Background

Luis Posada Carriles was born in Cuba but became a Venezuelan intelligence agent with strong ties to the United States. During the last four decades, he has been connected to several terrorist attacks, including the 1976 bombing of Cubana de Aviación flight 455 that killed 73 people.

After Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba, Posada Carriles emigrated to the United States and served in the U.S. army. He then moved to Venezuela and acquired citizenship there. In Caracas, he worked in the Department of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), the Venezuelan investigative police, until 1974. During that time, Posada Carriles was on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency. After leaving DISIP, he started a private investigative agency where he was employed when the Cubana attack took place.

One of the victims of the bombing was 19-year-old Raymond Persaud. At the time of his death, Raymond was a student in Georgetown, Guyana. He was one of six students in the country awarded a scholarship to study medicine in Cuba. He was on his way to the university when he was killed in the attack. CJA represents Raymond’s sisters, Sharon Persaud and Roseanne Nenninger. Sharon is an attorney and works as a citizenship supervisor for the Department of Homeland Security. Roseanne is a doctor. They emigrated from Guyana to the United States along with their family in 1979, three years after their brother was killed.

Although declassified U.S. government documents tie Posada Carriles to the people who placed the explosives on the Cubana flight, he has never been convicted for the crime. After the bombing, he was imprisoned in Venezuela, but he escaped in 1985 before facing trial. In 2001, he was investigated in Panama for planning another terrorist attack. The Government of Venezuela requested his extradition but Panamanian authorities denied the request. Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso then pardoned Posada Carriles on all the charges.

Posada Carriles entered the United States illegally earlier this year. On May 17, agents of the Department of Homeland Security detained him on deportation charges. Venezuela has requested his extradition so that he can stand trial in that country for the Cubana bombing. The U.S. government has not yet responded to the extradition request. An immigration judge has refused to send him back to Venezuela but for the time being Posada Carriles remains in an immigration detention facility in El Paso, Texas.

Under the extradition treaty with Venezuela, the U.S. government is obligated to extradite individuals who have been indicted on murder charges, unless they are indicted or jailed in the U.S. CJA represents the family members in order to ensure that they have a voice in the process and to make sure that the U.S. upholds its end of the treaty. The family wants to make certain that Posada Carriles is prosecuted for his crimes.