Our Hypocrisy Exposed: Double Standards For Conve nience Sake

A Terrorist Goes Free

The Bush administration has held itself immune from international laws regarding the treatment and detention of those the government identifies as hostile, combatants and enemies (often without evidence or proof of this status), including indefinite detention, the suspension (abolishment) of habeas Corpus, torture and maltreatment, as well as "extraordinary renditon" to places where torture and abuse is commonly used for interrogation. Additionally, our human rights record in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere has been questionable at best and outright illegal and hypocritical at worst.

Our nation has even published a list of nations that have abused civil liberties and human rights, accusing even our staunchest allies (i.e. the UK) of violations, all the while ignoring our actions and policies that have done the same.

President Bush and his gang of fascist thugs have assured us that all terrorists will be hunted down and dealt with in a manner befitting the evil they represent and do. However, as this article in the New York Times illustrates, that policy is subject to the arbitrary and capricious whims of the Bush administration and whether or not it is convenient for, or conducive to, the Bush ideology and world view. We are currently protecting a known terrorist from prosecution because we do not like the governments that are seeking his extradition and return after he escaped from their prisons. The grounds for refusing extradition include the fact that both nations seeking his return are known for indefinite incarceration, the abolishment of habeas corpus, the use of torture and maltreatment, and the USA does not approve of such things.

I have been on hog farms that did not stink so bad. While I recognize that the Chavez and Castro governments are notorious for breaches of human rights, our claims of superior standards and righteousness are so bogus and so hypocritical that we cannot be taken seriously within the international community. Further, we are obligated by specific treaties with Venezuela, the Organization of American States and the United Nations to surrender fugitives with known terrorist involvement.

Our hypocrisy is so blatant and so self-serving that we should all be ashamed of our government and our President.

AFTER the attacks of Sept. 11, President Bush forcefully argued that it was every country’s duty to fight international terrorism. He made the case that sponsoring terrorism or simply looking the other way when it happened were equivalent acts, and the United States would stand for neither. But holes have started appearing in that principle, courtesy of a single Venezuelan terrorist, released this week from a New Mexico prison on bail.

In early 2005, Luis Posada Carriles, a Venezuelan with a long history of violent attacks in Latin America, sneaked into the United States and was soon arrested. Mr. Posada had escaped from a Venezuelan prison while awaiting trial in the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 73 people, including all 24 members of Cuba’s youth fencing team and several Guyanese medical students. This was the deadliest attack on a civilian airliner in the Western Hemisphere in history — until 9/11.

Upon Mr. Posada’s capture, the government of President Hugo Chávez demanded his extradition. But the Bush administration has refused to extradite Mr. Posada to Venezuela or Cuba, claiming that it fears he will be tortured in those countries. In fact, Washington’s reluctance is more likely linked to Mr. Posada’s history as a Central Intelligence Agency operative and a darling of extremist sectors of the powerful Cuban-American community in Florida (he tried to assassinate Fidel Castro with C-4 explosives placed in an auditorium packed with students in Panama in 2000). Twenty-two months have passed since Venezuela formally asked for his extradition, offering 2,000 pages of documentary evidence to substantiate its claim, yet the State Department has not even acknowledged receiving the request.

Nor has Mr. Posada been charged with the 1976 attack, even though declassified Central Intelligence Agency documents indicate that his role has long been accepted as fact. Instead, he faces charges of immigration fraud, a travesty that could be equaled only by charging Osama bin Laden with entering and leaving Pakistan without a visa. Finally, Mr. Posada was released on bail on Thursday, even though he is an obvious flight risk and a violent terrorist.

Of course, Mr. Posada’s case isn’t the first instance related to Venezuela in which the Bush administration has set aside its principles for political expediency. Five years ago last week, the Bush administration gleefully welcomed a coup that overthrew President Chávez, replacing him with a junta that suspended the Constitution, dismissed the National Assembly and dissolved the Supreme Court. Thankfully, the Venezuelan people ensured that their democratically elected president was returned to power two days later.

Just as the Bush administration’s support for the Venezuelan junta undermined its pledge to uphold and promote democracy around the world, allowing Mr. Posada to avoid prosecution for a vicious attack he can credibly be accused of masterminding throws into doubt the sincerity of President Bush’s war on terrorism. Mr. Posada is a terrorist, regardless of the cause he fought for or the allies he might have. The Bush administration’s foot-dragging on his extradition and its failure to even classify him as a terrorist is unconscionable.

Last week, Venezuelans celebrated the return of democracy after the coup against President Chávez. But they continue to mourn the 73 people killed aboard that civilian airliner. If President Bush is serious about the principles he set out after 9/11, he need only look to Venezuela and correct the mistakes he can. The coup has passed, but the chance to extradite or prosecute Mr. Posada hasn’t.

Bernardo Álvarez Herrera is Venezuela’s ambassador to the United States.