Venezuela detains American wanted in U.S.

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Wednesday, 05.06.09
Venezuela detains American wanted in U.S.
Associated Press

CARACAS -- Venezuelan authorities say they have detained a man with dual Cuban-American citizenship wanted in the United States on suspicion of money laundering related to drug trafficking.

Judicial police chief Wilmer Flores said Luis Giro was captured in the central Venezuelan city of Valencia. He did not say when the man was detained.

Flores said the 47-year-old will be deported to the United States. He says Giro is wanted by U.S. authorities for suspected money laundering and bank fraud.

Flores said Tuesday that a police investigation shows Giro has been in Venezuela for a year.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/1034595.html

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Venezuela to deport alleged US drug trafficker
Country

The government of Venezuela is making arrangements to deport to the United States an alleged Cuban-US drug trafficker, who was wanted by Interpol and whose detention was announced on Tuesday by the head of the Scientific and Criminal Investigation Force (Cicpc).

"We captured a citizen with a "red-notice status" (in Interpol). He is wanted by the United States for the crimes of money laundering, banking and financial fraud. All these crimes are related to drug trafficking," Wilmer Flores, the head of the Cicpc said, as reported AFP.

Flores said at a press conference that Luis Giro, 47, was arrested in the Venezuelan city of Valencia, where the alleged drug-trafficker lived for a year.

The Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs is making the necessary arrangements with the government of the United States to deport the detainee.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/05/05/en_pol_art_venezuela-to-deport_05A2317285.shtml
opposition newspaper

[rabs]

1. Is something wrong with this picture?

Venezuela arrests and is about to extradite a Cuban-American linked to drug-trafficking and money laundering.

Meantime, the United States harbors a known terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles. The one who blew up the Cubana de Aviacion airliner killing all aboard.

The same Posada who was involved in terrorist bombings of hotels in Havana that killed an Italian tourist. The same Posada who was arrested and later released by Panama for plotting to kill Fidel Castro at a conference there.

So what charge has the United States government filed against Posada -- "illegal entry" into the country.

The Venezuelan governmen for years has sought the extradition of Posada from the United States, more correctly the Republic of Miami.

(edit to fix typo)

[Judi Lynn]

2. If the Cuban security hadn't learned of that plan to bomb the auditorium

where Fidel Castro was to be speaking, and tipped off the Panamanian police, there would have been THOUSANDS of dead people, and Luis Posada Carriles would have had a monumental capstone on his career.

As it was, they just were taken to jail, and then it was arranged for someone to spirit some parts of the bombing equipment out of the police property department, so they could only try them for lesser offenses.

Panama's President, _Bush friend, Mireya Moscoso pardoned the Cuban "exile" would-be mass murderers, called the Cuban American National Foundation officials in Miami to tell them she'd done it, then moved to Miami immediately, as she accomplished this all on the day before her last day in office.

http://banana-republic.net.nyud.net:8090/images/miamibananarepublic.jpg

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Does the US really want him? Will he stay safe or will he be suicided, from

"practical" considerations?

[rabs]

4. Monster terrorist Posada Carriles is now 81 years old

and I keep thinking that successive U.S. government have been hoping that he dies of old age here in the United States before extraditing him to Venezuela. If he dies, the extradition issue would be moot and the anti-Castro Cuban Mafia in Miami would not be offended and stop pouring money into both Repub and Demo coffers. (DUer Mika has posted extensively about Cuban American National Foundation monies being funneled to both parties.)

Posada "escaped" from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 where he had been serving time for his role in the blowing up of the Cuban jetliner. There has been a lot of speculation that CANF founder Jorge Mas Canosa provided bribe money to Venezuelan authorities at the time to allow Posada to escape.

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Many DUers know about this monster, but for those who may not, here is some background:

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Shortly after taking off from Barbados International Airport on October 6, 1976, a Cubana airliner with 73 passengers on board, mostly youngsters from the Cuban national fencing team, was blown up in midair, killing all aboard.

Twenty nine years after the most heinous terrorist act in our hemisphere took place, Luis Posada Carriles and Dr. Orlando Bosch, both masterminds of this and an endless string of other equally despicable crimes, have seen Dr. Bosch become a free man turned into a celebrity in Miami and Mr. Posada Carriles is on his way out of a Texas jail, where he was euphemistically accused of illegal entry into the United States, brutally ignoring the extradition request of the Venezuelan government, where he is a convicted fugitive of this and other crimes.

Alleging unfounded accusations of fear of torture in Venezuela, the Justice and Immigration Departments are protecting a known murderer, who in his own book, "How I Placed The Bomb", is an embarrassment to President George W. Bush doctrine of War on Terror.

If the United States Government fear of Mr. Posada being tortured in Venezuela was real and its fight against Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, al Zarqawi et. al was genuine, why are they reluctant to send these individuals to the International Court in The Hague, as they did with other mass murderers from the Balkans?

Are we concerned about what Mr. Posada Carriles, a long time CIA operative with a revolting curriculum may disclose, while we hope for a timely heart attack or a convenient Harvey Oswald/Jack Ruby outcome?

Either way, the world knows where the truth lies and nothing will ever exonerate these murderers, their protectors or the policies that made these horrendous deeds possible.

Lots more information about Posada here:

(English and Spanish links) http://afrocubaweb.com/posada.htm