b. 1926
On October 6, 1976 a Cubana Airlines plane, en route from Venezuela to Havana, blew up in mid-air shortly after takeoff from Barbados; 73 civilians died, including all of Cuba's Olympic fencing team. Two Venezuelan mercenaries confessed to planting the bomb, but the masterminds behind the terrorist attack were two Cuban exiles.
We have the right to ask what will be done about Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, the perpetrators of that monstrous terrorist act ... -- Fidel Castro
Orlando Bosch was born and raised in Santa Clara,
Cuba. He graduated from Santa Clara H.S. and in 1946 entered the
Havana University Medical school, graduating with an M.D. degree in 1953.
Bosch became a lieutenant to Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, but broke with the Cuban leader after the revolution and the overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Fleeing Cuba, Bosch landed in the U.S.A. and quickly involved himself with various anti-Castro groups.
His activities led to various run-ins with federal authorities; ranging from charges of illegal possession of explosives and conspiring to export arms to a charge of extorting money form wealthy Cubans to finance his anti-Castro attacks. In 1964, in a bizarre episode, he was arrested by Miami authorities as he cautiously towed a home-made, radio-controlled torpedo through the streets during rush hour traffic. Despite being credited with dozens of criminal acts, Bosch never landed in prison - at least not in the United States.
But in 1976, Venezuela arrested Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles and two others and charged them with the Cubana Airlines bombing. Bosch and Posada were convicted then subsequently acquitted on appeal, but nonetheless held in prison. Posada was trained by the CIA at the infamous School of the Americas. He eventually bribed his way out/escaped from prison and during the Iran-Contra scandal he resurfaced in El Salvador, working alongside President George H. W. Bush's old CIA operative Felix Rodriguez -- funneling illegal arms shipments to the Nicaraguan Contras.
"all of Castro's airplanes are warplanes" -- Orlando Bosch
In 1987, after 11 years behind bars, Bosch was released from his Venezuelan prison when the prosecution failed to keep the case alive -- reportedly as a result of the intervention by then U.S. ambassador,
Otto Reich. Reich is now
George W. Bush's Asst. Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere. In 1988 Bosch entered illegally Florida. He was detained for violation of his U.S. parole (he had been released from a U.S. prison after serving four years of a 10 year sentence for staging a
bazooka attack on a Polish freighter docked in Miami and for sending death threats to the heads of state of three Western European nations, all because they traded with Cuba). He was
remanded to INS custody and ordered deported. While the US refused Cuba's
extradition requests, some 30 other countries refused to accept him based on his long record of terrorist activities. Bosch then requested political asylum - a request that was emphatically rejected.
In rejecting Bosch's request for political asylum, Joe D. Whitley, Acting Associate Attorney General wrote (January 23, 1989):
For 30 years Bosch has been resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence. He has threatened and undertaken violent terrorist acts against numerous targets, including nations friendly toward the United States and their highest officials. He has repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death. His actions have been those of a terrorist, unfettered by laws or human decency, threatening and inflicting violence without regard to the identity of his victims.
But Bosch had friends in high places, namely the Bush family. Against the recommendations of the district director of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Department of Justice, and after a federal court upheld his deportation, Bosch was freed with no deportation in July 1990 -- after a campaign by Cuban emigres in Miami aided by
Jeb Bush, son of then U.S. President George H. W. Bush, Bosch was granted parole.
If anybody harbors a terrorist, they're a terrorist. If they fund a terrorist, they're a terrorist. If they house terrorists, they're terrorists. -- President George W. Bush
Along with being a doctor,
Orlando Bosch is also an accomplished painter. He now walks the streets of
Miami a free man. While being held in Venezuela on the airline bombing charge in 1983, the Miami City Commission declared an
"Orlando Bosch Day" in his honor.
He has six children, all of whom live in
Florida.
Sources:
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1990_cr/h900803-terror.htm
http://cuban-exile.com/doc_051-075/doc0055.htm
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/bosch/bosch.htm
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/731408.asp
http://www.cubawifriends.org/Newsletter/Orlando_Bosch.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Smith030101/smith030101.html
The Reported Crimes of Orlando Bosch
With El Poder Cubano (Cuban Power) 1968-69:
- Bomb sent in a suitcase to Havana, Cuba.
- Bombs placed in various commercial establishments in the United States.
- Bomb against Mexican consul in Miami.
- Bomb placed at the residence of the British consul in Miami.
- Bomb placed at a restaurant owned by Cuban emigrants in the United States.
- Bomb placed (but did not explode) at the Chilean consulate in the United States.
- Bomb placed at a pharmaceutical company in the United States.
- Bomb placed at the Mexican consulate in the United States.
- Bomb placed at the Spanish office of tourism in the United States.
- Bomb against the British vessel "Greenwood" in the United States.
- Bomb placed on board the Japanese ship "Aroka Maru" in the U.S.
- Bomb placed at the tourist offices of Spain in the United States.
- Bomb placed at the Mexican offices of tourism in the U.S.
- Bomb explodes in the garage of the Mexican consul in the U.S.
- Bomb placed at the Cuban consulate in Canada.
- Bomb placed at the tourism office of Canada in the U.S.
- Bomb explodes at the Japanese Office of Tourism in the United States.
- Bomb explodes near the Cuban mission in the United Nations damaging the Yugoslavian mission.
- Bomb placed on board the Japanese vessel "Michagesan Maru" in Mexico.
- Bomb at the Office of Tourism of Mexico in the United States.
- Bomb is discovered at an office of the French government in the United States.
- Unexploded bomb is discovered at the Mexican consulate in the U.S.
- Bomb is placed but left unused at the house of a Cuban dignitary in the United States.
