Guatemalans Condemn Posada Release
Guatemalan Mario Minera, speaking as head of the country s fine arts union, condemned the US decision to release terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, a figure infamous throughout Central America.

In his statement Tuesday, Minera pointed out the double standard wherein Washington claims to be fighting terrorism while releasing this admitted terrorist.

Posada Carriles was the brains behind terrorist attacks such as the sabotage of a Cuban civilian plane in mid-flight in 1976, was involved in the Iran-Contras scandal, in terrorist attacks on several Cuban hotels killing an Italian tourist, and in the preparations to assassinate President Fidel Castro in Panama, the Guatemalan union leader recalled.

Some 100 Guatemalan notables and representatives of several social organizations signed the call demanding that Posada Carriles be tried for the crimes he has committed.

Among those who signed the document are Nobel Peace prizewinner Rigoberta Menchu and such intellectuals as Jose Barnoya, Alfonso Bauer, Elmar Rene Rojas, Igor Sarmiento and Ernesto Bayley.

Presidential Human Rights Commissioner Frank La Rue and political leaders Pablo Monsanto, Hector Nuila and Ricardo Rosales were also among the signatories.

Guatemalan organizations demanding punishment for Posada Carriles are the Human Rights Legal Action Center, the Association of Parents of Students Studying in Cuba and the National Union of Communities for Human Rights.