There is no place for forgetting in the memory of the people. Almost half a century after the downing of a Cuban civilian airliner in mid-air, injustice trembles every year before the cries of a vigorous and virile people, who demand an end to terrorism and impunity.
In June 1976, a group of Cuban-born terrorists representing extremist organizations based in the United States met in Bonao, Dominican Republic. The coordinator was criminal Orlando Bosch Ávila, then a fugitive from U.S. justice for violating his parole while being tried for several crimes, including extortion of Cuban emigrants using terrorist methods.
The purpose of the meeting was to coordinate future actions against Cuban representations, their personnel, and the interests of countries that, despite pressure from successive U.S. administrations, maintained relations with the Cuban government.
Two meetings took place: one to establish the so-called Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), a terrorist alliance, and another to plan more than 20 acts of terror for immediate execution.
All those present signed, except for the members of the fascist group Cuban Nationalist Movement (MNC), who claimed that they were carrying out an action ordered by the Chilean National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), which was none other, as it was later known, than the assassination of the former Chilean ambassador in Washington, Orlando Letelier del Solar, which would be carried out on September 21, 1976.
The January 23, 1989, opinion by Joe D. Whitley, Associate Attorney General in charge of Bosch Ávila's admission to the United States, supports his participation in the downing of the Cuban airliner in mid-air: "Bosch, while outside the United States, founded and directed the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), an anti-Castro terrorist organization that was forced to accept responsibility for numerous explosions in Miami, New York, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, Argentina, and elsewhere."
Continuó el documento oficial: «En octubre de 1976, Bosch fue detenido en Venezuela en relación con la explosión de un avión de la línea aérea civil cubana el 6 de octubre de 1976, que causó la muerte de 73 hombres, mujeres y niños. Aunque detenido en Venezuela durante once años por cargos producto de ese incidente, fue finalmente liberado. En su juicio, se presentaron pruebas de que los dos hombres condenados por homicidio en relación con la explosión, estaban en contacto con Bosch antes y después del hecho».
The court ruling added: "Following his release on May 17, 1988, Bosch was detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). At that time, the INS Miami District Director served Bosch with a temporary exclusion notice, alleging that he was excludable from the United States because: 'There is reason to believe that he would seek entry into the United States solely, primarily, or incidentally to engage in activities detrimental to the public interest.'"
Furthermore, "A foreigner who is or has been an advocate or teacher or member of an organization that supports the need or desirability of attacking or killing officials of any government, in addition to injuring or destroying property, and engaging in sabotage."
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that he is likely, after entering, to engage in activities prohibited by United States laws relating to espionage, sabotage, public disorder, or other activities subversive to the national interest." Furthermore, the notice stated that Bosch was also excludable on the basis that he had been convicted of "a crime of moral turpitude, rather than a mere political crime."
What happened next? The criminal, who conceived 14 plots to shoot down Cuban planes, was pardoned by U.S. President George H. W. Bush, contrary to the opinion of the Department of Justice and the Attorney General's ruling.
That ruler was leading the Central Intelligence Agency when the Cubana de Aviación plane exploded on October 6, 1976.
It is now known, after years of investigation, that the Cuban-born international terrorist Pablo Gustavo Castillo Díaz, alias El Cojo, one of the material authors of the murder of Cuban technician Artaigñán Díaz Díaz, which occurred in Mexico on July 23, 1976, escaped to Venezuela after that crime, and there he studied Cubana de Aviación's air routes through the Caribbean, and selected the aircraft that was later crashed.
It was also established that on October 11, 1976, when Orlando Bosch was arrested in Caracas, he was accompanied by Castillo Díaz—another suspect who also died unpunished in Miami. The latter manufactured the bombs that were placed on the Cuban plane by Venezuelan mercenaries Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano, hired by the criminal Posada Carriles.
The ever-present CIA, when it comes to conspiracies to assassinate or destroy, is blamed in its own documents, which attest to its advance knowledge of the plans being hatched to shoot down the Cuban plane. They did nothing to prevent it; they didn't even transmit a simple warning to the Cuban authorities.
A declassified secret CIA document, dated October 13, 1976, and marked "Plot No. 7514," identified the source as "A former official of the Government of Venezuela, who is routinely a reliable informant" and warned: "This information is not for discussion with any foreign official, including those of the Government of Venezuela."
The text dealt with a plan to shoot down an airplane: "Bosch made the statement: 'Now that our organization has emerged from the Letelier work in good standing, we're going to discuss something else.'"
The report adds: "A few days later, at a fundraising luncheon for further action, Posada was overheard saying, 'We're going to attack a Cuban plane,' and 'Orlando has the details.'"
After the plane was shot down off the coast of Barbados, Luis Posada Carriles planned to evade Venezuelan terrorist Orlando Bosch, which he accomplished on October 9, when he crossed the border into Colombia.
Earlier, on June 22, 1976, the CIA had advance knowledge of the plans in development to shoot down Cuban civilian aircraft. This is revealed in the document from that US agency, dated and distributed that day, which read: "Class-secret, sensitive report, intelligence sources and methods involved. Do not disclose to foreign nationals. Not for distribution to contractors or contracted consultants."
He went on to write: "A businessman with close ties to the Cuban exile community. He is usually a reliable informant. He revealed that an extremist group of Cuban exiles, led by Orlando Bosch, was planning to plant a bomb on a Cubana de Aviación flight between Panama and Havana. The original plans for this operation called for two bombs to be placed on flight 467 on June 21, 1976, which was scheduled to depart at 11:15 a.m. local Panama time."
Copies of the document were sent to the State Department, the Army Intelligence Directorate, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the FBI, but the Cuban government was not, before or after, the recipient of this information, which even specified that two bombs would be planted, as later occurred in the terrorist attack in Barbados.
Furthermore, it revealed the criminal Orlando Bosch as the mastermind of the crime, and that the target would be a civilian plane belonging to Cubana de Aviación. In other words, all of this precise information was known and permitted by the CIA four months before October 6, when 73 people lost their lives, including 57 Cubans.
This year marks 49 years since the horrendous crime was committed, and its perpetrators and executors never paid a price. On the contrary, they lived unpunished in the United States, under the protection of its authorities.
From Granma
