Repeating Islands

Dhanraj Bhagwandin, an investigative journalist from Guyana who currently lives in New York, has recently published From Cubana to Santrina, a new book that focuses on Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Posada is currently awaiting trial in El Paso Texas for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a string of bombings in Havana in 1997 and making false statements under oath in an immigration procedure involving his illegal entry into the United States in 2005. He is currently awaiting a status conference on May 20, 2010.

Born in Cuba in 1928, Luis Posada was opposed to Fidel Castro’s rule; his life was dedicated to getting rid of Castro by any means possible. He took part in the Bay of Pigs attack. Posada was a lieutenant in the United States Army and worked for the CIA until 1967. He then moved to Venezuela where he became chief of security and counterintelligence in the secret police.

From Cubana to Santrina recounts how Posada plotted to assassinate Fidel Castro on numerous occasions, from 1971 to 2000, with funding from the U.S.; his ties to the explosion of Cubana Flight 455 out of Barbados, which killed all 73 people aboard, 11 of them Guyanese and 24 young athletes on Cuba’s gold-medal fencing team; his involvement in importing large quantities of cocaine into the U.S. in support of the Contras in Nicaragua; and his planning of a series of bombings in Cuba. The book is based on new declassified documents and interviews with former U.S drug enforcement federal agent, Celerino Castillo III.

Bhagwandin is also the author of Georgetown Spies (1995).  

For full article, see http://www.baiganchoka.com/blog/new-york-based-guyanese-journalist-publishes-new-book-on-the-clandestine-life-of-cuban-terrorist-luis-posada-carilles/ and http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/stories/03/05/guyanese-journalist-chronicles-trail-of-cubana-bomber-as-trial-nears/

For more on Posada, see http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-02-25/news/cuban-killer-luis-posada-carriles-goes-on-trial/

For more about this author and his new publication, see http://cubanatosantrina.com/