- Bomb placed in the French Office of Tourism in the U.S.
- Bomb placed at the Shell Petroleum Company building in England.
- Bomb at a Japanese travel agency in the United States.
- Bomb placed at Mexican tourism offices in the United States.
- Bomb against British consulate in the United States.
- Bomb placed at a branch of a British bank in the U.S.
- Bomb placed at the headquarters of the Communist Party in North America.
- Bomb placed on board the Bahamian ship "Caribbean Venture" while at a U.S. port.
- Bomb against Mexican representatives in the U.S.
- Bomb at the residence of the Mexican consul in Miami.
- Bomb placed on British vessel docket at Mexican port.
- Bomb explodes on board Spanish ship "Satrustegui" in Puerto Rico.
- Bazooka attack against Polish ship in the United States.
- Bomb placed on board a Mexican airliner in the United States.
- Bomb placed at the home of the Mexican consul in the United States.
- Bomb at a Canadian travel agency.
- Gas bomb at a theater where a Cuban actress was rehearsing.
- Assassination attempts against the Cuban ambassador to the United Nations.
- Bomb at the Mexican Department of Tourism in the United States.
- Bomb placed the offices of Shell Oil of England in the U.S.
- Bomb at the offices of Air France in the United States.
With Chilean fascist leaders, after meeting with Augusto Pinochet, 1974-75:
- Assassination of the former commander of the Chilean Armed Forces, General Carlos Pratts, and his wife in Argentina.
- The gunning down in Rome, Italy of Bernardo Leighton (Vice President of the Chilean Democratic Party in Exile) and his wife.
- Orlando Bosch is arrested by the Costa Rican police on charges of plotting the assassination of the exiled Chilean leader Andres Pascal Allende in Costa Rica.
- Assassination of a former Chilean minister Orlando Letelier and his assistant Ronni Moffit in Washington, D.C.
With terrorist group Accion Cuba 1974-75:
- Bomb placed at the Cuban diplomatic mission in Canada.
- Bomb at the Cuban diplomatic mission in Argentina.
- Bomb at the Cuban mission in Peru.
- Bomb placed at the Cuban embassy in Mexico.
- Bomb placed at the Cuban embassy in Madrid, Spain.
- Placed bomb against members of the Latin Press in Mexico, but never exploded.
- Bomb placed at the Panamanian embassy in Caracas, Venezuela.
- Bomb at the Venezuelan-Cuban Institute of Friendship in Venezuela.
- Bomb at the hotel where Cuban delegation was staying.
- Shots fired at the residence of a Cuban functionary.
- Assassination attempt against the Cuban Ambassador Emilio Aragones in Argentina.
- Bomb placed at Venezuelan tourism firm in Venezuela.
- Bomb at the Cuban Embassy in Venezuela.
- Bomb against Soviet commercial office in Mexico.
With Comandos de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas 1976-77:
- Bomb placed at Cuban mission in the United Nations.
- Bomb at the Costa Rican-Cuban cultural center in Costa Rica.
- Bomb at the Cuban mission in Spain.
- Bomb at the luggage/freight department of the flight of Cubana Airlines in Kingston, Jamaica.
- Bomb placed at the office of Cubana Airlines in Barbados.
- Bomb placed at the offices of Air Panama in Colombia.
- Kidnapping attempt of the Cuban consul in Merida, Mexico, killing D'Artagnan Diaz Diaz.
- Kidnapping of two Cuban dignitaries in Argentina.
- Bomb placed at the Embassy of Guyana in Trinidad and Tobago.
- Bomb placed at the offices of Cubana airlines in Panama.
- Sabotage in mid flight of a Cubana airlines flight, killing 73 passengers. (Arrested and imprisoned in Venezuela but continued directing terrorist activities toward Venezuela.)
- Bomb placed at the Venezuelan consulate in Puerto Rico.
- Bomb on board a Venezuelan airplane in Miami, United States.
- Bomb placed at the office of the Venezuelan airline "Viasa" in the United States.
- Bomb placed at the Venezuelan consulate in Puerto Rico.
- Also from prison, Bosch directed activities against the interests of Mexico, 1978:
- Bomb placed at the Mexican consulate in the United States.
- Bomb placed on board the merchant vessel "Azteca" of Mexico at a Mexican port, resulting in 2 deaths and 7 injuries.
In conjunction with a group called Omega-7:
- Bomb placed at the Cuban mission in the United Nations.
- Bomb placed in front of Madison Square Garden where Cuban boxers where scheduled to fight.
- Bomb placed at the offices of the tourist firm "Girasol" of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.
- Bomb placed at the offices of the tourist firm "Antillana" in Puerto Rico.
- Bomb placed at the offices of the firm "Record Public Service" owned by a Cuban emigrant in Puerto Rico.
- Bomb at the newspaper "La Prensa" in the United States.
- Bomb threat against TWA airlines against flying into Cuba.
- Bomb placed at the local offices of the travel agency "Varadero" in Puerto Rico.
- Bomb at the Cuban mission in the United Nations.
- Bomb placed at Lincoln Center in the United States where Cuban artists were scheduled to perform.
- Bomb placed at the local offices of TWA airlines at J.F.K. Airport in the United States.
- Bomb placed at the firm Weehawken, New Jersey, presided by Eulalio J. Negrin, member of the Committee of 75 (Comite de los 75).
- Assassination of Carlos Muniz Varela, member of the Brigade "Antonio Maceo" and director of "Varadero Travel" in Puerto Rico.
- Assassination of Eulalio Negrin- a member of the Cuban community in the exterior and participant in talks and negotiations with the Cuban government- in New Jersey.
- Assassination of the Cuban diplomat in the United Nations Felix Garcia Rodriguez