Anti-Cuban terrorists cut deal to avoid trial

On Sept. 11, as George Bush was giving speeches around the country about the need to fight terrorism, extreme right-wing anti-Cuban terrorists Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat accepted plea deals on one charge of conspiring to possess illegal weapons. The plea deal means they will not be tried for the more serious charge of illegal weapons possession.

Originally, the two pleaded “not guilty” after a grand jury indicted them on conspiracy charges and for illegally storing

Terrorists Osvaldo Mitat, left, and Santiago Alvarez, right.

weapons in a Lauderhill apartment complex owned by Alvarez. Some of the weapons they possessed at the time of their arrest on Nov. 18, 2005, were as follows: fully automatic machine guns with ammunition, grenades and grenade launcher; explosives with blasting caps; and more. Serial numbers on some of the guns had been filed off. A briefcase held a pistol along with a silencer.

Both men have long been engaged in supporting and committing terrorist acts against Cuba.

Without the plea deal, Alvarez and Mitat faced trial and the possibility of 20 years in prison if convicted. The charge to which they pleaded guilty carries a maximum five-year prison sentence—a slap on the wrist for known terrorists. It is quite possible that they will serve less than five years.

When the case was slated for trial, the terrorists’ attorneys asked the court to move their trial to Miami. They also requested that the jury pool be expanded to include Miami-Dade County jurors, even though their trial was to be held in a Fort Lauderdale federal court in Broward County. The move was intended to include right-wing Miami Cubans in the jury pool.

U.S. district judge James Cohn rejected both proposals but accepted the plea bargain for the terrorists. Cohn will sentence Alvarez and Mitat on Nov. 14.

Alvarez, a wealthy developer, is well versed in terrorist activity. Last year he helped terrorist Luis Posada Carriles get into the United States. Alvarez has also financially backed and spoken out on Posada’s behalf.

Posada is infamous for murdering 73 people in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger flight from Barbados. He also masterminded a series of bombings targeting tourist hotels in Cuba in the 1990s, killing one Italian tourist and injuring others.

In 2001, Alvarez provided financing to three Miami-Dade County men who were arrested off the coast of Cuba with AK-47 assault rifles, an M-3 rifle with a silencer, and Marakov pistols. One possible target of this terrorist excursion was the famed Club Tropicana in Havana. He is linked to several other terrorist plots as well.

Also, on Sept. 11, U.S. magistrate Norbert Garney in El Paso recommended that Posada be released from federal detention. Garney reasoned that the U.S. government had no basis to hold him any longer, because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, notorious now for his legal advocacy of torture, refused to classify Posada as a terrorist.

While anti-Cuban terrorists get minor punishment for major crimes, the U.S. government continues to imprison the men known as the Cuban Five for up to double-life terms for attempting to report on the planned activities of Posada, Alvarez and Mitat, and the Miami-based CIA-funded terrorist organizations whose acts have taken the lives of more than 3,500 Cubans since 1959.

“To allow these terrorists to get off essentially without punishment for their crimes affects not only the Cuban people but also all U.S. workers. They are the enemies of all people,” said Chris Banks, an organizer with the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five. The committee is spearheading the national march in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 23 to demand freedom for the Cuban Five and condemn terrorism against Cuba.