POSADA CARRILES’ TRIAL

                    • In an exclusive statement to Granma International, Arquímedes Sáez
                   Castillo affirms that he is resisting the defense appeal and will be present
                   before the new judge on March 15

                        BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD—Special for Granma International—

                   ROGELIO Cruz, defense lawyer for terrorist Luis Posada Carriles has
                   deliberately provoked a hostile environment in order to gain Judge Enrique
                   Paniza’s withdrawal from the upcoming trial. The proposal is that the trial
                   judge should “not be familiar” with the DA’s report or the “evidence presented
                   and the object of evidence to be presented,” the Panamanian district attorney
                   Arquímedes Sáez Castillo, who is directing the proceedings, informed Granma
                   International.

                   On February 13 the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) announced the decision
                   by acting judge José Hoo Justiniani to resume the hearing against terrorists
                   Luis Posada Carriles,  Pedro Crispín Remón,  Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo and
                   Guillermo Novo Sampol.

                   The hearing was suspended in November and in January due to legal appeals
                   by the defense that provoked the withdrawal from the case of the former
                   judge, Enrique Paniza.

                   In Panama on the day of the new hearing was announced, Cuban Foreign
                   Minister Felipe Pérez Roque revealed that this country was coming under
                   pressure from the Cuban-American mafia to favor the detained
                   counterrevolutionaries.

                   DEFENSE EFFORTS TO CONFUSE THE JUDGE

                   “Firstly, during the whole proceedings, the defense team for the accused had
                   been attempting to confuse the judge in relation to the legal situation of the
                   crimes being investigated, but as far as possible, the DA has opposed
                   everything that the defense put forward, by collaborating with the court and
                   the upper spheres of the Panamanian justice system to clarify the penal
                   charges under investigation,” DA Sáez stated.

                   The attorney recalls how, during the preliminary hearing in September of last
                   year, the defense resorted to a series of tricks that were opposed both by the DA
                   and the four prosecution lawyers in the case. “I particularly did not allow it. I
                   was totally opposed. And the Fifth Circuit judge took up all the opposition
                   moves presented to him.”

                   At the same time, the lawyer for Posada and his accomplices displayed an
                   open disrespect toward the judge, accusing him of a lack of impartiality and
                   making offensive and hostile commentaries to the press.

                   “Clearly, all this had a hidden motive, which was to try to confound the judge
                   in the hearing, but he did not succeed, and the judge dictated a ruling,” Sáez
                   commented.

                   “In this situation, the defense strategically lodged a formal complaint against
                   the judge, with the evident intention of creating an hostile environment in
                   order to force his withdrawal from the case and replace him with another
                   judge who has not read the trial documents or familiarized himself with the
                   evidence presented and the objective of evidence to be presented. That would
                   be an advantage, but for the public Ministry and for me as a prosecuting
                   attorney, it would be a total disadvantage given that the judge (Paniza)
                   already has a general perception of the proceedings, above all when has been
                   called to trial.”

                   Thanks to these procedural maneuvers, lawyer Cruz finally managed to get
                   the sixth circuit judge to accept the impediment “that to all accounts is illegal.”

                   “Logically, I was opposed to that decision and appealed it, then I presented a
                   constitutional guarantee writ by arguing: first that there was no legal case for
                   admitting the impediment of the fifth circuit judge being aware of the trial
                   proceedings; second, accepting this thesis would be a disastrous precedent for
                   the justice system, as it would become a defense technique to remove a judge
                   who does not suit the personal interests of their clients; and third, because this
                   would lead to the additional consequence of even further delays in the
                   proceedings.”

                   Sáez, who won public admiration during the preliminary hearing last
                   September and for his determination in the search for the truth in this already
                   notorious case, confirmed that, despite the circumstances, he will be present in
                   court on March 15, the date set for the start of the trial.

                   “On January 5, 2004, I left for Spain to undertake some studies and then
                   moved on to the United States for an Anti-Terrorism tour. Returning to
                   Panama on February 14, I heard to my surprise that the new judge had
                   already set the date of the hearing for March 15 to 19. In that context, one of
                   my questions did not arise; in other words my fear of the hearing not taking
                   place quickly.

                   “Bearing this in mind – the upcoming hearing – I have decided to desist today
                   (February 19) from the appeal writ, so that the hearing can go ahead on the
                   anticipated date, and to risk myself before the new judge, although of course
                   the Public Ministry has the legal resources to appeal to other instances if the
                   finding should be adverse to its petition, so the issue of the judge no longer no
                   longer bothers me,” concluded the respected lawyer, confirming his presence
                   before Judge Hoo.

                   LONG CAREERS AS  INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS

                   Posada Carriles, Remón, Jiménez and Novo are facing charges for possession
                   of explosives, threatening the collective security and public order, and illegal
                   association with intent to commit a crime. These charges were brought after
                   they were arrested and found in possession of 40 kilograms of military
                   explosives with which they were planning to dynamite the auditorium at the
                   University of Panama where thousands of people were going to listen to
                   Cuban President Fidel Castro speak.

                   Posada, a fugitive from Venezuelan justice, and his accomplices possess long
                   careers as international terrorists spanning more than four decades.

                   • Posada was implicated in the assassination of President Kennedy to the point
                   that some experts have physically placed him in Dealey Plaza with his finger
                   on the trigger. He was found guilty in Venezuela for the mid-flight sabotage of
                   a Cubana passenger plane in 1976, but escaped from jail thanks to his sponsors
                   in Miami and the CIA. He was involved with the CIA in the famous
                   Iran-Contra scandal, one of the largest in the United States in recent decades,
                   and was later a security advisor to the presidents of El Salvador and
                   Guatemala. After being interviewed by the FBI – who refused to arrest him –
                   he organized a series of attacks in Havana in 1997 and three consecutive
                   assassination attempts against the Cuban president.

                   • Pedro Crispín Remón killed Félix García Rodríguez – a Cuban diplomat to
                   the UN – in the middle of the street in New York, and gunned down a
                   Cuban-American from New Jersey, José Eulalio Negrín, with a MAC-10, in
                   front of his 12-year-old son.

                   • Guillermo Novo Sampol, in addition to leading various terrorist networks for
                   years in New Jersey, participated in the assassination of Chilean ex-foreign
                   minister Orlando Letelier and his collaborator Ronni Moffit, and headed
                   operations by the sinister CORU that carried out more than 50 attacks from
                   Canada to Argentina in which he personally participated.

                   • Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, also a fugitive from justice, killed Artaigñan Díaz
                   Díaz, a Cuban fishing official in Mexico, later escaping from jail. Later, he
                   ordered the murder of two Cuban diplomats in Argentina, Crescencio
                   Galañena Hernández and Jesus Cejas Arias, who were buried in the
                   foundations of a building under construction. That operation was carried out
                   with the complicity of the Chilean DINA and its Argentine “correspondents.”