August 29, 2005 Rally: No Asylum for Anti-Cuban Terrorist Luis Posada Carilles! On August 29th, with Cuban flags flying high, over 250 people packed onto the sidewalk in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery in Downtown Vancouver BC, Canada. Chants of “Extradite Posada NOW!” rung out loud and clear, for the international day of action against anti-Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Thousands of miles south Posada Carriles was standing before a federal immigration judge in El Paso Texas, while rallies across the globe were echoing the calls for Posada's extradition to Venezuela led by the people of Cuba and Venezuela. Posada, a former CIA agent, is a self-admitted terrorist with a long history of attacks on the people of Latin America. His terrorist resume includes: assassination attempts on Cuban president Fidel Castro, involvement in a string of bombings at tourist locations throughout Cuba in 1997, and the 1976 bombing of a Cubana airliner flight which killed 73 people. In May 2005 Posada went to the United States to seek asylum from his crimes. The US administration has not yet granted Posada asylum however, they are continuing to refuse to extradite him to Venezuela, where he would be charged with the murder of the 73 people who were killed in the airliner bombing. So people around the world have been left to ask, how can the United States be leading its supposed "war AGAINST terrorism", while protecting a well-known terrorist from facing his crimes? It is because of this outright contradiction and hypocrisy that people around the world took to the streets on August 29th to demand that the United States respect its extradition treaty with Venezuela and "Extradite Posada NOW!" Vancouver’s demonstration opened with Vancouver City Councillor Tim Louis, who was followed by Marysol Torres of Vancouver’s Internationalist Bolivarian Circles. Laura Albert of the Capilano Students' Union Social Justice Committee then spoke. Noah Fine, an organizer with the Free the Cuban Five Committee - Vancouver, followed Laura, with a poem by Antonio Guerrero one of the five anti-terrorist Cubans currently being held in US jails. Noah was followed by Tamara Hansen, coordinator of Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC), who recently arrived back from traveling in Cuba. She talked about the importance of the fight of the Cuban people for dignity and justice. Tamara also empahsized the over 1,000 signatures that have now been collected in VCSC's petition campaign demanding Posada's immediate extradition to Venezuela, which was sent to the US congress and George Bush to arrive on the day of Posada's trial. The climax of the demonstration came with messages from Gloria La Riva of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, and Rosa, a woman whose brother was killed in Posada’s 1976 bombing of a Cubana airliner. Both women were in El Paso Texas for Posada's trial that morning, and brought two important messages of solidarity on this international day of action. "Thank-you," said Rosa, "it is very important to me to know that there are people around the world who are against Posada and are demanding justice for my brother and so many other families." Both weekly and daily newspapers, including multi-language newspapers, as well as local radio covered the demonstration.