In 1976 Posada was actively working for the CIA

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WHEN THE CUBAN AIRLINE EXPLODED …
In 1976 Posada was actively working for the CIA

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD —Special for Granma International—

LUIS Posada Carriles was actively working for the CIA in February 1976 in Caracas, just a few months before the sabotage of the Cubana Aviation passenger plane, although the agency tried to cover up the relationship by means of a deceptive document.

This was confirmed by a recently declassified document from headquarters of the Venezuelan Intelligence Agency (DISIP) during the Carlos Andrés Pérez government, which describes the terrorist’s activities and clearly defines the level of relationship that he maintained at that time with the U.S. embassy in Caracas.

For now, Posada is to remain detained in the United States, According to a written statement from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency issued on March 22, which does not rule out "removing him to a third country" other than Cuba or Venezuela.

To date, the U.S. authorities have not expressly stated the true status of Posada’s relationship with the CIA at the time of the attack, which led to the death of 73 people, apart from declassifying scant elements of information that were released with the obvious intention of deflecting responsibility for the terrorist act from the Agency.

Dated February 26, 1976, the aforementioned document was written on a form titled AGENT REPORT with the control number 00314.

In the first box is written verbatim:

Subject: LUIS POSADA CARRILES (aka.) EL BAMBI, C.I. 5.304.069

Place: Caracas.

Regarding: INFORMATION ABOUT THE SUBJECT, COPEY AND U.S. AGENT (COPEY is an obvious misspelling of the political party acronym COPEI)

The text is typed and in the bottom corner a box titled "Agent Code," reads "A-12."

DEATH THREATS

The first point of the document explains that the agency "has information" that Posada is carrying out an investigation into the whereabouts of a DISIP Inspector, "specifically in his residence."

It details that "the subject has threatened the life of civilian William Casas for accusing the subject’s employee, civilian Adolfo Reyes Mejias (aka. Hernan), of blackmail and extortion."

According to the text, this Hernan used his job in the National Inspectorate of Identification and Aliens "to facilitate investigations carried out by the agency headed by the subject, which is located at Edificio Majestic, Piso 7, Oficinas-apartamento 78" on the downtown Avenida Libertador.

This document is of course referring to the Commercial and Industrial Investigations Agency (ICICA) that Posada created in June 1975.

In the document’s second point, agent "A-12" defines the subject as having 36 employees who engage in investigations, track individuals, tap telephones, and enter homes with the aid of modern locksmiths’ equipment, etc."

"Much of this equipment was unduly appropriated and is the property of the DISIP. The equipment was stolen by civilian Adolfo Reyes Mejías", specified the individual who drafted the report.

JOAQUIN CHAFARDET AND HERMES ROJAS

Listed in the third point, among the names of Posada’s collaborators, is Joaquín Chaffardet Ramos, the Venezuelan lawyer who was the sole witness for the defense in Luis Posada Carriles’ recent trial before an immigration judge in El Paso, Texas.

Also mentioned is "Hermes José Rojas Peralta, C.I. 3.185.945". Incredibly, up until 2004, Rojas occupied the post of police chief for the state of Miranda, Venezuela and was the right-hand man of coup leader Governor Enrique Mendoza. Fortunately, both were swept away in the 2004 elections.

It has also been revealed, 30 years later, that this character worked under the orders of Luis Posada Carriles during the operations leading to the overthrow and death of Chilean President Salvador Allende.

He currently maintains relations with Venezuelan and Cuba- American terrorist circles in Miami, including Rodolfo Frómeta, who heads the paramilitary group Comandos F4, tolerated by the FBI. Frómeta was one of the most loquacious of the extremists who made a recent statement on Miami television in favor of the use of terrorist violence against Cuba.

CIA AGENT FROM WHEN TO WHEN?

Regarding the clandestine character of Posada’s activities and those of his investigation agency, the declassified DISIP document states in a fourth point:

"We have information that the subject has undertaken special tasks for the U.S. embassy, specifically for the CIA, which has him classified as a mercenary."

And added as a "note" to signal the importance of the reported matter: "Regarding the present report, Inspector (NAME CROSSED OUT) would like to personally discuss other points with the ranking Colonel of the Interior Security Division."

