>Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 19:43:57 -0500 >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Sparks Fly at Iberoamerican Summit > >Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit > >Saturday November 18 6:24 PM ET (via Yahoo) > >Flores, Castro Dispute Terrorism > >By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer > >PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) - A polite dispute over a resolution against >terrorism spiraled into an argument drenched in civil-war bitterness as >Cuba's Fidel Castro and El Salvador's leader hurled allegations at the close >of a summit on Saturday. > >`What you have done here is intolerable,'' Salvadoran President Francisco >Flores told Castro, accusing him of `cruel, bloody responsibility'' for >involvement in El Salvador's civil war. > >Castro expressed anger that the anti-terrorism measure sponsored by El >Salvador and Mexico expressed sympathy for Spain - wracked by violence >associated with the Basque separatist movement - but did not mention Cuba, >even though Panamanian officials had just detained a man Castro accused of >trying to assassinate him. > >`None of you have had to run the risks that the president of the Republic of >Cuba does each time he appears,'' Castro lectured the leaders of 19 other >Latin American nations, plus those of Spain and Portugal, who were attending >the Ibero-American Summit. > >He charged that several nations had cooperated with or failed to stop those >trying to overthrow his government and said the man detained on Friday, Luis >Posada Carriles, `comes from El Salvador, whose government knows perfectly >well that he lives there.'' > >Flores took that as an insult, and in turn accused Castro of involvement in >the deaths of `tens of thousands'' of Salvadorans during El Salvador's civil >war, which ended in 1992. > >Castro admitted training rebels from many countries, saying >`interrevolutionary support is a tradition,'' but insisted he had stopped >such aid when other countries stopped trying to isolate Cuba. > >Other presidents tried to cut off the seemingly out-of-control debate. >Venezuela's Hugo Chavez appealed for `unity and brotherhood'' as the session >finally ended, hours behind schedule. > >On the summit's theme issue, the presidents vowed to devote more resources >to children. Chavez suggested that international lenders grant partial debt >relief to poor countries in exchange for investments in schools, hospitals >or other social projects. > >Posada was detained Friday evening a few hours after the Cuban leader >accused him of plotting an assassination. > >Police Chief Carlos Bares said police had 24 hours to charge or release >Posada, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting retrial >on charges of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that >killed 73 people. > >Bares said no weapons were found with Posada or three other people detained >with him at a Panama City hotel. He said Posada had been using a Salvadoran >passport in the name of Franco Rodriguez Mena. He did not identify the >others detained. > >Castro claimed Posada was working for the Miami-based Cuban-American >National Foundation, which immediately denied any connection with Posada. > >Born in 1928, according to Cuban sources, Posada fled Cuba after the 1959 >revolution led by Castro and was involved in U.S.-backed efforts to topple >the communist government. > >After working at least briefly for the CIA, Posada went to Venezuela where >he rose to become director of operations for the country's intelligence >agency, which was monitoring leftist rebels. He lost the job after a change >in the presidency in 1974. > >Prosecutors accused him of masterminding the October 1976 bombing of a >Cubana de Aviacion jetliner. He was acquitted twice, but officials were >making a third try to convict him when he escaped from prison in 1985. >Venezuelan officials say he still faces charges there. > >After Posada's escape, he allegedly helped send guns to the U.S.-backed >Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Honduran officials also have identified him as >the associate of an alleged arms dealer in that country. > >The Miami Herald reported in 1998 that he had been living off and on in El >Salvador and had close ties with current or retired military figures in the >region. Salvadoran officials said in 1998 they were unable to locate him. > >In a 1998 interview with The New York Times, Posada was quoted as admitting >involvement in the bombing of hotels in Cuba in 1997. A Salvadoran man who >planted one of the bombs, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, was sentenced to death for >killing an Italian tourist. > >================================================================= > NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems > Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us > 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 > http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >================================================================= > >nytsa-11.18.00-19:43:31-2060 > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. 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