Havana/The Salvadoran Otto René Rodríguez Llerena was released this Friday from the prison in which he remained in Cuba after serving a 30 -year sentence for his participation in a terrorist attack perpetrated in 1997 at the Hotel Meliá Cohiba, in Havana, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported. According to the official statement, Rodríguez Llerena “has served his sentence and, according to the country’s legislation, has been released.”
Initially, in 1998, Rodríguez Llerena had been sentenced to the death penalty for the crime of “continuous terrorism”, during a trial in Havana. He also confessed to having received payments from Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles to carry out the attack and introduce explosives in the country.
The sentence indicates that, on August 3, 1997, Rodríguez Llerena placed an explosive in the lobby of the Meliá Cohiba hotel and, although there were no fatal victims, the explosion caused material damage.
Ten months later, on June 10, 1998, Rodríguez Llerena returned to Cuba, where he was arrested by customs when trying to enter with 1,519 grams of explosives C-4, two detonators and two watches also used to assemble the explosive. In December 2010, the Popular Supreme Court decided to replace the death penalty initially imposed by a 30 -year prison sentence in an act that the regime itself described as “coherent and human.”
“The United States allows terrorist acts against Cuba to be financed and organized from its territory, giving impunity to its authors,” said the Foreign Ministry
After the announcement of the departure of Rodríguez Llerena, Cuban Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez, stood out on social networks that while Cuba releases the Salvadoran after compliance with his sentence, “the United States allows to finance and organize terrorist acts against Cuba from its territory, giving impunity to its authors.” The Foreign Ministry also pointed out that “several of these individuals have lived free in Miami for decades”, and that some even died without being judged, such as Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch.
However, Cuba has also offered refuge for people sought by US justice, such as Joanne Chesimard, aka Assata Shakur, former member of the Panther Black Movement and convicted of the murder of a policeman in New Jersey in 1973. Chesimard escaped prison and took refuge on the island in 1984.
Another case is to William MoralesPuerto Rican independence militant accused of manufacturing the explosives used in the attack on January 24, 1975 in the New York Fraunces Tavern, which left four dead and numerous injured. Born in 1950 in that same state, Morales was arrested in 1979 for possession of explosives, but managed to escape Mexico – where he was also arrested and escaped again – and from there to Cuba.
The Puerto Rican is attributed the manufacture of all the bombs used by the Armed Forces of National Liberation Puerto Rican (FENS), and he suffered serious injuries after an accidental explosion in his home in which he lost an eye and nine fingers. In the US, he was sentenced to 89 years in prison, but managed to escape with the help of a doctor linked to a communist organization.
Last January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded from Havana the delivery of Morales to US justice
Last January, after 50 years of the New York attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded from Havana the delivery of Morales to US justice. Morales, however, continues on the island, where he married and had children.
Despite these circumstances, and within the framework of Rodríguez Llerena’s recent release, the Cuban Foreign Ministry stressed that the country “acts in accordance with its laws and ensures that those responsible for terrorist acts yield accounts before justice.” In addition, he reiterated his commitment to the fight against terrorism, the defense of human rights and the importance of the international community demanding responsibilities to those who promote these types of actions.
At the end of 2024 another Salvadoran was released, Raúl Ernesto Cruz Leónalso benefited from the switching of the death penalty for 30 years in prison. Cruz León was convicted of participating in the 1997 attacks against several hotels and tourist centers in Havana, including El Nacional, Capri, Copacabana, Tritón, Chateau-Miramar and the La Bodeguita del Medio restaurant. In one of these attacks the Italian businessman Fabio Di Celmo, 32, died, and seven other people were injured.
