Chile: Wet Dessert

Wet Desert Chile’s Atacama Desert, the world’s oldest nonpolar desert, is one of the driest places on Earth. Scientists have long believed that it has remained consistently arid for 40 million years. But now, thanks to a capybara tooth found in its sands, researchers say it was not so dry a few million years ago. “Finding a capybara tooth in a marine deposit in what today is one of the driest regions on Earth is just freakish,” said Priscilla Martinez, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student at the University of Arizona’s Department of Geosciences, in a statement. She was part of a team that discovered a fossilized tooth from an extinct capybara relative in a 3-foot-thick sediment bed at El Morro in northern Chile. The tooth, which dates to about 8.8 million years ago, belongs to the extinct genus Cardiatherium, a relative of modern capybaras. This discovery suggests that parts of the region were considerably wetter nearly 9 million years ago and were able to accommodate mammals such as the capybara even though no capybaras live in Chile today. The discovery is significant because modern capybaras, the world’s largest living rodents, are semiaquatic animals that depend on reliable water and vegetation. The tooth was not the sole evidence of a wetter environment: remains of palms and other flowering plants from roughly the same period were also identified by researchers. Together, the evidence points to a freshwater and riverside ecosystem capable of supporting large water-dependent mammals in the southern Atacama. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, also raises questions about how ancient animals moved across South America. Researchers say the wetlands may have been connected to other parts of the continent through routes across or around the Andes. “The more we understand deserts, which are extremely sensitive to changes in climate, including shifts in monsoon intensity from year to year, the better we can predict how they fare long term,” said Martinez. “And if we can understand past climate changes that had nothing to do with humans, it gives us a baseline to work off of to understand how climate can evolve over time with humans in the mix.”

Bolsonaro Declares Victory In Election After Fleeing Brasil

Bolsonaro Declares Victory in Election After Fleeing Brazil BRAZIL Brazil Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro alleged electoral fraud in the presidential election and declared himself the rightful “leader” after fleeing the country and arriving in the United States on Wednesday. Bolsonaro claimed that the election had been stolen by the victor, incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in what was a sharp turnaround by the candidate who had essentially accepted the results of Sunday’s runoff election. “On Sunday night, I was stunned by the electoral fraud that became reality before my eyes,” he wrote on X. His private plane, which departed from Argentina and stopped in Ecuador, landed at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport. His whereabouts had been unknown since Sunday’s election, in which Lula won 51.8 percent of the vote. A court order had barred him from leaving the country. Brazil’s Supreme Court is investigating Bolsonaro for allegedly accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker, as well as using a sports betting corporation to launder public money from government pensions. Also, earlier this week, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered a police investigation into alleged ties between a donor network co-founded by Vice President JD Vance and Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign, the Washington Post reported. Following his defeat, his parliamentary immunity was set to end. He had been ordered to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports. Meanwhile, a senior US State Department official announced Bolsonaro and his family would be granted US visas. Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup following his defeat to Lula in the 2022 presidential election. He also fled to the United States after his defeat before returning to Brazil soon after. Following the release of the election results, Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul the vote, citing last-minute court decisions to extend polling hours due to weather and transport problems that prevented some voters from reaching the polls. Both Bolsonaro and Lula had requested these extensions. Lula has not commented on the electoral fraud allegations. Kassio Nunes Marques, chief of the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court, defended the election result as “respecting all legal and constitutional requirements.”

