[fwd from Mac Stainsby] Flores, Castro Dispute Terrorism

[Les Schaffer <godzilla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[Mac sent this to me yesterday for reformatting and forwarding. Les]


Flores, Castro Dispute Terrorism

By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer

PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) - A polite dispute over a resolution against
terrorism spiraled into an argument drenched in civil-war bitterness
as Cuba's Fidel Castro and El Salvador's leader hurled allegations at
the close of a summit on Saturday.

`What you have done here is intolerable,'' Salvadoran President
Francisco Flores told Castro, accusing him of `cruel, bloody
responsibility'' for involvement in El Salvador's civil war.

Castro expressed anger that the anti-terrorism measure sponsored by El
Salvador and Mexico expressed sympathy for Spain - wracked by violence
associated with the Basque separatist movement - but did not mention
Cuba, even though Panamanian officials had just detained a man Castro
accused of trying to assassinate him.

`None of you have had to run the risks that the president of the
Republic of Cuba does each time he appears,'' Castro lectured the
leaders of 19 other Latin American nations, plus those of Spain and
Portugal, who were attending the Ibero-American Summit.

He charged that several nations had cooperated with or failed to stop
those trying to overthrow his government and said the man detained on
Friday, Luis Posada Carriles, `comes from El Salvador, whose
government knows perfectly well that he lives there.''

Flores took that as an insult, and in turn accused Castro of
involvement in the deaths of `tens of thousands'' of Salvadorans
during El Salvador's civil war, which ended in 1992.

Castro admitted training rebels from many countries, saying
`interrevolutionary support is a tradition,'' but insisted he had
stopped such aid when other countries stopped trying to isolate Cuba.

Other presidents tried to cut off the seemingly out-of-control debate.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez appealed for `unity and brotherhood'' as the
session finally ended, hours behind schedule.

On the summit's theme issue, the presidents vowed to devote more
resources to children. Chavez suggested that international lenders
grant partial debt relief to poor countries in exchange for
investments in schools, hospitals or other social projects.

Posada was detained Friday evening a few hours after the Cuban leader
accused him of plotting an assassination.

Police Chief Carlos Bares said police had 24 hours to charge or
release Posada, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while
awaiting retrial on charges of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban
jetliner in 1976 that killed 73 people.

Bares said no weapons were found with Posada or three other people
detained with him at a Panama City hotel. He said Posada had been
using a Salvadoran passport in the name of Franco Rodriguez Mena. He
did not identify the others detained.

Castro claimed Posada was working for the Miami-based Cuban-American
National Foundation, which immediately denied any connection with
Posada.

Born in 1928, according to Cuban sources, Posada fled Cuba after the
1959 revolution led by Castro and was involved in U.S.-backed efforts
to topple the communist government.

After working at least briefly for the CIA, Posada went to Venezuela
where he rose to become director of operations for the country's
intelligence agency, which was monitoring leftist rebels. He lost the
job after a change in the presidency in 1974.

Prosecutors accused him of masterminding the October 1976 bombing of a
Cubana de Aviacion jetliner. He was acquitted twice, but officials
were making a third try to convict him when he escaped from prison in
1985.  Venezuelan officials say he still faces charges there.

After Posada's escape, he allegedly helped send guns to the
U.S.-backed Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Honduran officials also have
identified him as the associate of an alleged arms dealer in that
country.

The Miami Herald reported in 1998 that he had been living off and on
in El Salvador and had close ties with current or retired military
figures in the region. Salvadoran officials said in 1998 they were
unable to locate him.

In a 1998 interview with The New York Times, Posada was quoted as
admitting involvement in the bombing of hotels in Cuba in 1997. A
Salvadoran man who planted one of the bombs, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon,
was sentenced to death for killing an Italian tourist.

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