CONTRAS HELP TERRORISM SUSPECT ESCAPE VENEZUELA, GIVE HIM JOB

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910008-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: November 2, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910008-4
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2 November 1986
REPORT: CONTRAS HELP TERRORISM SUSPECT ESCAPE VENEZUELA, GIVE HIM JOB
MIAMI, FL
STAT
A CIA -trained Cuban exile who fought at the Bay of Pigs bribed his way out
of the Venezuelan jail where he was held in a fatal airliner bombing, then
escaped the country with the help of the Contra supply network, The Miami Herald
reported Sunday.
Two Cuban exiles hid Luis Posada Carriles, 58, in Venezuela after his 1985
escape and directed him to a job with the Contras in El Salvador, the Herald
reported.
Posada's friends-in the Contra supply network gave him a false Salvadoran
passport under the alias Ramon Medina to let him enter El Salvador, the Herald
said, citing an unidentified Miami wholesaler.
The newspaper said the wholesaler knew Posada before he was jailed in the
1976 bombing of a Cubans de Aviacion DC-8 that was blown up shortly after
takeoff from Bridgetown, Barbados, killing 73 people.
According to the Herald, Salvadoran telephone records show that Posada's
wife, family doctor and longtime friend have been called regularly from a house
in San Salvador rented by Ramon Medina.
Two people acknowledged that it was Posada who made the calls from El
Salvador, the Herald said.
Eugene Hasenfus, the American flier captured last month after being shot down
with an arms shipment destined for Contra rebels in.Nicaragua, has identified
Ramon Medina as one of two Cuban exiles directing Contra supply efforts at El
Salvador's ilapango Air Base.
Posada, an explosives expert and anti-Castro militant who fought in the 1961
Bay of Pigs attempt to overthrow the communist leader, was jailed in Venezuela
for nine years awaiting trial for alleged involvement in the Cubana bombing.
He was told while in prison that a jab with the Contras awaited him in El
Salvador, said the unidentified Miami wholesaler.
On Aug. 18, 1985, after Posada paid prison officials $28,600, he walked out
of the San Juan de los Marcos jail 60 miles south of Caracas and disappeared,
the Herald said it was told by Venezuelan Cabinet ministers.
Of the bribe money, $11,000 apparently came from the sale of Posada's house
in Miami by-a Cuban exile couple, the newspaper said. The source of the rest of
the bribe money is not known.
Posada's Venezuelan attorney, Francisco Leandro Mora, wouldn't confirm
details of the escape, but he said it was meticulously planned.
Leandro Mora and Venezuelan journalist Rafael del Naranco, who interviewed
Posada, said the two Cuban exiles who gave Posada papers to enter El Salvador
hid Posada In Caracas for a month.
The exiles then took Posada to a house on the Venezuelan coast for a second
month, the Herald said it was told by Leandro Mora and del Naranco.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910008-4
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910008-4
Late last fall Posada was hidden on a sugar plantation in the Dominican
Republic before going to a logging camp In Honduras, the Herald said. At the
camp, Posada's escorts supplied him with the counterfeit passport and Posada
crossed the border Into El Salvador, the newspaper said.
Another unidentified Bay of Pigs veteran said it was likely that Posada had
been brought Into the Contra supply operation by Felix Rodriguez, The Herald
said.
Rodriguez is a longtime Cuban-American CIA agent whom Vice President George
Bush recommended as an adviser to the Salvadoran military. When Posada arrived
in El Salvador, Rodriguez was already working at Ilopango under the alias Max
Gomez, The Herald said.
Little is known about the supply operation at Ilopango, or Posada's work
there. Hasenfus said Medina was an errand boy for Gomez.
However, The Herald quoted other unidentified sources as saying Posada has
more responsibility.
Other research on the telephone calls from the Salvadoran safe house believed
rented by Posada showed more than 60 calls this summer to Miami's Southern Air
Transport, the former CIA airline that serviced Hasenfus' Ill-fated Contra
supply plane.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200910008-4