Arrested in Cuba on September 4, 1997, the foreigner was accused of placing six explosive devices
14ymedio, Havana, 31 December 2024 — Salvadoran Raúl Ernesto Cruz León was released this Monday in Cuba, where he served a 30-year prison sentence for carrying out terrorist attacks against tourist facilities on the island, official media reported. “Today, after serving his sentence, Cruz León has been released, demonstrating that Cuba respects its laws and guarantees justice, even for those who have committed serious crimes,” said a statement published in Cubadebate.
The article notes that Cruz León, “was arrested, tried and sentenced to death in Cuba. However, in an act of coherence and humanity, the Cuban legal system commuted his sentence to 30 years in prison.” In addition, the statement points out that his release, after serving his sentence, “is an example of the fairness of the Cuban legal system, which applies the laws impartially and consistently.”
However, it adds: “We cannot forget that the intellectual authors of these terrorist acts, who planned and financed the attacks, have lived and died in the United States without facing justice.”
It also states that Cuba “has faced terrorism with firmness and respect for legality, investigating and sanctioning those responsible for criminal actions that have caused pain and loss to its citizens and visitors.” The note reiterates that the United States “has allowed the intellectual authors and financiers of these terrorist attacks to live free and unpunished in Miami.” In that sense, it points to Luis Posada Carriles, who died “without being tried for his crimes,” and to “other promoters of terrorism against the Island who continue to enjoy impunity on US territory.”
Posada Carriles acknowledged in statements to The New York Times that he had organized the attacks with financing from the FNCA
Cruz León was arrested in Cuba on September 4, 1997 and accused of placing six explosive devices between July and September of that year in the hotels Nacional, Capri, Copacabana, Tritón, Chateau-Miramar and the well-known restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio, all in Havana.
One of those bombs caused the death of Italian businessman Fabio di Celmo, 32, and injured seven other people.
In the trial held in 1999, Cruz León was found guilty of the crime of “continuous terrorism” and sentenced to death after proving that he was sent to the island for those purposes by the anti-Castro organization Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana (FNCA), based in Miami, and by the Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who died in 2018 in that city of Florida.
Posada Carriles, a former CIA collaborator, acknowledged in statements to The New York Times that he had organized the attacks with financing from the FNCA.
In 2010, the People’s Supreme Court of the Island decided to replace the original sanction imposed on Cruz León with that of 30 years of deprivation of liberty, at the conclusion of his appeal of the death penalty.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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