US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1297

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001297 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CCA, AND WHA/CEN 
STATE FOR S/CT AND INL/LP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, SNAR, PREL, PGOV, KCRM, KJUS, SMIG, HO 
SUBJECT: BLOQUE POPULAR TO PRESIDENT BUSH: KEEP LUIS POSADA 
CARRILES OUT OF HONDURAS, EXTRADITE TO VENEZUELA 
 
 
1.  SUMMARY: Bloque Popular, a leftist political party and 
alliance of social organizations, delivered a letter to post 
Monday, June 13, 2005, demanding that Luis Posada Carriles 
not be returned to Honduras and that he be extradited to 
Venezuela.  The Bloque Popular letter, addressed to President 
Bush, was delivered by a group of more than twenty people 
(made up of mostly journalists), who staged a brief protest 
in front of U.S. Embassy Tegucigalpa.  The letter denounced 
the U.S. detention as a ploy to protect Posada rather than 
bring him to justice in Venezuela or Cuba, where he is 
charged with anti-Castro terrorist activities.  Protection 
for Posada, the letter argues, would demonstrate that the war 
on terror does not apply to terrorists who serve the purposes 
of what they call the American "empire."  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  BACKGROUND ON POSADA:  Posada is an anti-Castro Cuban 
migr alleged to have been involved in numerous violent 
anti-Communist plots, including hotel bombings, and the 1976 
bombing of a Cuban jetliner in which seventy-three people 
were killed.  In connection with that attack, he was jailed 
in Venezuela for nine years after a military appeals court 
overturned Posada's initial acquittal and ruled for a retrial 
in a civilian court.  He escaped in 1985. 
 
3.  ASYLUM REQUEST:  Post understands that Posada was 
detained in Miami on May 17, 2005, having illegally crossed 
the Mexican border sometime in March 2005.  He was 
transferred to El Paso, Texas, for an initial hearing on his 
asylum request.  Posada's attorneys in El Paso have requested 
that subsequent hearings be moved to Miami and will argue 
that Posada should not be extradited since his early 1960s 
residency in the U.S. was never officially terminated. 
 
4.  BLOQUE POPULAR'S DEMANDS:  Bloque Popular's letter to 
President Bush urges that Posada be extradited to Venezuela 
and demands that he not be returned to Honduras, where he 
allegedly stayed briefly last year.  Bloque Popular alleges 
that Posada entered Honduras illegally after he received a 
Panamanian presidential pardon for his part in a 2000 
attempted assassination of Fidel Castro.  The exact 
circumstances of Posada's stay in Honduras are unknown, but 
the Bloque Popular claims that Posada did not require a 
passport and that he received assistance from several 
governments, including the U.S.  The letter concludes with 
praise for the "patience, dignity, and intelligence" of the 
Cuban government and people as they seek to bring Posada to 
justice for his alleged crimes. 
Pierce