a few days after a plate fund-raising meeting for CORU held around September 15, "We are going to hit a Cuban airliner... Orlando has the details" (Source Comment: The identities of "We" and "Orlando" were not known at the time.)
A declassified FBI document dated October 21, 1976, quotes CORU member Secundino Carrera as stating that CORU "was responsible for the bombing of the Cubana Airlines DC-8 on October 6, 1976... this bombing and the resulting deaths were fully justified because CORU was at war with the Fidel Castro regime." Carrera also expressed his pleasure over the attention paid to the United States over the bombing, as it was taking attention off of himself and his associate. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB157/19761021.pdf
Documents released by the National Security Archive on May 3, 2007 reveal the links Posada had to the 1976 Cubana airline bombing and other terrorist attacks and plots, including a British West Indian Airways office in Barbados and the Guyanese Embassy in Trinidad. http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070503/APN/705031834
These provide additional proof of Posada's involvement in violent efforts to undermine Castro's socialist government, said Peter Kornbluh
Peter Kornbluh
Peter Kornbluh is director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project and of the Cuba Documentation Project.He played a large role in the campaign to declassify government documents, via the FOIA, relating to the history of the U.S. Government's support for the Pinochet...
, director of the National Security Archive
National Security Archive
The National Security Archive is a 501 non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located in the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.. Founded in 1985 by Scott Armstrong, it archives and publishes declassified U.S. government files concerning selected topics of US...
's Cuba Documentation Project. The Archive is an independent research organization located at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
.
Memorials
A monument was erected at Payne's Bay, Saint James, Barbados to the memory of the people killed in the bombing, and it was visited several times by Fidel CastroFidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
and other Cuban and Venezuelan officials, including a visit during the CARICOM meeting in December 2005 during which Cuban officials called for Posada "to be brought to justice so as to bring closure to this egregious incident that caused so much pain to the people of the region." In 2008 an additional monument to the tragedy is also under construction in Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
. It is located at the junction of Camp and Lamaha streets.
See also
- Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
- Air safetyAir safetyAir safety is a term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education and training. It can also be applied in the context of campaigns that inform the public as to the safety of air travel.-United...
- Cuba-United States relationsCuba-United States relationsCuba and the United States of America have had an interest in one another since well before either of their independence movements. Plans for purchase of Cuba from the Spanish Empire were put forward at various times by United States...
External links
- PDF Report on the Judicial Proceedings (in Spanish)
- 1998 Barbados Monument located in the parish of Saint James, dedicated to the victims of the aircraft bombing.
- Picture of the airplane
- Terrorist Network Operating Openly In The United States by Jane Franklin, ZNETZ CommunicationsZ Communications is a radical left-wing media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent. It advocates participatory socialism as a replacement for capitalism. Its publications include Z Magazine, ZNet, Z Media, and Z Video.Z Communications is based outside Woods Hole, Massachusetts...
, April 30, 2005 - The Coddled "Terrorists" of South Florida by Tristram Korten and Kirk Nielsen, Salon Magazine, January 14, 2008
- Twilight of the Assassins: The 1976 Bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 - video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...