The Latest on the Luis Posada Carriles Case

The Miami Herald (here) reports that Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, now 79 years old, must be released on bond while awaiting trial for allegedly lying to immigration authorities, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, ordered Friday.  Posada, however, was not freed because the federal government quickly filed a motion asking the judge for a seven-day delay to review the ”adequacy” of her release conditions — and to decide whether to appeal. Posada could be taken into custody by immigration officials as soon as he posts bond. Judge, Cardone noted that even if Posada were the daring covert operative of legend, accused of masterminding tourist site bombings in Havana that killed an Italian in 1997 — and even if he did escape from a prison in Venezuela once in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 — all that was in the past.

One of the reasons that the case has received such attention, especially in South Florida, is that Posada, as Judge Cardone wrote, “has spent his life opposing Fidel Castro. As a result, he has allegedly been involved in and/or associated with some of the most infamous events of the 20th century . . . the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Iran-Contra Affair, the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455, the tourist bombings of 1997 in Havana, and even — according to some conspiracy theorists — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.” But all those things, she added, have no bearing on Posada’s current circumstances. ”He is now older and more frail than he was when those events allegedly occurred,” she wrote. “He has ample ties to the community, as evidenced by the thousands of supporters who have signed petitions on his behalf and volunteered their personal resources to aid in his defense.”

To see the district court’s ruling, click here.

KJ

Postscript  The Fifth Circuit (here) on April 12 blocked Carriles’ release from jail just as he began the process to be freed on $250,000 bond.