Surinam: It's Oil and Farming vs Rain Forests

In Suriname, It’s Oil and Farming Versus the Rainforests SURINAME Suriname A few years ago, a plan to move more than 1,000 Mennonite families from Belize to Suriname to establish massive farming communities in a heavily forested area seemed like a good idea. The small country off the northeastern coast of South America had wanted to increase its domestic food production and the conservative Christian group was well known for its agricultural savvy across Central and South America. However, the plan soon faced a backlash: Critics worried that such a development would threaten Indigenous communities and lead to mass deforestation in a country that has one of the largest rainforests in the world – it covers 93 percent of its land. “We live off the forest and rivers … How will we live then?” Remon Clemens, grand chief of the Kwinti Maroon community, which descends from enslaved Africans, told the Guardian in 2023 about the idea after he learned of it. Soon after, protests broke out and Suriname canceled the Mennonite settlement program. But earlier this year, private investors revived efforts to bring in Mennonites, again unleashing a backlash over the threats to ancestral tribal lands and to the environment. In August, the government stepped in. President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons announced a crackdown on unauthorized agricultural settlements, including those established by Mennonites. “We also have the issue that people have come into our country, go inland and started cutting down our forests … and plan to cut down even more,” Geerlings-Simons said. “The people who are active there in the interior and have cleared land to live there, are there illegally. And that means that we’re going to take measures against them.” Still, evicting settlers and taking back land doesn’t solve a fundamental dilemma the country is now facing: How to develop itself and meet its population’s needs while also preserving its natural heritage and the benefits that arise from it. Currently, Suriname, a country of roughly 640,000 people, is preparing for an oil boom. Its offshore discoveries, beginning in 2020, have attracted major international energy companies and led to hopes that the Surinamese will follow in the footsteps of neighboring Guyana: There, gross domestic product per capita increased 45 percent in 2024 to almost $30,000 annually, more than four times greater than Suriname’s $7,000 per capita that year. French energy giant TotalEnergies and its partners are investing an estimated $12 billion in GranMorgu, a deepwater oilfield development. Production is scheduled to begin in mid-2028 and it is projected to pump as much as 220,000 barrels per day from offshore fields containing 760 million barrels in total. The IMF forecasts economic growth of around 30 percent that year. The timing couldn’t be better: The conflict in the Middle East has highlighted the risks of relying on supplies from the Persian Gulf. The government is planning to invest future petroleum revenues in everything from education to infrastructure but particularly in agriculture to boost food production and exports. But expanding farmland could destroy rainforests, which in turn would threaten its carbon-negative status and its plans to earn revenue from carbon credits it would receive from protecting its carbon-absorbing forests. Suriname has lost about 1.5 percent of its forest cover since 2000, according to Grist, a US nonprofit environmental news organization. “If left unchecked, deforestation could threaten the country’s carbon-negative status sometime in the next decade,” it said. For Suriname, the challenge is turning the windfall into a diversified economy and lasting prosperity while also protecting its slice of the Amazon. Geerlings-Simons said as much even as she and other officials are convinced they will be able to balance the competing priorities, with effort and time even if it is a long and complicated process. “The problems of the country are enormous,” she told Americas Quarterly, a US magazine that covers Central and South America. “The time we have to prevent a resource curse is very short. I can’t turn a mud puddle into a glass of water in just one step.”

Lula Wins Brasilian Presidential Election

Lula Wins Brazilian Presidential Election as Bolsonaro Refuses to Concede BRAZIL Brazil Leftwing Brazilian incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made a surprise comeback Sunday, defeating rightwing Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro to win the presidential election, even as the conservative candidate refused to concede the race. With 100 percent of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court said Lula, 80, won the second round of the election with 51.8 percent of the vote. The result was a shock to Bolsonaro supporters after the Brazilian leader lost the first round to the challenger earlier this month by more than 2 million votes. After the results were announced, a huge roar echoed on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, with cars blaring their horns and residents streaming onto the streets, cheering and setting off fireworks in celebration. The mood among Bolsonaro supporters was somber and angry. On Sunday, Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled. At issue is a ruling by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin just minutes before polls were scheduled to close to keep them open for two more hours following requests by both candidates. Lula asked for the extension after issues with buses that provide transportation to polls in São Paulo and Salvador, his strongholds. Bolsonaro’s request came after heavy rains in Brazil’s south, where he led the polls, hampered voting. The decision delayed tallying the votes by two hours. “It’s impossible to recognize the results of the election in the context of these things that happened,” Bolsonaro said. Analysts say it is unclear if Bolsonaro’s complaint could meet the legal threshold to annul the results. Bolsonaro also has the right to request a recount if he provides evidence of fraud. Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup after he lost the 2022 presidential election to Lula. Meanwhile, analysts predict a difficult term for Lula: He faces the most conservative Congress since the country’s return to democracy in the 1980s. Combined, Bolsonaro's Liberal Party and its allies could control more than 280 seats in the lower house and up to 50 in the Senate, enough for comfortable majorities in both chambers. Still, Lula’s triumph bucks a conservative wave in the region after recent victories for rightwing presidential candidates allied with US President Donald Trump, for example in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. Lula will be sworn in for his fourth term on Jan. 5, 2027.

