HOW JAIL ESCAPEE JOINED REBELS' SUPPLY NETWORK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201610006-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: November 2, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201610006-9
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ON PAGE
cr1L uentais. assigned. A string of bombings
Friends, of. a Cuban exile, accused of Posada, a one-time CIA agent, followed in Colombia, Panama,
rrrrorism~tbpii'ad%aritage of a secret contra Bay of Pigs veteran and explosives Trinidad and Tobago and Barba-
.upply network to give him a new identity expert, escaped Aug. 18, 1985, dos.
after his escape from a Venezuelan IaiL last from a Venezuelan prison. Venezu. Posada's above-ground career
j; eat. telephone records and interviews elan authorities have accused Po- abruptly ended in October 1976
huw cads . ? --
Salvadoran phone records. show that
galls from a San Salvador house rented ov a
Ramon Medina" were placed to the Miami
homes or offices of a number of people with
L lure connections to. the accused bomber.
I Lib Posada Carriles. Among the recipients
11 the calib were usada?s wife, his family
doctor and a longtime friend-
F:40411e Haseofus the captive' An:terican
ar-
lando Bosch of masterminding a rested ?himL ands Boschrl ass the
1976 bombing that destroyed a suspected "intellectual authors" of
Cubana de Aviacion DC-8 airliner the airliner bombing. Two young-
shortly after it took off from er men. Freddy Lugo and Hernan
Bridgetown, Barbados. Seventy- Ricardo, Posada's part-time Vene-
three died. zuelan photo technician, were
Although the U.S. role in the arrested for placing the bomb.
flopango supply operation remains The case has languished in a
u "Lents tnat Posa. to years, during which Posada, a
na" as upe of two Cuban exited dilectip'g " da's friends broke him out of jail in "spirited and bold man," chafed at
contra supply fliefts at a Salvadoran Air' a carefully planned plot, secretly the snail's pace of Venezuelan
force base Nicaraguan authorities later spirited him across the Caribbean justice, according to Salvador Ro-
"aid that Medina and Posada were the same and took advantage of the clandes- mani, a Cuban exile leader in
person Now Posada's doctor and another tine contra world to stash him in Caracas. Posada twice tried and
friend have acknnwl.An.A in ,nto.v,owc r
'hat Posada made the calls from the Medina
sate housa."
It is still unclear who ordered. controlled
a :id paid for the contra supply effort
~- otinted from San Salvador's llopango Air
Hase It 1, also unclear who authorized
- Posada - 'k hose whereabouts are un-
- 'u ioin it But the new evidence
how. that the contra support system was
f n rhis instance to harbor an interna-
tional
fugitive under the noses of U.S.
officials.
U.S. officials have not denied
that they monitored the supply
operation, but maintained in inter-
views last week that they knew
nothing of Posada's participation.
"We obviously had no knowl-
edge of this man's presence in El
Salvador, if indeed he was there,"
a White House spokesman said.
'Far-fetched'
Intelligence and law enforce-
ment sources familiar with Cuban
exile activities said however, that
it was difficult to believe that the
appearance in El Salvador of a
man with Posada's extensive espi-
onage portfolio would have gone
unnoticed.
"There is no way Posada could
have gotten involved inside Ilopan-
go without some ICIA1 agency
involvement," said a Washington-
based law enforcement official. An
intelligence source described as
IN`I.AMI HERALD
2 November 1986
How jail escapee joined
rebels' supply network
Posada. now 58, first received
demolition and weapons training
before the 1961 Bay of Pigs
invasion. He formally joined the
CIA in 1965 as a military instruc-
tor and informant on the activities
of several Cuban exile organiza
tions plotting to overthrow the
Communist government of Fidel
Castro.
In 1965, the CIA document says.
Posada collaborated briefly with
Guatemalan conspirators seeking
to tap his demolitions expertise for
a coup d'etat in that country. In
1967 he moved to Venezuela
where he held a variety of
high-level jobs in government
intelligence and special police
operations for seven years. In 1974
he resigned as operations chief of
the Venezuelan intelligence ser-
vice to set up his own security
agency.
CIA informant
Throughout the period, the
agency document said, Posada
remained on the CIA payroll,rou.
tinely passing along information
on Venezuelan secret police activi.
ties and Cuban exile affairs. Exiles
respected him as a dedicated
anti-Castro militant and a highly
rated counterinsurgency expert.
In June 1976 Posada - and
Bosch, among others - attended
an anti-Castroist "summit" in the
Dominican Republic, where nu-
iaueu to escape. tie told Romani
and other friends after the second
attempt that "if he didn't get out
he was going to kill himself."
