Cubana Flight 455
From Freepedia
Cubana Flight 455 was a Cubana de Aviación flight departing from Barbados, via Trinidad, to Cuba. On October 6, 1976 two timebombs variously described as dynamite or C-4 planted on the Douglas DC-8 aircraft exploded, killing all 73 people on board in the most deadly act of airline terrorism in the Western hemisphere until September 11. Evidence implicated several CIA-linked anti-Castro Cuban exiles and members of the Venezuelan secret police DISIP. Political complications quickly arose when Cuba accused the US government of being an accomplice to the attack. CIA documents released in 2005 indicate that the agency had prior knowledge that the bombing was going to take place.
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The Crash
On October 6, 1976, Flight CU-455 was scheduled to fly the following route: Guyana to Trinidad, Trinidad to Barbados, Barbados to Kingston, Jamaica, and finally Kingston to Havana, Cuba.
At 17:24, nine minutes after takeoff from Barbados's Seawell airport and at an altitude of 18,000 feet, a bomb located in the aircraft's rear lavatories exploded. The captain, Wilfredo Pérez Pérez, radioed to the control tower: "We have an explosion aboard, we are descending immediately! ... We have fire on board! We are requesting immediate landing! We have a total emergency!"
The plane went into a rapid descent, while the pilots unsuccesfully tried to return the plane to Seawell Airport. The plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, about eight kilometres short of the airport.
All 48 passengers and 25 crew aboard the plane died: 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese, and five North-Koreans. Among the dead were all 24 members of the 1975 national Cuban Fencing team that had just won gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championship; many were teenagers.
There were several officials of the Cuban government aboard the plane: Manuel Permuy Hernández, communist party director of the National Institute of Sports (INDER); Jorge de la Nuez Suárez, communist party secretary for the shrimp fleet; Alfonso González, National Commissioner of firearm sports; and Domingo Chacón Coello, an agent from the Interior Ministry [1].
The 11 Guyanese passengers included 18 and 19-year-old medical students, and the young wife of a Guyanese diplomat.
The five Koreans included government officials and a cameraman.
Judicial Proceedings
Arrests
Hours after the explosions, Trinidad authorities arrested Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo, two Venezuelan men who had boarded the plane in Trinidad and checked their baggage to Cuba but who had exited the plane in Barbados and flown back to Trinidad.
Lugo and Ricardo confessed, and their testimony, along with other evidence, implicated two other Venezuelans, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carilles. Evidence implicating Bosch as the mastermind of the attacks did not stand up in court, and he was found not guilty in two trials.
Authorities in Trinidad and Barbados decided not to prosecute the cases and deported the two men to Venezuela, possibly fearing that if they were handed over to Cuba, they would face the death penalty.
Posada and Bosch were both arrested in 1976 in Caracas, Venezuela.
Military Trial
On August 25, 1977, Judge Delia Estava Moreno referred the case to a military tribunal, charging all four co-conspirators with treason.
In September 1980, a Venezuelan military judge acquitted all four men.
The prosecutor appealed, arguing that a military court was the wrong forum to try the case for two reasons: none of the men were military personnel in 1976, and the crime of qualified homicide or aggravated homicide cannot be tried by a military tribunal. The Military Court of Appeals agreed and surrendered jurisdiction, rendering the acquittal moot.
Civilian Trial
The four were then charged with aggravated homicide and treason before a civilian court.
On August 8, 1985, Venezuelan judge Alberto Perez Marcano of the 11th Penal Court convicted Lugo and Ricardo, sentencing them each to 20 years in prison. The judge reduced the penalty to its lowest limit "due to the extenuating circumstance of no prior criminal records." Orlando Bosch was acquitted, because the evidence gathered by the Barbados authorities during the investigation could not be used in the Venezuela trial; it was too late in coming and had not been translated into Spanish.
Posada fled from the San Juan de los Morros penitentiary on the eve of the pronouncement of his sentence. He had been confined in this prison following two previous failed escape attempts. Allegations were made that Venezuelan authorities were bribed to help him escape. No verdict was entered against Posada because, according to the Venezuelan Penal Code, judicial proceedings cannot continue without the presence of the accused. The court issued an arrest warrant against him which was still pending as of September 2005.
Aftermath
A different judge then ordered the case reviewed by a higher court. The Venezuelan government declined to appeal the case any further, and in November 1987 Bosch was freed. He had spent 11 years in jail despite having been found not guilty twice.
Lugo and Lozano were released in 1993 and continue to reside in Venezuela.
Posada fled to Panama, then to the United States. In April 2005, a new warrant for Posada's arrest in connection with the bombing was issued by Venezuela by the government of Hugo Chavez. In September 2005, a US immigration judge ruled that Posada should not be deported to either Cuba or Venezuela because he could be subject to torture.
Political Implications
Some anti-Castro groups have justified the attack by stating that the plane was a military target because it contained military personnel and high-level Cuban and North-Korean government officials, and/or that the attack was revenge for other terrorist attacks originated by the Cuban government. Another explanation advanced by these groups is that the attack could have been ordered by Castro himself as a way to eliminate political opponents. Finally, they also point to the lack of reliability of Cubana de Aviacion, noting that the crash could have been an accident that the Castro government used to further its political agenda of opposition to the US government.
See Also
External Links
Categories: NPOV disputes | Airliner bombings | History of Cuba | 1976 | Terrorist incidents in the 1970s | Accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
