Panama May Try 4 in Castro Plot
Terrorism: Cuban exiles are being held pending extradition. They are accused of bringing in explosives to kill president.
From Associated Press
PANAMA CITY--President Mireya Moscoso said Thursday that Panama is considering
trying four Cuban exiles, rather than
extraditing them immediately, on charges that they plotted to kill Cuban
President Fidel Castro.
Panama is holding the men, including the group's alleged leader, Luis Posada
Carriles, in jail for 60 days pending completion of
an extradition request from Cuba but has not yet filed charges against
them in Panama.
"They entered our country to commit damage, and they have to be judged
by our laws," Moscoso told reporters. "If there is a
crime, we must put them on trial. It doesn't matter if they are the biggest
of terrorists."
Castro, in Panama for a summit of Ibero-American leaders last weekend,
had denounced an alleged plot to assassinate him while
in Panama. Panamanian authorities then detained the men who were carrying
false passports and later found 17.5 pounds of plastic
explosives buried near the Panama City airport.
Police are investigating whether the explosives belonged to the men. Their
lawyer has said the men knew nothing about the
explosives.
The explosives were to have been used to kill Castro when he gave a speech
at a university after the summit, according to the
most recent police investigations.
Local media have reported that Panamanian prosecutors are planning to charge
the four with criminal association and attacking
the government--a terrorism charge--but officials have not confirmed what
the charges will be.
Panama might also have to weigh an extradition request from Venezuela,
where Posada Carriles escaped from custody in 1985
while awaiting retrial on charges involving the 1976 bombing of a Cuban
jetliner that killed 73 people.
Posada Carriles, an ex-CIA operative, was acquitted twice in Venezuela
but was later convicted in absentia and sentenced to 30
years in prison. He has denied involvement in the jetliner attack.