After a rigorous and complex investigative and instructional process, the Salvadorans Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon and Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena, and the Guatemalans Maria Elena Gonzalez Meza, Nader Kamal Musalam Barakat and Jazid Ivan Fernandez Mendoza -who participated in terrorist actions against the Republic of Cuba and were members of a Central America-based ring led and financed by the terrorist organization Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF)- will be brought to trial.

As disclosed earlier, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon -- 27 years of age -- captured on 4 September 1997, is the confessed author of six terrorist actions in which he used explosive devises against the "Capri," "Nacional," "Copacabana," "Triton," and "Chateau" hotels, and the "Bodeguita del Medio" restaurant, all located in Havana. Due to Cruz Leon's actions, Italian Fabio Di Celmo -- 32 years old -- was killed and seven other people were injured.

As a result of a careful and rigorous investigation, which was aided by Cruz Leon's own statements and information gathered from other sources, including U.S. and Central American media, Cruz Leon's membership in a Salvadoran ring of mercenaries, organized and funded by the Cuban-American National Foundation was confirmed. Similarly, the connection to acts of terrorism in Cuba of renowned terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, mastermind of the mid-flight bombing of a Cubana Airliner in 1976, and of other leaders of CANF, has been well-established.

Cruz Leon was recruited by Salvadoran Francisco Chavez Abarca, who confided to Cruz Leon that he "had previously set bombs off in Cuba following the orders of third parties who were financing the operation."

Subsequent investigations ratified the link between Chavez Abarca and Posada Carriles and other individuals of Cuban origin currently residing in the United States. Research also confirmed that Chavez Abarca placed two bombs in tourist facilities on the island in April of 1997.

Likewise, according to available information, Chavez Abarca traveled to Mexico on 22-25 May 1997, and on the 24th, an explosion occurred at the "Cubanacan" enterprise headquarters, which makes Chavez Abarca a suspect of being the perpetrator of this other action. From the available information, this individual is known to have low moral principles and a long criminal background. He is a typical hitman of those abundant in death squadrons, who found a new job in the mercenaryism promoted from Miami and New Jersey.

The other Salvadoran detainee, Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena, 40, was caught on June 10th this year, at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport, as he attempted to smuggle into Cuba 1.519 Kg of high-powered plastic explosives, two bomb fuses and other means to be used in terrorist actions.

The investigation and Rodriguez's own statements determined that he had been responsible for the explosion that occurred in the lobby of Havana's Melia-Cohiba Hotel on August 4, 1997.

Rodriguez Llerena acknowledged that the organizer and supplier of the resources for both actions was Luis Posada Carriles, whom he identified as Ignacio Medina -one of the aliases used by him- and who, after several contacts, urged him to bring a bomb to Cuba and advised him to plant it in hotels or museums, regardless of the victims he could have caused because of the power of the explosive used.

Posada Carriles gave him the means and showed him how to program and assemble the device. He also gave him the airplane tickets and the rest of the documentation, and paid him $1,000 for the first action and for the Cuba stay's expenses.

The Guatemalan citizens Maria Elena Gonzalez Mesa, 54, and Nader Kamal Musalam Barakat, 28, were arrested on 4 March 1998, while posing as tourists and attempting to place four bombs in crowded public places. The two Guatemalans had arrived in Cuba that same day, on board the Guatemala City-Cancun-Havana Flight 950 of Aviateca Airlines, bringing with them 432 grams of explosives, hidden in four bottles of shampoo and one of deodorant. The defendants also brought with them four electric detonators and other means disguised amongst their luggage.

Jazid Ivan Fernandez Mendoza -Maria Elena's husband-, 28, was arrested as he arrived in Havana on 20 March 1998, for the purpose of helping his wife leave the country. In subsequent questioning, he acknowledged that he knew about his wife's and her partner's terrorist plans and that he had participated in disguising the triggering devices, which matched the other two Guatemalans' testimony.

During the investigation, Nader Kamal and Maria Elena admitted that they had committed other crimes related to assassinations, assaults, hijacking operations and robberies in Guatemala. They also said that Francisco Chavez Abarca had participated in some of the actions.

The three Guatemalan detainees have also admitted to Chavez Abarca's participation in organizing their operation and they point to Arnaldo Monzon Plasencia, a leader of the Cuban-American National Foundation, "Ramon Medina" -- one of Luis Posada Carriles' many aliases -- and an individual whom they identified as the "Man from New Jersey," as their leaders and financial supporters.

 Maria Elena declared that Arnaldo Monzon and "Ramon Medina" owed Chavez Barca some money and that, at her house, the Salvadoran terrorist received several calls from New Jersey.

Maria Elena and Nader Kamal have given a detailed account of the role played by Posada Carriles and Monzon Plasencia in the preparation and organization of these facts. It has also been clearly determined that the latter is CANF's man in charge of leading the actions from El Salvador and Guatemala and has been involved in previous violent acts against Cuba.

Monzon Plasencia -a New Jersey-based international criminal posing as businessman- was related, in the sixties and seventies, to the terrorist organizations "Omega 7", the "Cuban Nationalist Movement" and "Alpha 66". In the 80's, he became a member of CANF and, since 1995, has funneled significant resources for the promotion of criminal actions against our country and started the recruiting of mercenaries -people of the worst species: gansters, hitmen, thieves, and drug, arms or stolen car smugglers- used as "waged soldiers" in CANF's war against Cuba. That is how the Central American terrorist group was set up, under the leadership of Posada Carriles, subordinate to the Foundation's paramilitary group.

