PANAMÁ.— The Cuban delegation participating the parallel Forums of the 7th Summit of the Americas condemned the presence of terrorist Félix Rodríguez Mendigutía in Panama - one of those directly involved in the murder of Che Guevara in Bolivia -, who is scheduled to meet with a group of accredited mercenaries participating in the event forums.

Guardia Lugo showed a photo which depicts the terrorist with one of the Cuban mercenaries accredited to participate in the Summit, holding up, as a trophy, one of the last images of heroic guerilla Che Guevara before he was murdered.

Photo: Juvenal Balán

Ricardo Guardia Lugo, president of the Continental Organization of Latin American Students (OCLAE), read an open letter to organizers of the Civil Society Forum requesting that Panamanian authorities expel Rodríguez Mendiguitía from the country and demanding that the mercenaries, who were reveled yesterday morning, immediately withdraw from the event.

“The cat”, as this individual with proven links to the CIA is also known, participated in the Playa Girón invasion as a member of the 2506th brigade, was involved in the arms and drug trafficking operations supporting the Nicaraguan counterrevolution which blew up in the “Iran-Contra” scandal, and attacked civilian boats brining goods to Cuba.

“The most outrageous and painful thing for us is his direct involvement, under instructions from the CIA, in the murder of Che Guevara in Bolivia,” stated Guardia Lugo.

Trained from the most hard-line Batista stock, his uncle was Minister of Public Works under Batista. He studied in the U.S from 1954 and from an early age was offered the opportunity to participate in the first counterrevolutionary actions against our country, organized from the Dominican Republic by Leónidas Trujillo.

Given his credentials he was quickly recruited by the CIA and began his training in explosives, demolitions, sabotage and other undercover operation techniques.

His criminal record of subversive actions extends across Cuba, Uruguay, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, among other nations on our continent.

Carrying out the empire’s missions as a member of the CIA in Latin America, he was part of the group who pursued and murdered Che in Bolivia.

“For the Latin American youth fighting for a better world Che represents the purest ethical and revolutionary ideals of today and forever,” stated the president of the OCLAE.

Guardia Lugo showed a photo which depicts the terrorist with one of the Cuban mercenaries accredited to participate in the Summit, holding up, as a trophy, one of the last images of heroic guerilla Che Guevara before he was murdered.

“We are sickened that an individual such as Félix Rodríguez Mendigutía, with a criminal record, could come to Panama to meet with traitors who have inexplicably been permitted to participate in the Civil Society Forum to share their opinions on the future of our homeland,” concluded Guardia Lago.



