Exile group set Cuban bombs
By Dara Mac Neil
A prominent Cuban exile has accused the Miami-based Cuban
American National Foundation of directly financing terrorist
attacks on Cuba.
According to Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban-American National
Foundation (CANF) was behind a series of no-warning bomb attacks
on hotels, bars and restaurants in Havana last year.
Significantly, Luis Posada Carriles is a former close associate
of the CANF founder and head, Jorge Mas Canosa. The CANF founder
- who died of cancer last year - is believed to have employed
Posada Carriles as a bodyguard.
The Havana bombing campaign resulted in the death of 32 year old
Fabio di Celmo, an Italian resident of Canada. Mr di Celmo was
visiting Cuba as a tourist.
Last September, Cuban authorities arrested a Salvadoran national
in connection with the bombings. The authorities later said that
Raul Cruz Leon had confessed to planting five of the six bombs
that exploded in Havana, from July to Sepember.
There were no warnings given for any of the explosions and no
claims of responsibility. All six occurred in popular tourist
hotels and restaurants.
The Cuban police claimed to have discovered explosive traces on
Mr Cruz Leon's hands and clothes, and plans detailing the layout
of prestigious tourist outlets in Havana.
Cruz Leon was believed to have smuggled a quantity of C-4
explosive onto the island with him, which was later used in three
hotel explosions on 4 September. It was one these explosions
which killed Fabio di Celmo. Mr Leon is alleged to have been paid
£4,500 for each bomb placed.
At the time of his arrest Cuban authorities voiced the suspicion
that Cruz Leon was in the employ of right-wing exile groups in
Miami, although they did not specify the CANF. They also accused
the US government of complicity in the bombing campaign, with
Cuban vice-president Raul Castro claiming US authorities were
informed of the campaign before it began.
The bombs had deliberately targeted the island's booming tourist
industry. Last year, Cuba earned almost $1.5 billion from tourist
revenue, as much as 50% more than the revenue earned from the
island's traditional money-spinner, sugar.
According to Luis Posada, Jorge Mas Canosa - the head of CANF -
spent close to a quarter of a million dollars on these
`extra-curricular' activities in recent years.
The money was often collected on the pretext that it was to be
used to fund church activities in Cuba.
Since its formation in 1981, the Cuban-American National
Foundation has dominated and driven US policy on Cuba.
A powerful lobby group, CANF was formed by wealthy Cuban exiles.
It received financial backing from successive US administrations,
while also regularly donating large sums to both the Democratic
and Republican parties.
The CANF was run virtually as a private fiefdom of its founder,
Jorge Mas Canosa. A multi-millionaire Mas Canosa was among the
property owners and Batista supporters who fled in the isle after
1959. His father was a functionary in the Batista regime.
Over the years, the CANF enjoyed strong links with successive US
administrations and Mas Canosa was said to have strong ties to
former presidents Reagan and Bush.
The influence of CANF on US policy was particularly noticeable
during the Reagan-Bush era, as the campaign to isolate and
overthrow the Cuban Revolution was stepped up significantly.
However, in recent years the power of the CANF has declined
significantly. Indeed some within the US administration now find
the organisation's virulently right-wing objectives increasingly
embarrassing.
In recent years, the Cuban exile community in the US has been
seen to move away from the CANF and its insistence that the
Revolution must be destroyed. Thus several exile groups now
advocate - and have participated in - talks with the Cuban
government.
Indeed in 1993 the head of one exile group - Cambio Cubano -
confronted the CANF at an open public debate and charged that its
leadership was interested solely in ``making money from a new
Cuba.''
This was a none-too-subtle reference to the hierarchy of the
CANF, many former businessmen who lost property to the
revolution. Such a public challenge to the all-powerful CANF
would have been unthinkable a few years previously.
d last November, Jorge Mas Canosa himself shuffled off this
mortal coil. His death shattered the CANF, leaving it bereft of
leadership at a crucial time. This will further exacerbate the
decline and fall of a once-powerful monolith.
As if that was not enough, the CANF is currently under
investigation by US authorities: several of the organisation's
members are accused of participating in an alleged plot to
assassinate Fidel Castro during his visit to the Ibero-American
Summit in Venezuela last November.
Thus the allegations made by Luis Posada Carriles would at least
appear to fit a pattern for CANF activity. That pattern appears
to indicate a growing desperation on the part of the Mas Canosa
leadership, a desperation attributable to the realisation that
Cuba was not, after all, on the verge of collapse.
Hence the decision to place no-warning bombs in Havana hotels,
thereby targeting Cuba's largest single source of income.
d there is also circumstantial evidence to link the Miami
zealots to the bombing campaign.
Three of the explosions targeted hotels that are run - in a joint
venture with the Cuban government - by the Spanish Sol Melia
group. There are also said to have been explosions at Sol Melia
hotels in the nearby resort of Varadero.
When the Helms-Burton dictat was signed into law by President
Clinton, the Sol Melia group announced its opposition to the
extra-territorial (and illegal) measures it contained.
Significantly, the hotel group declared that if it was forced by
the new legislation to choose between investments in Cuba and the
US, Sol Melia would choose the former. If necessary the group
would sell off its hotels in Florida.
Naturally, that didn't go down too well with the exiled brethren
in Miami and the group became a target for boycotts and protests.
According to Luis Posada Carriles, the CANF appear to have been
more forceful in signalling their disapproval.
What makes Posada Carriles' allegations credible - apart from his
association with the CANF - is the fact that he is no stranger to
this activity himself.
In the 1960s, he was trained - along with other Cubans - in
counter-insurgency tactics and the use of explosives, by the CIA.
In 1976, Posada Carriles put his mentor's training to good use
when he blew up a Cuban commercial airliner. Few of the civilian
passengers on board survived. Posada Carriles escaped to
Venezuela and was later ``incorporated'' into Ronald Reagan's
plethora of dirty wars in Latin America.
However he was caught by Cuban authorities and jailed. In 1985,
he escaped - with the help of none other than Jorge Mas Canosa.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)