The Pride of Perez Roura

Today's Miami Herald reports that the patriot/terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Texas (finally). Anyway, Radio Mambi's general director Armando Perez Roura found this decision as an "abuso"(abuse) and quoted Carriles' lawyer, Eduardo Soto, saying that the charges are "absurdo"(absurd). Furthermore, Radio Mambi's morning show, "La Noticia y Usted/En Caliente," had a spokesperson from the "formerly" militant Cuban-American exile group Alpha 66, stating their full condemnation of the recent indictment.

In the Mambi morning show, Enrique Encinosa, one of the three hosts of the political talk program, said that the decision of the grand jury, and its absurdity, lies in an earlier US statement pointing out that releasing Carriles from prison would pose a problem with foreign relations. Afterwards, Encinosa equated this decision with the likes of being coerced by Libya or some other unfavorable nation. But this is not the case.

International pressure DID and continues to play a part in this case, but it does not originate from ONE country, like Encinosa's inaccurate example.

In October of 2005, at the 15th Ibero-American Summit, virtually ALL the countries from the Latin region condemned US policy towards Cuba, specifically asking that Luis Posada Carriles be tried and extradited to Venezuela. That's 19 nations, not one.

I will produce in the future the statements made by Alpha 66 this morning.

For now, I will leave you with what Armando Perez Roura had to say about Luis Posada Carriles, and another defendant (Santiago Alvarez) who was indicted yesterday.

[From December 22, 2006 - La Noticia y Usted/En Caliente (Morning Show)]

Armando Perez Roura:

"...we have compatriots whom we love and admire much, in the prisons of the United States. I want to tell you what I told Santiago [Alvarez] and Luis [Posada Carriles] yesterday, so the message can be heard by all, absolutely all of those who are suffering in prison for trying to and using their courage to, in all senses, liberate Cuba:

"We are proud of you, we are proud of you. [Or: We have pride because of you.]

"You are the reserve [military or reservoir of good will] that we have, so that one day not far, we can return without bowed heads before a regime that has destroyed our motherland."