Brasilians Want Change. That's A Problem For Both Candidates

Brazilians Want Change. That’s a Problem for Both Presidential Candidates BRAZIL Brazil Thousands of Brazilians marched through Rio de Janeiro recently to protest against presidential contender Flávio Bolsonaro, who won the first round of elections Oct. 4. With drums, fireworks and dancing, they chanted, "Never Again Bolsonaro" and called for support for leftist incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who came in second place. "I'm here because I believe in democracy, because I'm scared," Alice Carneiro, 25, told Agence France-Presse, explaining that her stance was due to her experience with the frontrunner’s father, Jair Bolsonaro. "I remember my family's lives being at risk during the pandemic...I remember the vaccine denial." She is part of the “never Bolsonaro” camp. These people make up about 45 percent of Brazilian voters. Across the aisle, there is an equally fierce “never Lula” camp that makes up the same percentage of voters, Brazilians like Carolina Varella Tim of the southern city of Porto Alegre. “I vote against Lula, regardless of who the candidate is,” she told the New York Times. Currently, analysts say Lula is facing an uphill battle against Flávio Bolsonaro, who won the first round of voting by 2 percentage points against Lula in a field that included 10 other candidates. Now he and the incumbent president are vying for control of the South American country in an Oct. 25 runoff vote. The winner will be inaugurated in early January. Meanwhile, both candidates have their liabilities as they face an electorate hungry for change. Seeking his fourth term in office, Lula, 80, was imprisoned for almost two years on corruption charges until he was released in 2019 on a technicality. The country’s Supreme Court annulled the charges afterward, paving the way for him to re-enter politics. During this period, his close ally, Dilma Rousseff, became president but was impeached and removed from office in 2016. The main beneficiary of these developments was Jair Bolsonaro – he is currently serving more than 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula by the narrowest margin in the country’s history. He has anointed his oldest son, Flávio Bolsonaro, to run in his place, and the presidential contender has promised to grant his father amnesty if elected. The family drama surrounding the Bolsonaros escalated after Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian judge, recently ordered the arrest of Flávio Bolsonaro’s brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in the US. Eduardo Bolsonaro, the judge says, allegedly attempted to pressure Brazilian judicial officials by threatening to lobby American leaders to impose sanctions and tariffs against Brazil unless the officials helped his father. The American government slapped sanctions on de Moraes last year for what the US government said was his political persecution of the elder Bolsonaro. At the same time, Flávio Bolsonaro is ​under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering tied to now-defunct lender Banco Master. The allegations against him center on his role in securing at least $12 million from banker Daniel Vorcaro to finance “Dark Horse,” a sympathetic film about his father. Vorcaro is the former owner of Banco Master, which was shut down last year over a multibillion-dollar fraud case involving fake loans that cost Brazil’s deposit insurance system billions. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes is accused of feeding Vorcaro information about the investigation. Flávio Bolsonaro and de Moraes have denied the allegations. The case has not dented the 45-year-old frontrunner, with polls saying he is likely to defeat Lula when voters go to the polls. Vowing to follow free-market policies like those of Argentine President Javier Milei, Flávio Bolsonaro is hoping to clinch a major victory for the right and decisively defeat Lula’s leftist movement. “The word is change,” said Flávio Bolsonaro after the election results were in. “Brazil can’t take it anymore. The era of [Lula’s] Workers’ Party is hereby over, leaving behind a record of hopelessness.” Lula is behind in the race because he has been remiss in addressing issues Brazilian voters care about, such as the cost of living, inflation and corruption, explained Foreign Policy. With only a few weeks to go before the runoff vote, he began discussing how he would crack down on crime – a topic that Flávio Bolsonaro has been beating like a drum for months, the magazine added. Even so, Lula said after the first round that while the results of the first round surprised him, he’s the master of comebacks: “I am very good in the knockout stage.” Currently, polls show a statistical tie. The candidate in third place, writer Augusto Cury, said he would not endorse Lula. Other candidates in the first round such as Ronaldo Caiado and Renan Santos have made similar statements. Meanwhile, about 20 percent of voters abstained from casting a ballot in the first round. Analysts say they are likely to stay away again. Analysts say the election is really about change – Flávio Bolsonaro promises change even as many voters believe it would restore the governance of his father, wrote World Politics Review. At the same time, Lula has been part of the political scene in Brazil for decades and in this last term, is not seen as fulfilling his campaign promises and bringing about change. As a result, analysts doubt he can defeat that desire for change in the electorate. “An election about change is very difficult for the incumbent,” George Washington University economist Maurício Moura, founder of the polling firm Ideia, told the Washington Post. “Lula has to create the expectation that, in this case, change is bad.”

