South Journal—Venezuela´s President Hugo Chavez
announced on Tuesday that Salvadorian terrorist Francisco Chavez
Abarca will be extradited to Cuba over the next few hours. The
island is requesting his extradition under Red Code for his
responsibility in the execution of terrorist attacks in Havana.
“Over the next few hours he (Chavez Abarca) will
be sent to Cuba by means of Interpol,” said Chavez during the 8
th Venezuela-Ecuador Presidential Meeting, la radio del Sur
webpage reported.
Chavez Abarca was imprisoned in El Salvador for two years for
his leadership of a gang dedicated to stealing cars, but the
Salvadorian justice did not judge him for other international
crimes.
Abarca and 21 members of his gang were arrested for charges of
criminal deception and theft of vehicles. Authorities assured
that the gang was one of the main structures of organized crime
dedicated to stealing vehicles at national level and in Central
America.
But a judge released Chavez Abarca on October 28, 2007 despite
his crimes. However, Abarca did not have to respond for his role
as main accomplice of Luis Posada Carriles in a campaign against
Cuba, which was not referred to at the Salvadorian court of
justice despite repeated denunciations in that respect.
In the 1990s, Chavez Abarca was accused of drug trafficking, and
of selling fire weapons and fake money in Guatemala. He used
false names such as Manuel Gonzalez, Roberto Solorzano and
William Gonzalez, and he made three brief trips to Cuba in April
and May of 1997 to carry out terrorist attacks.
In 1997, the terrorist planted and activated a 600-gram C-4 bomb
that damaged the restrooms of the Ache disco at the Melia Cohiba
Hotel, in Havana, Cuba on April 12 that year. On April 30th a
401-gram C-4 bomb was deactivated after the Salvadorian
terrorist had planted it in a flower pot on the 15th floor of
the Melia Cohiba Hotel.
On May 24, while Chavez Abarca was staying in Mexico, another
bomb blast occurred at the entrance of the office of Cuba´s
Cubanacan Corporation in that country. Also in 1997, under the
indications of Posada Carriles, Francisco Chavez Abarca hired
mercenary Rene Cruz Leon and gave him the mission of carrying
out terrorist actions in Cuba. Later, Cruz Leon made two trips
to Cuba and activated bombs in Cuban hotels; one of those bombs
killed young Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo on September 4,
1997.
International and confessed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles,
accused of having masterminded the bombing of a Cuban airplane
in mid air, which killed all 73 people on board in 1976, enjoys
freedom in Miami, the United States, despite the fact that
Venezuela has requested his extradition in several occasions.
Hugo Chavez also confirmed the arrest in Caracas of Colombian
drug capo Carlos Renteria, who will be extradited to the United
States. “He is Colombian but the United States wants it,” said
Chavez in a brief comment on the case. The US State Department
was offering a 5-million-dollar reward for Carlos Alberto
Renteria.