Posada. Romani said, "was a
desperate man."
The prison break, when it
finally came, was easy, at least in
the initial stages.
Venezuelan Cabinet ministers
later said Posada had been paying
key penitentiary officials a daily
stipend to buy their complicity in
his escape. In mid-1985 a friendly
exile couple sold his house for
about $11,000, sending half the
money to Posada and half to his
wife Nieves in Miami. On Aug. 18,
1985. after paying the equivalent
of S28.600 in all to prison authori-
ties, Posada walked out of the San
Juan de los Morros jail some 60
miles south of Caracas and disap-
peared. The source of the remain.
der of the bribe money is un-
known.
A Miami wholesaler and Bay of
Pigs veteran who said he had
spoken with one of two Cuban
exiles who aided Posada in his
escape said that Posada was told
while he was still in prison that a
job with the contras was waiting
for him in El Salvador.
Posada's Venezuelan lawyer,
Francisco Leandro Mora, would
not confirm this, but admitted that
the escape "was meticulously
planned" with plenty of outside
help. It was designed "to get Luis
out of the country within 24
hours," he said. Confined
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Forced to hide
According to Leandro Mora and
Venezuelan journalist Rafael del
Naranco. who later interviewed
Posada. the conspirators missed
signals in the first hours after the
escape, however, and were forced
to hide the fugitive in a Caracas
apartment building for about a
month. When public uproar over
the escape subsided, the conspira-
tors took Posada to another safe
house on Venezuela's Caribbean
coast. Leandro Mora and Del
Naranco said.
It is still unclear exactly how
much time Posada spent in this
second hideout. But he sent at least
two letters to friends in Caracas.
one dated Oct. 9, 1985, the other
dated Oct. 29.
The letters give a sense of
Posada's depression: "I am free.
but I feel a deep sadness because
my friends are still in prison."
Although he was trapped for the
moment, the network of Cuban
exiles an8 sympathizers that had
sprung him from jail now allowed
him to send messages to friends
and family more or less as he
wished: "Where I am there is a
total absence of news, and I don't
know what's happening. Nieves
will call you and will transmit
information! to a friend who will
get it to me through a complex
system of communications," said
one letter. He enclosed a Miami
telephone number for his wife.
Del Naranco said Posada spent a
hit over two weeks on the
Venezuelan coast, then flew or
sailed to a "nearby island" which
Leandro Anaya identified as "Aru-
ba. Bonaire or Curacao," tiny
Dutch territories just a few miles
off the beach.
The Miami wholesaler said that
the two men who eventually
accompanied Posada across the
Caribbean were both middle-aged
anti-Castro activists from Miami,
with businesses and families. The
older of the two exiles had been a
lieutenant in Cuba's Bureau of
Anti-Communist Repression under
former strongman Fulgencio Batis-
ta, he said. Both men were Bay of
Pigs veterans who had worked for
several months in their off hours
raising money for and shipping
supplies to the contras.
'Unknown soldiers'
"Unknown soldiers" in the an-
ti-Communist struggle, the whole-
saler called them.
The wholesaler, who met Posa-
da in the U.S. Army and also knew
him in Venezuela, said the two
men stayed with the fugitive
throughout the odyssey.
"A guy in jail nine years can't be
left alone on the street," he said.
Sometime late last fall, Posada
and his friends flew to a private
sugar plantation in the Dominican
Republic, the source said, changed
planes, then proceeded to a log-
ging camp in Honduras.
There, the wholesaler said, Po-
sada's friends provided him with a
Salvadoran passport -. official-
looking but false. Duly document-
ed. Posada crossed into El Salva-
dor without incident and began his
new life as "Ramon Medina," the
source said.
Several Cuban American
sources in Miami said they be-
lieved that Jorge Mas Canosa,
chairman of the Cuban American
National Foundation and another
Bay of Pigs veteran, had used his
influential contacts in Washington
to arrange Posada's Ilopango job.
Mas Canosa denied this.
"I like the guy, but Posada is the
subject of judicial proceedings" in
Venezuela, Mas said Friday. "He
hasn't been found guilty, but due
to those circumstances I wouldn't
have gotten involved."
Another Bay of Pigs veteran said
it was likely that Posada had been
brought into the contra operation
by Felix Rodriguez, a longtime
Cuban American CIA agent whom
Vice President George Bush rec-
ommended as an adviser to the
Salvadoran Armed Forces. When
Posada arrived. Rodriguez was
already working in Ilopango as
"Max Gomez."
"We have been asked if Mr.
Bush knew or knows Ramon
Medina," Steven Hart, the vice
president's spokesman, said last
week. "The answer is no. The
same answer holds for Ramon
Posada or any other names or
aliases."