It was Monzon Plasencia that arranged and financed the first planting of a bomb in a Cuban hotel, detected in March 1995 at the Varadero Beach resort. That action marked the launching of CANF's terrorist campaign against the island. Santos Armando Martinez Rueda and Jorge Enrique Ramirez Oro, U.S.-based terrorists of Cuban origin and perpetrators of that 1995 action, for which they are now serving prison terms, were recruited by the above-mentioned CANF leader to, first, infiltrate Cuba by sea, backed by air and sea support made available by CANF. They were given the mission of hiding 51 pounds of C-4 explosive. They later would travel under aliases, with false passports, as Costa Rican tourists, for the purpose of planting a bomb at an important Varadero hotel. These individuals were caught before the bomb exploded and the plastic bucket containing the explosive they had smuggled through the north coast of Las Tunas province was occupied.

Throughout the investigation, it has been possible to establish the similarity in the modus operandi of the detainees; the same type of explosives and other devices used, as well as the recruitment of four of the five involved people by Chavez Abarca, the main Central American link operating at the command of Luis Posada Carriles.

All these individuals are mercenaries who would be paid between one and four thousand dollars for each bomb they detonated in Cuba. They have repeated in their testimony that their main motive for becoming involved in these actions has been money and the benefits promised by their recruiters, who at the same time train them, make means and passports available to them, or take charge of migration arrangements without any difficulty, and even see them off or welcome them at the airport when they return from fulfilling their hideous plans.

Since its birth in 1981, the Cuban-American National Foundation has provided financial resources and other means to terrorist groups so that they carry out actions aimed at encouraging internal subversion in Cuba and destabilizing the country through the use of violence.

Since 1994, top executives of the organization began recruiting people to send to Central America for the purpose of increasing the number of people there who were hostile to Cuba so as to play the role of a logistic support base for their violent actions against Cuba.

 Hence, it did not come as a surprise in 1995 to see an escalation of terrorist actions against our country in the context of the CANF strategy of hitting tourist resorts and economic targets. They went from intimidation from the sea (five aborted infiltrations and five pirate attacks between 1990 and 1994) on to hiring international terrorists for planting bombs in hotels and other economic facilities.

In the course of these events, it is not strange either, to see the close complicity between Posada Carriles and Monzon Plasencia in organizing, planning and financing these actions in Central America; an area in which CIA-paid Cuban Americans enjoy a great ease of movement and have rich and influential friends.

 It was also significant that on 11 August 1997, at the climax of the escalated violence against Cuban tourist resorts, when several bombs had already exploded and just days before the planting of four more by Cruz Leon, CANF published in the Miami press a statement supporting those actions, signed by 28 of its leaders.

The so-called "Message from the CANF Board of Directors," among other things, said:

"The Cuban people, like every people who fights for its freedom, has the right to choose the tools available to obtain it." Further on, it openly claimed that it supported such acts and that "we have the inescapable obligation to come and help without excuses or limitations."

The capture of Rodriguez Llerena, of the three Guatemalans and other cases still under investigation, reveal the cynicism and cowardice of the CANF leaders, whose terrorist plans against Cuba, through the use of Central American mercenaries, continued despite the denunciations made by our government in the wake of the arrest of Salvadoran Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon in September 1997.

The efficiency of the island's defense mechanisms and the active struggle of the country, with the participation and the support of the whole people, is making such repugnant and criminal plans more difficult.

Likewise, CANF-sponsored plans against Cuban President Fidel Castro's life have not abated during this trips abroad, and one of most revealing public proofs was the seizure, near Puerto Rico in October 1997, of a boat owned by Jose Antonio Llama, member of the Board of Directors of the organization. The boat was seized as it headed towards Margarita island, Venezuela, on a plan to assassinate the Cuban president during the 7th Ibero-American Summit.

The international media spread the news and asserted that, in a secret compartment in the yacht "La Esperanza", there was an arms arsenal, seven boxes of ammunition, military fatigues, six portable radios, a satellite phone, night-vision equipment and telescopic lenses. One of the two Barret high-caliber assault rifles occupied on board (worth seven thousand dollars and capable of hitting a target a mile away) was registered to Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez, Chairman of the Cuban-American National Foundation.

The State Security agencies continue to receive information of the escalated plans and illegal actions of U.S.-based individuals of Cuban origin and organizations, aimed at the promotion and execution of terrorist actions against facilities and persons in the national territory or targeting Cuban citizens or interests abroad, based on the impunity they have historically enjoyed in the United States.

 Our country had been forced to maintain absolute discretion until now on most cases, because of the investigation's complexity and the innumerable connections, persons, places and facts that it has been necessary to study. The Interior Ministry's specialized agencies have vast data, testimonies, expert and criminal findings, documents, weapons, explosives and other devices, constituting proof of the participation of CANF's leaders and members, as well as other counter-revolutionary organizations supported by or subordinate to CANF's plans and actions.

Our agencies have shared this information with the special services of other countries.

During the State Security's investigation, in close coordination with the Republic's General Attorney's Office, enough elements of proof of the offenses committed by all five detained terrorists; thus, these individuals will be immediately put at the disposal of the competent courts to have them respond for their illegal and criminal activity, in conformity with existing laws.

Also, ongoing surveillance and follow-up continue in the face of the Cuban-American National Foundation's criminal plans from the United States and CANF's mercenary agents in other countries in the area, with the assurance that the Cuban Revolution will deal firmly with the enemies of the Cuban people and with those who attempt to disrupt their peace and security.

 New York, 1 November 1998