2 plead guilty in Cuban militant case

Source: Houston Chronicle/ Associated Press

Nov. 17, 2007, 12:48AM
2 plead guilty in Cuban militant case

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas — Two men who refused to testify before a federal grand jury investigating a Cuban militant pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges, authorities said.

Osvaldo Mitat and Santiago Alvarez, both Cuban exiles, were initially indicted on criminal contempt charges for refusing to testify before the grand jury even after being granted immunity. On Friday, they pleaded guilty to a superseding indictment charging them with obstruction, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Mitat, 65, and Alvarez, 66, each face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when they are sentenced Feb. 1.
(snip)

Posada, a former CIA operative and U.S. Army officer, was accused of lying about how he crossed into the United States. He claimed he was smuggled across the border in Texas, though prosecutors argued he arrived in Florida via boat.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5309919.html

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Osvaldo Mitat, end photos, Santiago Alvarez, in the middle.

Terrorists Arrested In Miami

by Jane Franklin

Among the many terrorists in Miami, two have finally been arrested.
Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat were picked up on November 18 and 19 and
charged with possession of numerous weapons, including fully automatic
machine guns along with ammunition, grenades along with a grenade launcher,
explosives along with blasting caps. Serial numbers on some of the guns had
been filed off. A briefcase held a pistol along with a silencer. In
addition, Santiago Alvarez is charged with attempting to receive a
counterfeit passport in his name--a Guatemalan passport even though he has
no claim to Guatemalan citizenship. Alvarez is a legal permanent resident
of the United States who has retained his Cuban citizenship.

Osvaldo Mitat is a Cuban-American. At the time of his arrest, he said,
"Unfortunately, you guys are doing your jobs and we got caught with a bunch
of guns. I love the United States....These guns were not meant to be used
against this country."

There is of course no mystery about which country they were going to be
used against. Santiago Alvarez is a real estate mogul with plenty of cash
to finance attacks against Cuba. Like his good friend, notorious terrorist
Luis Posada, Alvarez left Cuba soon after the Revolution of 1959. And, like
Posada, he has been waging a campaign of violence against the island ever
since. For example, on October 12, 1971, aboard a speedboat under cover of
darkness, terrorists machinegunned the fishing village of Boca de Samá,
killing two people and wounding three others, including two sisters,
15-year-old Nancy and 13-year-old Angela Pavón, who were asleep at the time
of the raid. Nancy Pavón's foot had to be amputated. Recently, at a speech
given by Fidel Castro, she sat among victims of terrorists who have killed
and maimed Cuban citizens and other people for four-and-a-half decades.
According to Cuban intelligence, Alvarez was aboard that speedboat.

The CIA knows who these terrorists are. The CIA trained them. As Luis
Posada told New York Times reporters in 1998, "The CIA taught us
everything--everything....They taught us explosives, how to kill, bomb,
trained us in acts of sabotage." Even as the Bush Administration claims to
be waging a war on terror, terrorists have continued to wage their war
against Cuba with impunity.
(snip)

While Posada was in prison in Panama, Santiago Alvarez sent three Cuban
Americans to Cuba in 2001 with weapons, explosives, and cash. They were
quickly arrested. Cuban officials videotaped a phone call to Alvarez made
from jail by one of the invaders, who asked Alvarez for instructions about
possible targets: "The other day you mentioned the Tropicana business. You
want me to do something there?" Alvarez answered, "If you want to do it, so
much the better; it's all the same to me. You sneak in through a window
with a couple of cans and that's that." The Tropicana nightclub is popular
with both Cubans and tourists, and those cans of course would have
contained explosives.
(snip/...)

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