UDI Asks Cuban President Raúl Castro to ‘Stop Protecting Terrorists’

Diplomatic relations between Cuba and Chile are still tense, as shown by the recent reopening of the Jaime Guzmán case by Chile’s conservative Independent Democratic Union party.

Patricio Melero, President of UDI. Photo: UDI

SANTIAGO — Chilean lawyer and senator Jaime Guzmán, founder of the far-right gremialismo Independent Democratic Union party (UDI), was assassinated in 1991 by members of the far-left terrorist group Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front. The accused assassins, Ricardo Palma Salamanca, Raúl Escobar Poblete, Mauricio Hernández Norambuena, found refuge in Cuba.

Now that Raúl Castro is about to preside at the CELAC-EU summit, the UDI is accusing Cuba of protecting terrorists. The case demonstrates once again the political opposition between the Chilean right-wing and Cuban left-wing governments.

UDI president Patricio Melero has assured that the party possesses reliable evidence that Jaime Guzmán’s assassins are residing in Cuba.

“Raúl Escobar Poblete has never been in prison and is living in complete impunity with his wife Marcela Mardones, who also collaborated in the murder,” he declared. “Juan ‘Chele’ Gutiérrez Fischmann also lives there, and [he] married Raúl Castro’s daughter, with whom he has a child.”

Referring to the upcoming summit, Melero added, “the UDI won’t let Cuba continue to protect people who have committed terrorist acts.”

At this morning’s gathering, UDI declared that as an essential step to good relations between Cuba and Chile, Cuba must take diplomatic and judicial measures regarding the Guzmán case. “Our government has to let the Cuban dictatorship and its president know that these kinds of situations can’t last,” the UDI party declared. “Raúl Castro has to show, during the CELAC-EU summit, that he doesn’t enshrine terrorism.”

In addition, Melero pointed out that the case will be revealed to the international community so that the whole world can collaborate to fight against the Cuban protection of former far-left group members.

“If president Castro assumes that he can preside over the CELAC, an organization promoting democracy and human rights, he has to prove that he doesn’t protect terrorists,” Melero concluded.

However, knowing that Guzmán participated in the Chilean military dictatorship, which restrained human rights and committed acts of crime and torture, there is nothing sure about a possible global support for Chile’s claims against those who assassinated him.