Brasil: Thousands Protest Against Bolsonaro Ahead of Presidential Runoff

Thousands Protest in Brazil Against Bolsonaro Ahead of Presidential Runoff BRAZIL Brazil Thousands of people took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro this week to protest against conservative presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, who beat left-wing incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the first round of the presidential election. Protesters marched between historic squares in central Rio, carrying signs supporting democracy and Brazil’s sovereignty. Many wore red and chanted “Never Again Bolsonaro” while calling for support for Lula. Flávio Bolsonaro received about 47 percent of the vote while Lula garnered about 45 percent. The two candidates will face each other in a runoff vote Oct. 25. Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022. Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted of attempting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula. Protesters criticized Flávio Bolsonaro over corruption allegations and the political legacy of his father, including his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Flávio Bolsonaro is currently under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, charges he denies and says are politically motivated. With less than three weeks before the runoff, both candidates face an uphill battle in attracting voters who either did not participate in Sunday’s vote or backed other candidates such as Augusto Cury, who came in third in the election with 2.89 percent of the vote, and Renan Santos, who garnered 2.18 percent and came in fourth place. Still, Flávio Bolsonaro, analysts say, holds a strong advantage in the runoff: Cury and Santos are both right-leaning, increasing chances that their combined 6 million voters will choose Flávio Bolsonaro. They add that the first round underscored how many voters in Brazil are concerned about crime and inflation, and believe Lula has done little to address either of those.

