The Miami Herald
July 14, 1998
 
 
Exile denies saying he got money for attacks on Cuba


             By ANDRES VIGLUCCI and CHRISTOPHER
             MARQUIS
             Herald Staff Writer

             A Cuban exile accused of anti-Castro terrorism denied on Monday newspaper
             reports that he had admitted receiving money from leaders of the Cuban American
             National Foundation to finance his attacks.

             The videotaped denials of Luis Posada Carriles were played at a raucous news
             conference at which CANF officials heckled and eventually ejected one of the
              report's authors, New York Times writer Larry Rohter.

             Rohter and freelance journalist Ann Louise Bardach reported Sunday that Posada
             had told them that the late CANF Chairman Jorge Mas Canosa had been in
             charge of funneling money from CANF leaders to him for terrorist attacks on the
             Castro regime.

             Said Mas' son, Jorge Mas Santos: ``There is absolutely no truth to the allegations
             in that story. My father did not sustain any relationship with Luis Posada, had no
             contact with Luis Posada and did not support any of his activities.

             Mas Santos called the Times' articles ``offensive, slanderous and defamatory.
             Foundation President Jose ``Pepe Hernandez later said the Mas family and
             foundation officials were planning to file suit for libel.

             He also attacked Bardach as ``a friend of the Castro regime and noted she
             authored a 1994 magazine piece, highly critical of Mas Canosa, that led to a libel
             suit. In a settlement with Mas Canosa, The New Republic apologized for calling
             him a ``mobster in a headline, but stood by Bardach's article.

             The New York Times said Monday it stood by its stories. ``We have six hours of
             Mr. Posada on audio tape saying what we've written about, said Nancy Nielsen, a
             Times spokeswoman.

             At the end of the CANF news conference, Channel 23 reporter Rafael Orizondo
             played a brief videotape of an interview with Posada earlier Monday ``somewhere
             in Central America.

             Wearing a fake beard and mustache, Posada said in the videotape that he had
             never received any money from Mas Canosa or any other leader of the
             foundation, and that he had not even seen the late CANF chairman for eight years.

             He called the Rohter-Bardach reports ``very bad and said the authors had
             ``magnified his comments to Bardach. He did not elaborate. Posada was
             interviewed by Bardach alone, but both wrote the final reports.

             Posada said Pepe Hernandez and CANF Chairman Alberto Hernandez, who are
             not related, had given him money for ``medical expenses after he survived an
             assassination attempt in 1990, but not for ``operations.

             Alberto Hernandez said he never gave Posada any money for his ``activities. Pepe
             Hernandez said neither the foundation ``nor any of its officials had ever given
             money to Posada for his operations.

             On the tape, Orizondo is not seen asking Posada whether he was indeed the
             mastermind behind a string of bombings of tourist targets in Havana last summer
             that killed one Italian tourist and wounded six other people.

             Mas Santos suggested that Posada was not a credible source for the New York
             Times story, saying that although Posada told the Times he had spoken to Mas
             Canosa a month before he died last year, the late foundation chairman was on a
             respirator and unable to speak at the time.

             Mas Santos also said he had handled his father's finances for 18 years and was
             certain that none of Mas Canosa's personal funds had gone to Posada.

             ``Our fight has been peaceful one and will continue to be one, he said, adding a
             challenge to the New York Times to release its audio tapes of its interview with
             Posada.

             ``Where are the tapes of Luis Posada? he asked. ``Do the tapes support what the
             story says?