Posada, who turns 83 next month, freely admits spending a lifetime seeking to topple Cuba’s communist government.
But he is facing 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and naturalization fraud, accused of making false statements during immigration interviews five years ago in El Paso about how he got into the US and about his role in a string of 1997 bombings that rocked Havana hotels and killed an Italian tourist.
Timothy Reardon, a Washington-based US attorney who focuses on counterterrorism, said Posada “is a fierce Castro foe. The evidence will show that he would do anything to bring that government down.” He told the jury during opening statements Wednesday that Posada, “can do anything he wants to the Cuban regime” and is not on trial for it, but that he violated federal law when he lied about it under oath while seeking American citizenship.
Posada’s lead defense attorney, Arturo Hernandez, countered that the Cuban militant “substantially told the truth” during naturalization hearings in 2005 and that the government’s case is built on an unreliable paid informant.
Cuba and Venezuela accuse Posada of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Both governments also say Posada was behind the 1997 Havana hotel attacks. The US is not trying Posada on either matter, however.
A federal immigration judge has previously ruled he cannot be deported to Venezuela or Cuba for fear he could be tortured.
In recent interviews with The Associated Press, Posada did not deny prosecutors’ account of how he reached American soil five years ago, but he has still pleaded not guilty.
He declined to directly answer questions about his role in the hotel bombings.
Hernandez said his client has “always been on the side of our country” and that he never committed perjury. Instead, Hernandez argues, Posada was the victim of false accusations by government informant, Gilberto Abascal.
“In a long life of 83 years, he has made some very powerful enemies. None more powerful than Fidel Castro and his regime,” Hernandez said.
The white-haired Posada has declined to speak to reporters during the proceedings, but Hernandez said “some steps have been taken to increase security” around him. Earlier in the week, a small group of protesters yelled insults at the defendant inside the downtown hotel where he is staying.
Posada was born in Cuba but left after Castro came to power in 1959. He worked for the CIA in the early 1960s under the codename, “AMCLEVE/15,” and remained a paid informant for years after that. In the 1980s, he was acquitted in Venezuela of the airliner bombing, then escaped from prison while awaiting a government appeal. He later played a role in the US Iran-Contra affair.
Also the former head of Venezuela’s intelligence agency, Posada has denied taking part in blowing up the airliner, though declassified FBI documents quote informants as saying he was deeply involved.
Prosecutors maintain Posada lied under oath to immigration authorities when he denied involvement in the 1997 bombings, which killed Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo at Havana’s Hotel Copacabana.
Reardon said the jury will hear tapes of interviews Posada granted the New York Times in which he admitted to the hotel bombings and tried to call attention to them because “he wanted more bang for his buck,” after fears the attacks had failed to substantially hurt Cuban tourism.
Hernandez said the Times and the reporter who conducted the interviews are biased, and that tapes are not authentic. He also said they show Posada actually explains that those bombings were committed by Cuban government operatives, describing them as “an inside job.” In March 2005, his lawyer said Posada had come to Miami and was seeking US political asylum. US authorities arrested him that May. Posada has claimed he was brought across the US border into Texas by a smuggler, but authorities allege he sailed from Mexico to Florida aboard the “Santrina,” a shrimp boat converted into a yacht.
Reardon said the evidence will prove that Posada used a false passport in Guatemala bearing the name of Manuel Enrique Castillo Lopez to travel to Isla Muejres, near Cancun, Mexico, in March 2005, then sailed to Miami.
“You’ll hear that Mr. Posada had quite a number of names,” Reardon said, referring to the many aliases Posada has used over the years.
Hernandez acknowledged Posada went to Isla Mujeres, but only to receive $10,000 from a benefactor. He then returned to Guatemala and paid a smuggler to escort him through Mexico, into Texas. He said the government’s informant, Abascal, received at least $150,000 to provide false information and that he had even spied for the Cuban government.
