Posada Carriles May Soon Hit the Streets, By José Pertierra

It’s now clear why the United States refused to charge Posada Carriles with terrorism. Not until now do we see exactly why the government charged him only with the single and timid charge of entering the country without proper papers. Instead of pursuing justice, the United States government simply scolded the terrorist.

According to an article published this Wednesday in the Miami Herald’s Spanish language newspaper, the Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently informed Posada’s lawyers that his “status as a detainee would be reviewed on the 24th of January.” This means that within a few weeks Posada Carriles, the man responsible for the blowing up of a passenger plane with 73 people on board in 1976, could soon be freed by the U.S. government under regulations that prohibit the indefinite detention of undocumented aliens whose deportation from the country cannot be carried out within a ninety-day period.

Everything has gone according to script so as to give the appearance of legality to actions whose intent is precisely to circumvent the law.

Immigration Judge William Abbott ordered Posada’s deportation to any country but Cuba or Venezuela on September 26, 2005. The law requires that once an order of deportation becomes final, it should be carried out within a ninety-day period or the person released, because the indefinite detention of undocumented aliens is illegal. In this case, the 90 days began running a month after the order became final when the government declined to appeal. That is to say, on the 26th of October.

In Zadvydas v. Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court held that an undocumented alien has the right to conditional liberty if he cannot be removed from the country within a reasonable period. However, terrorists are exempt from this ruling. “Terrorist” is a word that the government has avoided associating with Luis Posada Carriles at all costs.
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