Still A Terrorist (Updated)

In the past several days, news of anti-castro militant Luis Posada Carriles' arrival in Miami has surfaced. For those of you who aren't familiar with Posada, he was arrested in Venezuela in 1976 along with Orlando Bosch for blowing up a Cuban airliner with 73 passnegers, mostly Cuban athletes. He has also been possibly linked to hotel bombings in Havana in 1997, as well as taken part in planned attacks on Cuban interests in Central America. He was arrested in Panama in 2000 for allegedly plotting to kill fidel castro during a summit in that country, then subsequently pardoned by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso last year.

Posada is regarded as a hero by some in the Cuban exile community. That bothers me. It bothers me a lot, actually. While virtually all exiles can agree that fidel is the enemy, by no means whatsoever should we support any kind of terrorist activity which harms or kills innocent people, even if the goal is to get rid of fidel.

I'm sure only a very small minority of exiles support Posada despite his shady past, but it's the perception of the Cuban-American community as a whole that I worry about. By allowing Posada to settle comfortably in Miami, it would send a message that we are allowing a confessed terrorist to live freely and perhaps plan more sinister activities. While that accusation would be totally unfair, it is one that we would have spend time trying to live down. We're already pretty much alone in our battle against the castro regime, and the mainstream media does nothing but hurt our cause. Posada settling here would only serve to justify our detractors' false perceptions.

I hope that U.S. authorities do the right thing and detain him rather than letting him go free right away. After all, a terrorist, even an anti-castro one, is still a terrorist.

UPDATE 4/12/05: Herald columnist Jim DeFede has a story on Posada's image.