By April. Posada had set up
housekeeping in a two-story stuc-
co house in a fancy San Salvador
neighborhood. He apparently felt
comfortable enough to sit for an
interview with Miami friend Er-
nesto Avino and Venezuelan jour-
nalist Del Naranco "somewhere in
Central America."
'Like a chameleon'
Del Naranco's report said Posa-
da claimed to have undergone
extensive plastic surgery. The
Miami businessman said he was
certain that claim was untrue and
had been planted only to confuse
Posada's potential trackers. Posa-
da's attorney said his client was, in
any event. "like a chameleon" -
an expert in disguise.
Little is known about Posada's
work at Ilopango. Downed Ameri-
can crewman Hasenfus said "Me-
dina" was little more than an
errand boy for "Gomez." Other
sources suggest that Posada had
greater responsibility and certain-
ly had greater freedom of move-
ment.
Several times. Posada contacted
Hernan Ricardo, still jailed in
Venezuela for the Cuban jetliner
bombing - from several places.
One letter to Ricardo in late spring
included a photograph taken in
Per as Blancas. a tiny settlement
on the Nicaraguan border with
Costa Rica. Small groups of con-
tras have often worked in that
area.
In El Salvador, meanwhile. Po-
sada. Rodriguez, Hasenfus and
others working in the Ilopango
supply operation were routinely
using their safe-house telephones
to call family and friends in Miami
and elsewhere.
Posada called Miami physician
Dr. Alberto Hernandez from his
safe house July 23, records ob-
tained from the Salvadoran phone
utility ANTEL show.
Hernandez said last week that
he had been the Posada family
physician for years. "1 talked
about medical treatment for his
family, and that's it," Hernandez
said of the call. "I didn't want to
get into any long discussion of his
situation."
Hernandez. a prominent physi-
cian active in both Cuban exile
causes and in providing medical
aid to wounded contras, heads an
informal committee that raises
funds on behalf of the Cuban
airliner defendants.
One of its members is Bay of
Pigs veteran Syla Cuervo. an old
friend of Posada and the godfather
of Posada's son. Phone records
show that, in July, Posada called
Cuervo in Miami at least twice
from his safe house. Cuervo said in
an interview that Posada may also
have called on other occasions. He
said they discussed family prob-
lems.
The records also show that
Posada's wife received phone calls
on July 13, 23. 27 and 29 from the
San Salvador house. Mrs. Posada
did not respond to messages left
Thursday and Friday.
z
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Several Cuban American
sources suggested in interviews
that Hernandez's and Cuervo's
Committee to Free Orlando Bosch
could have channeled money to
finance Posada's escape. Both men
said they respected Posada's deci.
sion to flee prison, but had
opposed escape because it might
harm Bosch's efforts to free him.
self legally.
"We didn't provide money to get
Posada out, ever." Hernandez said.
Besides Posada's own Calls,,-
someone phoned over 60 times thi
summer from Posada's house tali
Miami's Southern Air Transport, a`
one-time CIA firm that apparently
serviced Hasenfus' doomed contra
supply plane.
Rodriguez - Posada's co-work-
er - also apparently made liberal
use of Posada's safe house phone.
He called his family in Miami and
his friend Eugenio Rolando Marti-
nez, a Bay of Pigs veteran and
convicted Watergate burglar. Mar-
tinez said Rodriguez asked for=
video movies.
And from the phone in Rodri-
guez's own rented house around
the block from Posada, someone
called the White House office of
It. Col. Oliver North, a close
supervisor of private contra aid
efforts. I
"While it is possible that the
U S. government didn't know-;
about the presence of this guy
Posadal in Ilopango, I find that
far-fetched.- said an intelligence
source with long experience in
Cuban exile and contra affairs.
"Uncle Sam must have had a good
fix on him. It is more plausible
that Uncle Sam knew who he was '
and that his presence there did not
bother us."
Luis Posada Carriles: Bribed
way out of Venezuelan prison.
Orlando Bosch: Charged with
Posada in airliner attack.
Posada faces no criminal charg.
es in the United States, law
enforcement records show.
Leonardo Somarriba. spokesman
for the contra alliance UNO, said
he was unable to confirm that.
Posada had worked at Ilopango.
He said the question was of "no-:
concern."
"If you hire an outfit to do a job.
for you, it doesn't make you
responsible for everybody in that.
outfit." he said. "We are not a
government. We don't have the
capability to check everybody
out."
Herald Washington correspon-s
dent Alfonso Chardv and staff
i ri ter Tim Golden in San Salvador'.
contributed to this report.
3
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201610006-9