Cubana Flight 455: An Act of Aviation Terrorism 50 Years Later

Cubana Flight 455: An Act of Aviation Terrorism 50 Years Later Barbados Monument On the 50th Anniversary of Plane Bombing, National Security Archive Posts Most Revealing U.S. Intelligence Records on Atrocity Anti-Castro Terrorism Took Lives of all Men, Women, and Children on Board FBI Report on Terrorist Message: “a bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed” Published: Oct 8, 2026 Briefing Book # 932 Edited by Peter Kornbluh For more information, contact: 202-994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu Subjects Human Rights and Genocide Regions Cuba and Caribbean Project Cuba RELATED LINKS Luis Posada Carriles, CIA-created "Frankenstein", Dies at 90 Bombing of Cuban Jetliner 40 Years Later: Colgate Toothpaste Disguised Plastic Explosives in 1976 Terrorist Attack The CIA File on Luis Posada Carriles: A Former Agency Asset Goes on Trial in the U.S. Posada Carriles Built Bombs for, and Informed on, Jorge Mas Canosa, CIA Records Reveal Terrorism Case of Luis Posada Debated on Capitol Hill: Archive Analyst Peter Kornbluh Shares Declassified CIA and FBI Intelligence Reports with House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Documents Linked to Cuban Exile Luis Posada Highlighted Targets for Terrorism: Bomber's Confessions Point to Explosives Hidden in Toothpaste Tube that Brought Down Civilian Airliner in 1976 The Posada File: Part II - Posada Boasted of Plans to "Hit" Cuban Plane, CIA Document States Luis Posada Carriles: The Declassified Record Washington, D.C., October 8, 2026 - Fifty years ago this week, a small bomb of plastic explosives hidden inside a tube of Colgate toothpaste destroyed a civilian Cuban airliner off the coast of Barbados. The mid-air terrorist attack on Cubana flight 455 killed everyone on board, including the entire Cuban national fencing team returning with gold medals from a Panamerican competition. CIA and FBI intelligence reports soon identified the masterminds of the atrocity as Luis Posada Carriles, a longtime CIA asset/informant, and Orlando Bosch, considered to be the godfathers of terrorist violence against Cuba. After the airliner plunged into the ocean, according to one FBI informant, a Posada employee who had planted the bomb on the plane telephoned Bosch with this chilling message: “a bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed.” In commemoration of the victims of the Cubana 455 bombing, the National Security Archive today is posting ten of the most revealing intelligence records on this atrocity and those who perpetrated it. Since the mid-1990s, the Archive’s Cuba Documentation Project has been pursuing and disseminating declassified records on the case. “This infamous act of aviation terrorism, the worst in the Western Hemisphere before 9/11, must never be forgotten,” noted Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Cuba project. “The declassified record reminds us of what happened and who did it.” Orlando and Posada Orlando Bosch Avila Luis Posada Carriles Only days after the October 6, 1976, plane bombing, both Posada and Bosch were arrested in Venezuela, which had become a base for violent operations against Cuba. Bosch was released in 1987 and came to Florida the next year, illegally entering the country. He was detained by immigration authorities for almost two years. But in 1990, President George H.W. Bush—ignoring the objections of his own Attorney General, who labeled Bosch a “terrorist” and a threat to U.S. security—made a political decision to protect Bosch from further legal accountability and granted him permanent residency in the United States. Posada bribed his way out of a Venezuelan prison in 1985 using funds secretly supplied by wealthy Cuban American benefactors and escaped to Central America. He then joined the Reagan administration’s covert operations, run by Oliver North out of El Salvador’s Ilopango airbase, to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. (Today’s posting includes Posada’s interrogation by Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh.) Posada stayed in Central America working in Guatemala and Honduras but continued his terrorist operations targeting Cuba. To deter tourism to Cuba, in the mid-1990s, he orchestrated a series of bombings in prominent Havana hotels that killed one Italian businessman and wounded numerous others. “That Italian was sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Posada proudly confessed in an interview with the New York Times, “but I sleep like a baby.” document2 The first FBI report on the Cubana 455 bombing In November 2000, Posada was detained in Panama as Fidel Castro arrived to attend the Ibero-American summit in Panama City. Posada was charged with plotting to assassinate the Cuban leader with a 200-pound bomb planted in the auditorium where the Latin American leaders were meeting. In 2004, he was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison. But Panama’s president, Mireya Moscoso, inexplicably pardoned him in August 2004, and he was freed. With the assistance of a network of Cuban American supporters in Florida, in early 2005, Posada illegally entered the United States and openly took up residence in Miami. Despite a post-9/11 policy of