From the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five

Dear friends of Cuba:

Before her term ends at the end of August, Panama's president, Mireya Moscoso, has plans to pardon the four notorious anti-Cuba terrorists who were arrested November 2000 in Panama City for attempting to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro. Their terrorist plans could also have killed hundreds of Panamanian people who were going to be part of the audience when President Castro was set to speak at a public event.

Through legal maneuvers and U.S. government pressure, the charges, convictions and sentences of Luis Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, Pedro Remón and Guillermo Novo Sampol, were extremely light, given the deadly nature of their plans, and their arsenal of weapons and explosives, including 70 pounds of C-4 explosives. For their plans of assassination and mass murder, they were sentenced to only four to eight years in prison, minus time served.

Now, they may very well be released by Monday, August 30, if Moscoso follows through on her intent to pardon them.

For Moscoso to release these four terrorists, who have been proven guilty before of murder and other terrorist acts against Cuban citizens and civilians of other countries, is more than an outrage. It gives a total green light of impunity to terrorists who have pledged to carry out more terrorist acts against Cuba. Their release puts innocent people from any country in danger.

Posada Carriles has bragged of his continuing terrorist plots and his role in organizing bombings in Havana hotels in the 1990s. The New York Times interviewed Posada (July 12, 1998). He admitted responsibility for masterminding a bombing in a Cuban hotel in 1997 in which an Italian tourist died.

NYT: "For several months the attacks did indeed discourage tourism. With a rueful chuckle, Posada described the Italian tourist's death as a freak accident, but he declared that he had a clear conscience, saying, 'I sleep like a baby.'"

"'It is sad that someone is dead, but we can't stop,' [Posada] added. 'That Italian was sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time.'"

We lay full responsibility for Moscoso's plans to pardon the four, on Moscoso herself, as well as on the U.S. government and George W. Bush. It should be noted that Bush's father, George Sr., gave immunity to terrorist Orlando Bosch, who lives free in Miami. Bosch was Posada Carriles' accomplice in the 1976 bombing of Cubana flight 455. According to Acting Associate Attorney General Joe Whitley, in 1989 wrote in a memorandum of his decision to deport Bosch, "The October 6, 1976, Cuban airline bombing was a CORU operation under the direction of Bosch. CORU is the name of Bosch's terrorist outfit."

The total support that Washington gives to anti-Cuba terrorists, is the reason that Cuba has had to send individuals into the United States to monitor and prevent terrorist actions against Cuba. It is for that reason that the United States government persecuted the anti-terrorists, the Cuban Five political prisoners who are imprisoned, precisely because they were OPPOSING TERRORISM. Posada Carriles and the other Cuban terrorists in Panama are the ones who belong in jail, not the Cuban Five.

We urge all those who support Cuba's right to defend herself, to protest at the Panamanian embassies and consulates in your respective cities, to write President Mireya Moscoso at the address below, and if you live in the United States, contact the Panama Embassy in Washington, to demand that the four terrorists be kept in prison. It is very important that we act immediately to try to reverse her plans of pardon.

1. Organize pickets, delegations and/or press conferences at the local Panamanian embassy or consulates;

2. Send letters by fax or e-mail to Panama embassies in your area, or call directly to President Moscoso?s office in Panama, expressing the demand (Ask that a message be transmitted from the local consulate or embassy to President Moscoso):

No pardon for the four terrorists imprisoned in Panama: Luís Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, Pedro Remón and Guillermo Novo Sampol.

Address and phone of Panama embassy in Washington DC:
Carlos de la Guardia, Minister of Commerce, 2862 McGill Terrace N.W., Washington DC 20008. Telephone: 202-483-1407 o fax: 202-483-8413

Address of President Mireya Moscoso in Panama:
(Calling from the U.S.): Telephone: 011-507-227-9600.
E-mail: ofasini (at) presidencia.gob.pa

To add your name or organization to this declaration, contact us:
the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five at:
415-821-6545, 212-533-0417 or e-mail: freethefive (at) actionsf.org