Luis Posada Carriles is an anti-Castro Cuban exile active in campaigns against the Cuban government. Although born in Cuba, Posada once served as the head of the Venezuelan secret police. He was convicted of taking part in the bombing of a Cuban airliner over Venezuela in 1976, in which all seventy-three people onboard were killed. He subsequently escaped prison and has been an international fugitive since the early 1980s.
It is alleged that Luis Posada Carriles has worked for the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), which denies any connection. The Miami Herald has recently run articles querying CANF's ties to terrorism and Operation Condor.
In 2000 he was convicted with Gaspar Jiménez, Pedro Remón and Guillermo Novo Sampol of conspiring to assasinate Castro during a regional summit in Panama. The four were subsequently pardoned by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso in the final days of her administration in 2004. Jiménez, Remón and Novo were admitted into the United States.
On April 13, 2005, Posada requested political asylum in the United States through his attorney.
External links
Articles and reports
Images
Spanish language websites