ORLANDO BOSCH, CIVILIAN PLANE BOMBER, DEAD IN MIAMI

VICTIMS OF ORLANDO BOSCH

You many never have heard of Orlando Bosch, but every Cuban citizen of whatever age knows the pain of the families of his victims. And they know that while the mainstream press is currently referring to him as a "Cuban Exile Militant" that he was a Terrorist.

He said he would go anywhere in the world to attack "Cuban targets". He sent letter bombs to Cuban Embassies in 4 different countries and organized bombings inside Cuban hotels in the 1990s.

But he was most known in Cuba for the October 6, 1976 bombing of a Cuban Jetliner, Cubana flight 455. It was a mid air bombing that killed 73 people including members of the Cuban Gold Medal Fencing Team. Orlando Bosch later stated that "All of Castro's planes are war planes".

At times he denied involvement and at other times he said, "Pusimos la bomba - y que? (We planted the bomb, so what?) He lived in Miami until his death because George W. Bush overturned the Asst. Attorney General's deportation order.

The truth is in the recently declassified CIA and FBI documents which clearly link Bosch to the 1976 bombing. Peter Kornbluh, who heads the National Security Archives Project - Cuba, stated on the event of Bosch's death, "The verdict of history, rendered by formerly secret CIA and FBI Intelligence Reports and court records, is that he was a mass murderer masquerading as a freedom fighter."

Even in the Miami Herald they quoted a member of the Cuban Exile Community who stated, "How can you understand someone who talks about freedom by blowing up a plane with innocent people on board." And author Achy Obejas who is of a different generation writes, "My prayer: Perhaps with this terrible man's passing, the Cuban Exile Community can begin to free itself of his doctrine of violence and lies".

But this may not be the end of the revelations about Orlando Bosch. Many people believe that as the date approaches for the final declassification of the CIA and FBI files about the assassination of President Kennedy we will again see his name among the web of Cuban Exiles and Mafia figures.