penalizing nations that harbored international terrorists, the George W. Bush administration allowed Posada to live freely in Florida and even to apply to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Only after the New York Times and the Miami Herald ran front page articles on Posada’s responsibility for the plane bombing—based on CIA and FBI intelligence reports provided by the National Security Archive (and posted today)—did authorities move to arrest him on May 17, 2005. He was eventually charged not with committing acts of terrorism but rather of committing perjury and immigration fraud when applying to become a citizen. For his trial in El Paso, the CIA submitted a short summary of his longstanding ties to the agency, dating back to the early 1960s and ending in the early 1990s when CIA officials warned Posada in Honduras that they had uncovered a plot to assassinate him. The three-month-long trial ended when the jury found Posada, by then 83 years old, innocent of all charges after just three hours of deliberations. Document Hand-drawn diagram of bomb detonator Both Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada lived out their lives as free men in Florida. Bosch died at age 84 on April 27, 2011, in a Miami hospital; Posada died at age 90 in May 2018. “Given the travesty of justice for the 73 victims of Cubana flight 455 over the last half century,” according to Kornbluh, “the declassified documents on Posada’s and Bosch’s role provide the only possible verdict—the verdict of history.” This history remains relevant to the current crisis in U.S.-Cuba relations, Kornbluh noted. “At a time when the Trump administration has sought to justify its regime change operations by accusing Cuba of terrorist efforts against the United States, the documents demonstrate that Cuba has for decades been the target of terrorism committed by violent individuals long associated with the United States.” The Documents d1 Document 1 FBI, Intelligence Cable, “Suspected Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados,” Secret, October 7, 1976 Oct 7, 1976 Only one day after the bombing of Cubana flight 455, sources in Caracas are already sharing intelligence that Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch masterminded the terrorist attack and were getting ready to flee Venezuela. “The confidential source further advised,” the FBI reported, that “[deleted reference to DISIP, Venezuela’s intelligence service] was arranging for Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch Avila to leave Venezuela as soon as possible. The source all but admitted that Posada and Bosch had engineered the bombing of the airplane.” d2 Document 2 CIA, Secret Intelligence Report, “Activities of Cuban Exile Leader Orlando Bosch During his Stay in Venezuela,” Secret, October 14, 1976 Oct 14, 1976 A source in Venezuela supplied the CIA with detailed intelligence on a fundraiser held for Orlando Bosch and his organization CORU after he arrived in Caracas in September 1976. The source described the dinner at the house of a Cuban exile doctor, Hildo Folgar, which included Venezuelan government officials. Bosch was said to have demanded a bribe to refrain from acts of violence during the United Nations meeting in November 1976, which would be attended by Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez. He was also quoted as saying that his group had done a “great job” in assassinating former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., on September 21 and now was going to “try something else.” A few days later, according to this intelligence report, Luis Posada Carriles was overheard to say that “we are going to hit a Cuban airplane” and “Orlando has the details.” d3 Document 3 State Department, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Memorandum, “Castro’s Allegations,” October 18, 1976 Oct 18, 1976 The first report to Secretary of State Kissinger from the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research on the bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 details Cuba’s allegation that the CIA was involved in the bombing and provides an outline of the suspects’ relationship to the U.S. The report notes that a CIA source had overheard Posada prior to the bombing in late September 1976 stating that, “We are going to hit a Cuban airliner.” This information was apparently not passed to the CIA until after the plane went down. d4 Document 4 FBI, Letter to Kissinger, [Regarding Special Agent Leo], October 20, 1976 Oct 20, 1976 This report to Secretary of State Kissinger from Clarence M. Kelly, director of the FBI, explains the association between Joseph S. Leo, Special Agent and Legal Attaché in Caracas, to the suspects in the Cubana Airlines Flight 455 bombing. Investigators found Leo’s name among the possessions of Hernan Ricardo Lozano, one of the two Posada employees who planted the explosive device on the plane. The report notes that there were at least two contacts between Lozano and Leo in the weeks leading up to the bombing. d5 Document 5 FBI, Letter to Kissinger, [Regarding Contact with Bombing Suspects], October 29, 1976 Oct 29, 1976 The second report to Secretary of State Kissinger from FBI director Clarence M. Kelly provides additional information regarding