Posada Friend Says Return to Venezuela Would Mean Torture

Dressed in a blue blazer and looking like a Venezuelan Peter Sellers with grey hair, Joaquín Fernando Chaffardet Ramos took the stand early this morning to provide support for his old friend, Luis Posada Carriles. . . Dressed in a blue blazer and looking like a Venezuelan Peter Sellers with grey hair, Joaquín Fernando Chaffardet Ramos took the stand early this morning to provide support for his old friend, Luis Posada Carriles.  Posada, in the second day of an asylum hearing in an effort to spend his final days in peaceful safety in United States custody, greeted his old friend with a beaming look.  Admitting to the government’s claim that he entered the United States illegally and therefore is deportable under U.S. law, Posada asserts, though, that the Convention Against Torture requires the United States keep him in its custody.  The CAT prohibits the extradition or deportation of a person to a country where the deported or repatriated person is likely to be tortured, and this argument represents the best legal hope for Posada to escape deportation.

Yesterday, the United States quickly agreed that under CAT, Posada could not be deported to Cuba, thereby implying that he would likely be subjected to torture at the hands of Fidel Castro.  Raising this implication, Department of Homeland Security attorneys neglected to explain that Castro already made it clear that the Cuban government had no intentions of making a formal request for Posada’s extradition.  The real threat to Posada is the extradition request from Venezuela, where he is wanted for participation in the bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 in 1976, which killed 73 people.  But the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Venezuela makes it unlikely, no matter what the law will say, that President George Bush will transfer Posada to Venezuelan jurisdiction.

Chaffardet’s purpose was to help relieve Bush of this dilemma, by establishing that if returned to Venezuela, Posada would be tortured or handed over to Cuban authorities.  Looking calm, Chaffardet crossed his legs and let his loafer hang from his raised foot, swinging it back and forth.  But this exterior calm was belied by a tenseness and a forced reticence in his responses to questions.  Chaffardet, an attorney in Venezuela, has a long career in Venezuelan intelligence and other clandestine government services and appeared invulnerable to the concerns of the average person.  He served in Special Services for the Interior of Venezuela, as a leader of general security for research and development of oil technology, an operative in the Venezuelan Attorney General’s office, the head of investigation into bank fraud after the financial crisis in 1995, and, finally, with Posada in DISIP (Venezuelan state and political security police) as the General Secretary.  But even with experience and intrigue as twin mothers, Chaffardet appeared edgy and reluctant in his responses.

The first sign that Chaffardet was vexed by his predicament came in answering initial questions from Posada’s counsel; with hands aflutter he would talk about anything but what was asked.  His task of sliding by the questions was made easier by Posada’s lead attorney, Matthew Archambeault, who seemed incapable of articulating what he wanted and struggled to make himself understood to the witness.  After extended verbal scuffle, Chaffardet finally explained that there is an "institutional crisis in Venezuela" and that the lines between the legislature, executive offices, and the courts are "completely disappearing."  In describing why Posada could not be returned to Venezuela, he said that Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez had personally gone on television and referred to Posada numerous times as an "assassin" and a "terrorist."  He continued that there is no reason for Venezuela to want Posada back, except for ill purposes, since under Venezuelan law, due to limitations on sentencing because of age, Posada could at most receive four years if found guilty.  And since Posada served nine years in prison in Venezuela through various legal currents and eddies concerning the Cubana bombing, he would have to be immediately set free.   But, Chaffardet waived away that possibility, saying Venezuela would never follow its own laws and that Chavez would make an example of Posada if he were returned.

Claiming that Posada had nothing to do with the Cubana bombing, Chaffardet blamed Castro for machinations against both Posada and Venezuela.  No doubt he is correct, but the machinations go in both directions.  If a performance, he underplayed it perfectly, forcing the court and attorneys to pry information out of him.  But when he finally reached the heart of the matter, in his discussion of the torture of suspects in the assassination of Caracas District Attorney Danilo Anderson, he had little trouble hitting the mark for his friend Posada.  He drew on his personal experience to make the case, saying that he observed three suspects in court one day who were being held in the November 18, 2004, Anderson car bombing.  He claimed the suspects asserted they had been kidnaped and beaten and that the police injected iodine into their penises.  He intoned that, "those of us who attend court everyday know that [justice is impossible for Posada] because the courts are responding to Hugo Chavez; the courts are history."   Chaffardet closed his account, noting that he was ashamed that day for Venezuela because the judge and officials present broke into smiles rather than horror at such treatment of prisoners.

As Chaffardet went on about the ill treatment Posada would be subject to if returned to Venezuela, pictures of the slain on Flight 455 hung along wires beside a bare fence in the stifling El Paso heat.  The protestors at the fence bellowed for justice, and think they see it in Posada’s extradition.  But they will not get it, for it is inconceivable that the Bush Administration will send Posada where he may be buffeted by media winds and turned into an extended embarrassment for the United States.

When Department of Homeland Security chief counsel, Gina Garrett-Jackson, took up cross-examination she had only one question for Chaffardet: Was he afraid to go back to Venezuela?  Chaffardet obligingly responded that he was concerned for his safety, but that he was "too old to be afraid."  With that helpful question to the Posada defense answered, the judge excused him from the stand.  Bidding his old friend goodbye, Chaffardet sat in the gallery until the next recess.  When court reconvened, Chaffardet was gone, and Posada was alone.