Return of the Godfather, Part II

PERUVIAN President Fujimori’s courageous decision to break the hostage siege at the Japanese Embassy in Lima in April may have frustrated some of Godfather Fidel’s latest maneuvers to keep himself in power. As Peruvian commandos stormed into the compound, liberating 71 hostages from Cuban-backed terrorists, Castro’s foreign minister was in Tokyo trying to extract a ransom payment from the Japanese government.

Evidence of Castro’s complicity in the hostage siege was clear from the start, when it was widely reported that the leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), Néstor Cerpa, had been trained in Cuba. Castro’s machinations to extract economic concessions from Japan, however, were largely ignored. Visits to Havana by Peru’s embattled president and a host of Japanese officials were invariably treated as homage to Castro’s statesmanlike efforts to achieve a “peaceful solution” to the crisis. Little light has been shed on the extortionist policies of Cuba’s dictator, who has been Latin America’s main beneficiary of terrorist ransom since collecting a record $50 million for the return of two Argentine industrialists in 1975.

MA

About the Author

Martin Arostegui

Featured Tags

PERUVIAN President Fujimori’s courageous decision to break the hostage siege at the Japanese Embassy in Lima in April may have frustrated some of Godfather Fidel’s latest maneuvers to keep himself in power. As Peruvian commandos stormed into the compound, liberating 71 hostages from Cuban-backed terrorists, Castro’s foreign minister was in Tokyo trying to extract a ransom payment from the Japanese government.

Evidence of Castro’s complicity in the hostage siege was clear from the start, when it was widely reported that the leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), Néstor Cerpa, had been trained in Cuba. Castro’s machinations to extract economic concessions from Japan, however, were largely ignored. Visits to Havana by Peru’s embattled president and a host of Japanese officials were invariably treated as homage to Castro’s statesmanlike efforts to achieve a “peaceful solution” to the crisis. Little light has been shed on the extortionist policies of Cuba’s dictator, who has been Latin America’s main beneficiary of terrorist ransom since collecting a record $50 million for the return of two Argentine industrialists in 1975.