Posted: May 20, 2008, 12:14 PM CST
Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) is a Cuban-born Venezuelan anti-Castro terrorist. A former CIA operative, Posada has been convicted in absentia of involvement in various terrorist attacks and plots in the Western hemisphere, including involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed seventy-three people[1][2] and has admitted to his involvement in other terrorist plots including a string of bombings in 1997 targeting fashionable Cuban hotels and nightspots.[3][4][5] In addition, he was jailed under accusations related to an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000, although he was later pardoned by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso in the final days of her term.[6][7]
Posada, nicknamed Bambi,[8] is regarded as a hero by some Cuban exiles hostile to the government in Havana. According to Pepe Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, "He's been fighting one of the worst tyrannies this continent has experienced." Posada, who has denied involvement in the Cubana 455 bombing, insisted his "only objective was to fight for Cuba's freedom".[9]
In 2005, Posada was held by U.S. authorities in Texas on the charge of illegal presence on national territory before the charges were dismissed on May 8, 2007. His release on bail on April 19, 2007 had elicited angry reactions from the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.[10] The U.S. Justice Department had urged the court to keep him in jail because he was "an admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks", a flight risk and a danger to the community.[5]