the relationship between Special Agent Leo and the Cubana Airlines bombing suspects. The report details Leo’s contacts with Lozano and Posada going back to the summer of 1975 and notes that Leo suspected Posada and Hernan Ricardo Lozano of acts of terrorism but still granted Ricardo’s request for a visa to the United States. d6 Document 6 FBI, Letter to Kissinger, [Regarding Ricardo Morales Navarette], November 5, 1976 Nov 5, 1976 A third report to Secretary of State Kissinger from Clarence M. Kelly, director of the FBI, relays information from a confidential FBI source that the bombing of the Cubana Airlines flight was planned in Caracas, Venezuela, by Luis Posada Carriles, Frank Castro, and Ricardo Morales Navarrete. The source states that the group had made previous unsuccessful attempts to bomb Cuban aircraft in Jamaica and Panama. Shortly after the plane crashed, bombing suspect Hernan Ricardo Lozano telephoned Bosch stating, “a bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed.” The source also states that anti-Castro Cuban exiles working with the Chilean National Directorate for Intelligence (DINA) carried out the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 1976. d7 Document 7 Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of National Security, October 26, 1976, [Dennis Elliott Ramdwar deposition regarding Hernan Ricardo Lozano and Freddy Lugo] Oct 26, 1976 Trinidad and Tobago Deputy Commissioner of Police Dennis Ramdwar led the inquiries regarding the crash of Cubana Airline flight 455. In his written statement, he notes that Freddy Lugo initially denied knowledge of the crash. Eight days later, Lugo tells Ramdwar that he is convinced that Lozano placed the bomb on the aircraft. He states that Ricardo told him twice that he was going to blow up a Cubana aircraft as the two were headed to the airport prior to the bombing. In a separate interview, Lozano gives Ramdwar details of how a “certain chemical is filled in a tube of Colgate toothpaste after the toothpaste is extracted” to construct the bomb. d8 Document 8 CIA, Memorandum, "AMCLEVE /15," July 21, 1966 Jul 21, 1966 This document identifies early CIA ties to Luis Posada Carriles. It includes two parts: a cover letter written by Grover T. Lythcott, Posada’s CIA handler, and an attached request written by Posada to accept a position on a new coordinating Junta composed of several anti-Castro organizations. In the cover letter, Lythcott refers to Posada by his then-codename, AMCLEVE/I5, and discusses his previous involvement with the Agency. He lionizes Posada, writing that his “performance in all assigned tasks has been excellent” and urging that he be permitted to work with the combined anti-Castro exile groups. According to the document, Lythcott suggests that Posada be taken off the CIA payroll to facilitate his joining the anti-Castro militant junta, which will be led by RECE. Lythcott insists that Posada will function as an effective moderating force considering he is “acutely aware of the international implications of ill planned or over enthusiastic activities against Cuba.” In an attached memo, Posada, using the name “Pete,” writes that if he is on the Junta, “they will never do anything to endanger the security of this Country (like blow up Russian ships)” and volunteers to “give the Company all the intelligence that I can collect.” d9 Document 9 CIA, summary, “Unclassified Summary of the CIA’s Relationship With Luis Clemente Posada Carriles,” ca January 2011 Jan 2011 This short, unclassified summary of the relationship between Luis Posada Carriles and the CIA was drafted for Posada’s 2011 El Paso trial on perjury charges related to immigration and naturalization proceedings after he illegally entered the U.S. in 2005. It was provided to the court by the U.S. Justice Department. The summary admits that the CIA first had contact with Posada in connection with planning the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. He remained a paid agent of the CIA from 1965-1967 and again from 1968-1974. From 1974-76, Posada provided unsolicited threat reporting on his and other violent exile operations, including an attempt to blow up a Cuban airliner in June 1976. According to this document, the CIA last had contact with Posada in 1993 when they anonymously contacted him in Honduras by telephone to warn him of a threat to his life. d10 Document 10 Office of the Independent Counsel, Lawrence Walsh, “Record of Interview with Luis Posada Carriles,” Secret, February 7, 1992 Feb 7, 1992 Two FBI agents interviewed Posada at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in February 1992. He provided a detailed account of his work for the contra war, which included descriptions of escaping from Venezuela in a private aircraft and being flown to Aruba and then on to El Salvador. The 31-page interview transcript also provides extensive details on his operations in El Salvador and Guatemala after the Iran Contra scandal broke in November 1986 and the contra resupply operation was shut down. Although Posada accumulated $40,000 from the contra work—he and others were paid from profits from the sale of armaments to Iran—he eventually ran out of funds. At one point, Richard Secord sent him $1,000 for one of his paintings.