By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press
Posted May 8 2007, 2:00 PM EDT
HAVANA -- Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro blamed an airliner
hijack attempt on the United States, saying in a statement published
Tuesday that two soldiers who seized a plane and killed an officer
thought they would escape punishment if they reached U.S. soil.
Castro linked the failed attempt to the recent release of anti-communist
militant Luis Posada Carriles from U.S. custody on bond. Cuba's Foreign
Ministry distributed Castro's statement to international reporters by
e-mail late Monday and it was published Tuesday in the Communist Party
daily Granma.
The hijacking, 80-year-old leader declared, was ``a consequence of
freeing the monster of terror.''
``The impunity and the material benefits that have been rewarded for
nearly half a century for all violent action against Cuba stimulate such
acts,'' he wrote.
Cuba for weeks has protested a U.S. judge's decision to release Posada
on bond pending a hearing on immigration fraud charges scheduled for
Friday. He is being held under house arrest at his family's home in
Miami, and is wearing an electronic monitoring device.
Cuba and Venezuela accuse him of masterminding a 1976 Cubana airliner
bombing that killed 73 people, and Venezuela is seeking his extradition
for trial in that case. Cuba also accuses him of orchestrating a string
of 1997 Havana hotel bombings, including one that killed an Italian tourist.
Posada denies involvement in both cases.
Castro has not been seen in public since July, when he announced he had
undergone emergency intestinal surgery and ceded his presidential
functions to his 75-year-old brother Raul, the defense minister.
The elder Castro has been shown occasionally in official photographs and
videos since, appearing stronger in recent images, and since late March
he has penned a series of columns titled ``Reflections of the Commander
in Chief.''
In the new column, Castro wrote that the two soldiers involved in the
Thursday morning hijacking attempt had not yet been tried because both
were wounded, one of them shot.
Although Cuba now rarely employs the death penalty, the non-governmental
Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation on Monday
urged governments around the world to petition Havana not to send the
would-be hijackers to a firing squad.
Castro wrote that the Cuban people were ``profoundly indignant over what
has happened'' and added, ``A great deal of serenity and cold blood are
needed to face these issues.''
The two soldiers were among three who earlier escaped from their
military post, killing a sentry and wounding a second before fleeing
with automatic rifles.
One was captured before the hijacking attempt. But officials said the
other two commandeered a city bus with eight people aboard, forced the
driver to travel to the Havana airport and marched the group onto an
empty plane and demanded to be flown to the United States.
While on the craft, an army lieutenant colonel who had been on the bus
was shot four times and killed when he tried to stop the defecting
soldiers, Castro's statement said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-58cubashootout,0,2688505.story?coll=sfla-news-cuba
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