Free The 50 Worst Terrorist Attacks by Edward Mickolus, Susan L. Simmons

he would try to return. The plane crashed into the ocean, killing all 76 on board. Among them were 59 Cubans, 25 of them Cubana employees, including the crew and 16 members of Cuba’s championship fencing team, 11 Guyanese, 5 North Koreans, 2 Trinidadians, and 1 person each from Colombia and Venezuela. An anti-Castro Cuban exile group, El Condor, claimed credit, as did the CORU.
    On October 8, 1976, police in Port of Spain questioned two Venezuelans who left the plane in Barbados and returned to Trinidad the same night. On October 18, 1976, Hernan Ricardo Losano, who was carrying Venezuelan identity papers, claimed to have placed the bomb on board the plane. He was accompanied by Freddy Lugo. On October 14, 1976,Venezuelan authorities arrested Losano’s employer, Luis Posada Carriles; CORU leader Orlando Bosch, 49; and three other Venezuelans, identified as Oleg Gueton Rodriguez, Celsa Toledo, and Francisco Nunez.
    Bosch had entered the country on a false Costa Rican passport with a tourist visa and also carried a false set of Nicaraguan documents. The U.S. government had tried to extradite him. Bosch had been sentenced to four years in prison for carrying out illegal activities, including firing a bazooka at a Polish ship on September 16, 1968, but had violated his parole and fled to Venezuela on a false passport. It was later learned that Posada was a Cuban who was formerly head of the Venezuelan secret police (DISIP). Losano was an employee of the Caracas detective agency run by Posada. On October 22, 1976, Losano attempted suicide by slashing his wrist. He and Lugo had told police that they were photographers and had traveled to Trinidad to purchase cameras and equipment. There was evidence that they had contacts with Eric Searly, a Barbados political activist and boxing promoter. Trinidad said it would expel the duo. On November 2, 1976, a Venezuelan judge indicted Bosch, Posada, Losano, and Lugo on qualified murder charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 30 years. Five others were released without charges.
    The evidence as to culpability was sketchy. A British search team that found the sunken plane determined that the explosive used was C-4. Losano’s girlfriend took a call from him in Trinidad and relayed the message to Posada’s secretary, “Tell Posada the truck has left with a full load.” Venezuelan security police said that they had uncovered CORU plans for terrorist attacks by Cuban exiles in the United States, Venezuela, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, Panama, and Colombia. It was also claimed that shortly after the explosion, a caller from Barbados telephoned the office of a private investigation company in Caracas, “The bus is full of dogs.”
    Havana protested Venezuelan justice minister Fermin Marmol Leon’s conditional release of Losano and Lugo.
    Posada escaped from prison in 1985. Bosch, the alleged mastermind, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.
    On April 12, 2005, Posada, 77, wanted for the Cubana bombing, bombings in Cuban tourist hotels that killed an Italian tourist and injured 11 other people, and a 2000 plot to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama, applied for political asylum in the United States. On May 17, 2005, U.S. authorities arrested him in Miami after he conducted public interviews with local reporters. On May 19, 2005, the United States charged him with entering the country illegally. On May 21, 2005, Venezuela made a provisional arrest request while thousands throughout the country demonstrated for his return. The United States denied the request on May 27, 2005. A judge ruled on June 20, 2005, that the trial would remain in El Paso and not be moved to Florida. In the fall of 2005, a federal judge ruled that he could not be deported to Cuba or Venezuela. On March 22, 2006,U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that he would not be released but efforts to deport him to a willing country would continue. On January 11, 2007, he was indicted on