According to another document declassified in May 2005 by the National Security Archives of George Washington University, Luis Posada Carriles was recruited by the CIA when he was in the U.S. army, between 1963 and 1965. However, other sources reveal his ties to the Agency began when he was recruited as a participant in Operation 40, which united a group of specially trained thugs at the same time as the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961.

The CIA placed Posada Carriles in Venezuela in 1967, as a functionary of DIGEPOL, which later became the DISIP where, under the name Commissioner Basilio, he directed bloody operations of repression.

In the course of 1976, Posada and his investigations agency was linked to a series of violent actions carried out in various countries by the CORU, an organization which he directed in partnership with Orlando Bosch and with the complicity of terrorists such as José Pepe Vázquez Blanco, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Héctor Carbonel Arenas, Francisco Pimentel, Nelly Rojas and Salvador Romaní Orúe, several of whom are still engaging in conspiratorial activities.

The U.S. declassified document tries to place the end of relations between Posada and the CIA in 1974, although it admits to some contact with him as late as June 1976.

The sabotage of the Cuban passenger plane occurred on October 6, 1976. Venezuelans Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano concealed two bombs on the DC-8. All 73 passengers died, including a pregnant woman.

Upon interrogation by the Barbados police, Lugo and Ricardo stated that they had contacts with the CIA – a notebook with the telephone numbers of various officers located in Caracas was taken from them – and they immediately exposed their bosses: Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch. The DISIP subsequently arrested both Posada and Bosch and found abundant evidence in Posada Carriles’ office not only of his participation in this crime together with his accomplices, but also of various other crimes.

Oddly, it was through the FBI — and NOT its own agency — that this document was declassified in May 2005. The CIA report dated October 16, 1976 attempts to explain the agency’s relation with Posada just days after the explosion of the aircraft. The author of the declassified text maintained the necessary confusion and did not specify when Posada joined that controversial U.S. intelligence agency.

The text simply says:

The employer in Caracas of both Lugo and Lozano is Luis Posada Carriles, former chief of the counterintelligence division of the DISIP (…). Posada is a former agent of the CIA. He was amicably terminated in July 1967 but contact was reestablished in October 1967. He lost his position with the DISIP in March 1974 as a result of a change in the Venezuelan government and was amicably terminated. We have maintained occasional contact with him. His last reported contact with us was in June 1976 when he unsuccessfully sought assistance regarding a visa problem."

Lies. The facts demonstrate much more clearly the real relationship of Posada and his partner Orlando Bosch with the CIA at that time: only four days after having been arrested, due to the confessions of Lugo and Lozano regarding the sabotage of the plane in Barbados, the U.S. government began maneuvers to extradite both terrorists to the United States for reasons still undisclosed.

Another secret report, written only days after the explosion of the plane and declassified by the Venezuelan Direction of Military Intelligence, literally explains not only the support given by the U.S. State Department to Posada and his agency but also the material aid provided to him precisely by the CIA.

This recently revealed document specifies that "information has been received that the U.S. Department of State, through the CIA, assisted him with technical equipment for the tracking and interception of communications and to set up an Investigations Office."

Posada escaped from the San Carlos Prison in Caracas August 18, 1985, and immediately joined the trafficking of drugs for weapons operation devised by the CIA and managed by Félix Rodríguez Mendigutía, operating out of the Salvadorian airport of Ilopango.

What is irrefutable is that in one way or another, with or without a formal contract, U.S. authorities maintained a frequent, close, and constant relationship with their "mercenary" and his investigations agency and that they not only learned of his plans but also could have perfectly known, directed, revised, authorized and even financed them.

And for this reason, they have always protected, in one way or another, Posada, Bosch and other related criminals. Just like they are doing now in the totally manipulated immigration case of Posada, a man who, under the nickname Commissioner Basilio, freely tortured and murdered people in the basement of the DISIP offices for years.

That is why the work of the five Cubans still imprisoned in the United States for having infiltrated the ranks of the Miami mafia is so deserving of respect and why the struggle for their liberation is such a noble one.