Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

CUBAN-AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION • 131the CANF. The 46-foot-long cabin cruiser belonged to Jose AntonioLlama, a member of the CANF board of directors. Llama wasindicted on 25 August 1998, along with the four other Cubans andone other man, for using an American motor vessel for criminalpurposes, making false statements to a customs official, smugglingweapons, and plotting to assassinate an “internationally protectedperson.”Meanwhile Posada had been working with the Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA) in efforts against Communist insurgents throughoutthe Caribbean region until a falling-out with his handlers in the1970s. He was believed to have been responsible for the bombingof Cubana Airlines Flight 455 from Barbados on 6 October 1976,which killed all 48 passengers and 25 crew members. The passengersincluded the entire Cuban national fencing team, most of whom wereteenagers. During April 1997 he then directed a bombing campaignagainst tourist hotels in Cuba. By striking at the tourist hotels, Posadahoped to diminish this source of income for the Castro regime andalso to undermine the regime’s apparent stability and invulnerability,as these hotels were very well guarded. During 1994–1997 a total of16 bombings struck Cuba. The five non-Cuban amateurs recruitedby Posada who carried out these attacks were arrested during thesummer of 1997; two were convicted of terrorism by a Cuban courtand sentenced to death. In the summer of 1998 Posada gave a verydetailed account to interviewers at a secret location in the Caribbeanof his activities against the Castro regime and freely admitted to havingmasterminded the terrorist bombings in Cuba but denied that theCANF played any role in it.On 17 November 2000 Posada, along with three others, was arrestedin Panama City in possession of 200 pounds of explosivesand charged with plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro, who was dueto visit Panama. In August 2004 Posada and his fellow plotters werepardoned by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso.On 13 April 2005 Posada, who had been earlier arrested on chargesof illegally entering the United States, requested political asylum.While he was not granted formal asylum, he continued to be detainedby U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the grounds thathe represented a danger to the community. On 28 September 2005 aU.S. court denied Venezuela’s request for the extradition of Posadadue to the threat of possible torture in that country.