By José Dídimo Escobar on September 23, 2024
Terrorists and their Protectors
On September 11, 35 former presidents and prime ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia wrote a letter to President Joe Biden demanding that Cuba be excluded from the list of state sponsors of terrorism compiled by the U.S. Department of State.
The signatories called attention to the fact that four months ago the State Department itself assessed “that it is no longer appropriate” to keep Cuba on the list of States that do not fully cooperate in the fight against terrorism, among other arguments because “the United States and Cuba resumed law enforcement cooperation in 2023, including the fight against terrorism”.
Three days later, on September 14, former Colombian president Iván Duque mounted a desperate missive asking President Biden to keep Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Thus, the former president discovered that his dealings with the Trump Administration caused Cuba to be included in the aforementioned list.
The signatories of Duque’s letter include none other than Juan Guaidó, the infamous self-proclaimed pretend president-in-charge of Venezuela, in one of the most fantastic episodes of politics ever.
The self-proclaimed is not the only extravagance in this list of signatories. He is accompanied by Jeanine Añez, who from being second vice-president of the Bolivian Senate became interim president by means of an act considered illegal by the First Anticorruption Sentencing Court of La Paz, and for which the illustrious signer of Duque’s letter is currently in prison in Bolivia.
By the creative imagination of the Colombian ex-president included in his list, a governor of Puerto Rico who magically became president for the occassion. Thus, Duque classifies the governor of a commonwealth in the category of head of state or head of government of sovereign states. The need to stretch the list led Duque to grasp at anything.
How could former President Mireya Moscoso sign such a letter? The last act of government of the then Panamanian president was to grant amnesty to terrorists, as when she released Luis Posada Carriles and Gaspar Eugenio Jimenez Escobedo, who were sentenced in April 2004 in Panama to eight years in prison, and Guillermo Novo Sampoll, Pedro Crispin Remon and Cesar Matamoros, sentenced to seven years in prison for threatening collective security, by participating in a plan to assassinate President Fidel Castro Ruz with bombs at a public event in the auditorium of the University of Panama.
It is not known how former Ecuadorian president Guillermo Lasso, who only a year and a half ago, had to resign and dissolve the parliament when he had advanced in the process of his impeachment for the crime of embezzlement, dares to sign a letter.
The appearance of former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, served for only one year when the real president resigned, and who was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for defamation against a state-owned bank, is another eloquent sample of the collection of infamous people gathered by Duque Márquez.
Hidden in the list of signatories is Jamil Mahuad, who was overthrown by the Ecuadorian people and sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzlement.
The list of corrupt people who sign their names is surprising, as is Miguel Angel Rodriguez, who had to resign as Secretary General of the OAS due to corruption, although dubious subsequent proceedings exonerated him.
Rafael Calderón Fournier, the first former Costa Rican president tried and sentenced to five years in prison for corruption, also dares to accompany Iván Duque.
Another Calderón, Felipe, the one who won the presidency by fraud in Mexico and is remembered for having caused 60,000 deaths in the so-called fight against drugs, affixes his signature, which adds additional ignominy to the petition.
Duque’s friend, Mario Abdo Benítez, has time to give his opinion on such delicate matters when he should be dealing with the serious accusation made against him by two prosecutors in Paraguay for crimes of disclosure of secrets, inducing a subordinate to commit a punishable act and false declaration because “he would have set up a scheme that aspired to generate criminal investigations against figures contrary to his movement”.
A curious European firm could not fail to respond to Duque’s desperate call: Mariano Rajoy Brey, protagonist of the biggest corruption scheme in the history of Spain, the well-known “Gurtel case”, which caused his departure from the Government has heeded the call.
Iván Duque Márquez, the worst president in the history of Colombia, the one who failed to comply with rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice, who issued house arrest against him, who failed to comply with the peace agreements with the FARC-EP, the one who used rocket launchers and shotings from behind to repress demonstrators, has indeed assembled the companions he deserves.
Source: El Periodico de Panama, translation Resumen Latinoameicano – English