• Statement from Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the
                   Panamanian authorities’ persistence in making "a capricious
                   interpretation of its own legislation," by negating the extradition of the
                   four terrorists involved in an attempt on the life of Fidel during the last
                   Ibero-American Summit • Group includes Luis Posada Carriles,
                   responsible for other crimes like the sabotage of a Cubana airliner in
                   1976 in which 73 people lost their lives

                   ON May 30, 2001, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented a note to
                   the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Panama, in due response to
                   the one delivered to the Cuban embassy in Panama by that country’s
                   Foreign Ministry. The note consisted of an attempt to justify the
                   extradition requested by Cuba of the four international terrorists
                   detained in Panama who, in addition to the assassination attempt
                   against Cuba’s president, have committed innumerable crimes
                   against our people for over 30 years.

                   The Panamanian government, using a capricious interpretation of its
                   own legislation, continues to insist that the fact that terrorists will be
                   judged in Panama for the crime they were planning during the last
                   Ibero-American Summit – which, in addition to the assassination
                   attempt against Comrade Fidel, would have cost the lives of
                   hundreds of students and other Panamanian citizens – constitutes an
                   impediment to the extradition.

                   The Panamanian judicial code, utilized by the Ministry of Foreign
                   Relations of the Republic of Panama to justify its negation, in fact
                   allows for the possibility of deferring an extradition when those the
                   defendants in question are subject to a legal process in Panama and
                   this, precisely, was one of the alternatives discussed in Havana with
                   Deputy Foreign Minister Harmodio Arias, in strict adherence to
                   Panamanian legislation, as our people were duly informed.

                   In real terms, in order to accede to the extradition request, and
                   independently of any other consideration, the Republic of Panama
                   authorities merely needed to act in conformity with their legislation,
                   without capricious interpretations, and to have sufficient moral and
                   ethical valor to act in conformity with the wishes of the people of
                   Panama, who have repeatedly demonstrated their support for the
                   extradition of the four terrorists concerned.

                   The Panamanian authorities adduce, moreover, that they are acting
                   on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, given that in 1993 Cuba
                   did not extradite a Panamanian citizen who, for political reasons, was
                   granted asylum here. In a highly suspicious manner, he was charged
                   by the Panamanian government with homicide and wounding with
                   intent after his arrival in Cuba, and after having been granted due
                   safe-conduct by the Panamanian authorities themselves.

                   For Cuba it was incomprehensible that, having granted safe-conduct
                   to a person who had been granted diplomatic asylum for political
                   reasons, charges of common crime, totally different in nature from
                   the reasons that motivated the concession of asylum, should be
                   filed.

                   In the context of the principle of reciprocity, the Republic of Cuba has
                   historically maintained and maintains that there must be similitude in
                   cases of extradition requests with countries with which there is no
                   agreement in this regard, and considers that the interpretation of the
                   principle of reciprocity wielded by the Panamanian authorities is
                   arbitrary and superficial.

                   Moreover, on that occasion, the Panamanian authorities were unable
                   to demonstrate that the real reason for the extradition application
                   was for the commission of a common crime on the part of the
                   person requested.

                   It is shameful that, using the pretext of the Cuban extradition refusal
                   mentioned, the Panamanian authorities have lost sight of the degree
                   of danger represented by the four criminals currently under arrest in
                   Panama, and the gravity of the crimes committed, which are far
                   from being comparable with those imputed to the person in the other
                   case.

                   The Panamanian authorities have likewise argued that the evidence
                   submitted by Cuba does not include any sentence expedited by the
                   Cuban judicial authorities against the four detained terrorists, ignoring
                   the fact that their own legislation and the Bustamante Code – an
                   international instrument signed by both countries which, among other
                   things, regulates cases like the one which concerns us today –
                   recognizes that to accede to extradition requests, it is not required
                   that a sentence exists in the courts of the country concerned, only
                   that the persons concerned have "been tried, sanctioned or pursued
                   for the crimes committed."

                   The Panamanian government is well aware, due to the voluminous
                   and detailed extradition files remitted to the Panamanian Ministry of
                   Foreign Relations, that the four individuals required have been duly
                   charged in the Republic of Cuba for the crimes in question.

                   However, what most angers and Cuban people and government is
                   that it is reiterated in this new Panamanian note that the extradition
                   has not been granted due to the absence of clear evidence of the
                   crimes for which their extradition has been sought.

                   The Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes that the real reason for the
                   negation is lack of political will on the part of the Panamanian
                   authorities to really contribute to justice being done.

                   Therefore, and bearing this fact in mind, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
                   of the Republic of Cuba has reiterated to the Panamanian Foreign
                   Ministry its serious doubts as to whether the those who caused
                   dozens of Cuban families and all our people to mourn, making acts of
                   terrorism repudiated by virtually the entire international community a
                   way of making a living and daily activity, will be duly tried with all the
                   rigor of the law.

                   The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba considers that,
                   by denying the extradition, thus preventing the justice claimed by an
                   entire people from being done, the government of the Republic of
                   Panama in practice has become an accomplice to the impunity
                   enjoyed by the terrorists to date, and the pain of millions of Cubans,
                   victims of the innumerable actions of the four infamous and
                   self-confessed international terrorists detained in Panama.

                   The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba has clearly
                   reiterated to the Panamanian Foreign Ministry that if the four
                   terrorists, or any of them, escape or are favored by arbitrary
                   decisions guaranteeing the impunity we are denouncing for their
                   present and past crimes, by yielding to pressure from terrorist
                   elements in Miami and the U.S. government, full responsibility will fall
                   on the Panamanian government.

                   Havana, May 30, 2001