Castro Assassination Attempt Quashed

P A N A M A   C I T Y, Nov. 17, 2000 -- Panamanian police said they had arrested the presumed mastermind behind analleged plot to assassinate veteran Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Police sources told Reuters late Friday they had arrested Luis PosadaCarriles and three of his Cuban-American colleagues at a hotelin central Panama City as a “precautionary measure” afterCastro accused them of plotting to take his life.

Castro, in Panama for the opening of the Ibero-Americansummit on childhood, said earlier on Friday that “terrorists”armed by anti-communist Cuban-Americans were planning toassassinate him.

“Terrorist elements organized, financed and led from theUnited States by the Cuban American National Foundation… have been sent to Panama with the aim of eliminating me,”he said.

“They are now in this city [Panama City], and have broughtin arms and explosives,” Castro, dressed in military fatigues,told reporters gathered at a Panama City hotel.

Group Dismisses Accusations

The Miami-based CANF, the most militantly anti-Castro ofFlorida’s numerous Cuban-American groups, dismissed the claimsas the ravings of “an aged rock star … [who] needs to attractattention somehow.”

Castro singled out Posada Carriles as the brains behind thealleged plot, accusing him of having made other attempts“against Cuban interests” and always financed by the CANF.

He said Carriles was “the most notorious terrorist in thearea” and was trained by the CIA. Castro did not say how histeam had uncovered the assassination plan, but added thatauthorities in Panama had been forewarned.

As the Castro drama played out on Friday, heads of statefrom across the region flew into Panama, with the exception ofNicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman, who attributed his absenceto family illness, and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori, kept home by a2-month-old political crisis.

Fujimori’s grip on power has been seriously weakened by anine-week corruption scandal involving his fugitive former spychief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who was caught on video apparently bribingan opposition lawmaker.

Fujimori had been expected to play a central role at theannual summit, but even in his absence fears of instability inPeru will surely come up in side meetings at the event, if notin the main forum.

Economic instability in Argentina, Colombia’s seeminglyendless war against leftist rebels and cocaine producers, andfears of eroding democracy in Venezuela, where VenezuelanPresident Hugo Chavez has widened his powers, are otherpotential topics of discussion.