Cuban Ambassador knocks US double standards

ARE TERRORISTS only persons who carry out crimes against Americans?

That’s the question posed by Cuban Ambassador to St. Vincent and the Grenadines Olga Trias. This question has been posed by the ambassador as she joined the international voices denouncing the release of Luis Posada Carriles, who has been linked with terrorist attacks in Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean.{{more}}

The ambassador, speaking to SEARCHLIGHT newspaper on Monday, accused the United States Government of double standards in releasing a known terrorist while hundreds of thousands of people are dying in Afghanistan and Iraq, and others are detained and tortured in Guantanimo.

Carilles, who was arrested in the United States in March 2005 for entering the country illegally, is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela for crimes including the downing of a Cubana airliner in 1976, and an attempt on the life of Cuban President Fidel Castro while in Panama in 2000. He has been deemed responsible for terrorist activities in other countries such as the Dominican Republic, Columbia, Chile and Argentina.

Ambassador Trias said that Carilles, who was released from prison last month, should be extradited to Venezuela or Cuba where he faces pending charges. She says she knows that Carilles, who has been linked to the United States Central Intelligence Agency would not be sent to face justice, because he knows too much of the United States secrets.

Trias says that while American President George Bush is calling for the rest of the world to join his country in the eradication of terrorism, he himself is harboring a known terrorist under his wing.

Trias is also calling for the release of five Cuban citizens who are all facing life sentences in the United States for spying.

The ambassador says that it is a great double standard to have these men in prison, while the “career criminal” is released by the United States Government.