BY JUANA CARRASCO MARTIN AND JORGE LUIS GONZALEZ —Granma daily special correspondents—

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica.—“Cuba is satisfied with the document,” affirmed Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque to members of the press who dashed to find out whether the meeting of ministers of foreign affairs had approved a special communiqué on terrorism that reaffirms the will and commitment to combat it in all its forms and manifestations, reiterates the obligation of all states to prevent impunity and expresses profound concern at the pardon granted to Luis Posada Carriles and his accomplices.

This has been a nerve point in discussions since the National Coordinators stage of the summit, and many among the press and other coteries presumed that the principled Cuban position of an express rejection of the pardon granted to those terrorists by Mireya Moscoso just before her presidential term expired in Panama would be frustrated.

However, the terms employed in the three paragraphs of the accepted document are conclusive.

The one referring to the pardon says: “While we recognize that the granting of pardons is the exclusive and sovereign prerogative of states, we observe with profound concern the recent release of four notorious terrorists of Cuban origin responsible, among other crimes, for an attempt to execute a terrorist attack in the framework of the 10th Ibero-American Summit. The results of the aforementioned release are incompatible with the efforts that the international community must make to effectively prevent and combat terrorism. We reaffirm that offering shelter and/or aid to them contradicts the principles of this Ibero-American community and international instruments in this context.”

The arguments that precede it are equally energetic, as in addition to a commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the text confirms the decision to “reinforce our national delegations and strengthen international cooperation in order to prevent, repress, combat and sanction any act of terrorism wherever it should occur and whomsoever should commit such an act, and not to lend aid or shelter to the authors, promoters or participants in terrorist activities.”

This points directly to the fact that the three accomplices of Posada Carriles – Pedro Remón, Guillermo Novo and Gaspar Jiménez – were given refuge in Miami and Posada Carriles, as Foreign Minister Pérez Roque noted, is in some country of this continent.

In this context, it is very important that the special communiqué on terrorism reiterates, in accordance with international law and agreements based on resolutions passed in the UN General Assembly and Security Council, “the obligation of all states and the international juridical instances to prevent the impunity of persons committing acts of terrorism in any part of the world, among other means, by apprehending, committing to trial or extraditing the authors of such acts.