Declaration of the Family Committee of the Barbados Martyrs

Exactly two years ago today, on April 11, 2007, our Commander in Chief denounced the presence of Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles in the United States. Two years have gone by and the United States government continues to protect the notorious international terrorist, failing to fulfil its duties in the real struggle against this sinister scourge affecting humanity.

As a result of the double-faced morale of the government of the United States in the war against terrorism, Luis Posada Carriles appears before the American justice system only to lie to the immigration authorities during his naturalization procedure in that country.

The lack of action by the American government to bring to light the proof in their possession which reveals the terrorist nature of this dangerous individual and allows him to be identified as such, smoothed the way for an unusual and unacceptable judicial decision made last Friday, April 6 by Judge Kathleen Cordone: releasing Luis Posada Carriles on bail with restrictive conditions.

Faced with these blatant and immoral manoeuvres:

· We demand that the government of the United States cease to protect the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

· We demand that the government of the United States honour the agreements of which it is a signatory and which oblige it to pass judgement on Luis Posada Carriles on American soil.

· We demand that if the government of the United States does not wish to try Posada Carriles as a terrorist, it must agree to abide by the request for extradition made by the Bolivarian government of Venezuela by virtue of the treaty in effect between both countries.

It is unethical to accuse Posada Carriles of being a liar and deceive the world as to his terrorist nature.

It is unethical to accuse someone of being a liar and to hide the truth in order to exonerate a dangerous terrorist.

It is unethical to unleash counter-terrorist wars, to cause the deaths of thousands of citizens in far-off parts of this world, and to shelter self-confessed and still active terrorists on their own soil.

We have insistently repeated that we are not motivated by revenge; we only demand that the impunity which has accompanied the Barbados crime for more than 30 years finally cease. It is unacceptable that a man who does not repent for any of his actions and who affronts the entire world saying that if he were to be born again he would plunge innocent families into mourning yet again should go free on bail.

Tomorrow, on April 12, it will be 10 years since the bomb explosion in the “Aché” Discotheque of the Melía Cohiba Hotel, the first bomb in a series of terrorist acts committed against tourist facilities. With complete unconcern for human lives, Luis Posada Carriles admitted to being the intellectual author of these events. One of these terrorist acts took the life of a young Italian, Fabio Di Celmo, on September 4, 1997.

We reject the manoeuvres carried out by some of the press media who insist on showing the dangerous terrorist Luis Posada Carriles as a feeble old man, suffering from various ailments. Posada Carriles has spent more than 40 years suffering from an ailing soul. The United States government has a great responsibility to issue the real diagnosis of this individual: “Posada is suffering from the disease of terrorism” and the sooner this diagnosis is made, the greater will be the contribution for the lives and health of all humanity.

We shall never give up in our efforts for justice to prevail. Until it comes to pass, this energetic and virile people will cause injustice to tremble.