HAVANA (AP) — Cuban authorities released a Salvadoran man who was convicted of participating in a string of hotel bombings on the island in 1997, a government-run news site said.
The Cubadebate website reported Monday in a lengthy editorial that Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon was freed after completing a 30-year prison sentence, but added that the men who planned the attacks have not been brought to justice.
“The liberation of Cruz Leon today, after completing his sentence, exemplifies the coherence of Cuba’s legal system,” Cubadebate said. “However we cannot forget that the intellectual authors of these terrorist acts … have lived and died in the United States without facing justice.”
In 1997, several hotels and bars in Cuba were bombed by enemies of Fidel Castro’s communist government, looking to undermine the island’s tourism industry. An Italian tourist was killed in one of the attacks.
The bombings were allegedly masterminded by Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile who sought refuge in the United States in 2005 and died in 2018 without facing prosecution for the attacks.
Posada Carriles discussed the bombings with The New York Times in a 1998 interview, saying that he lamented the death of Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo, while adding that the attacks were meant to frighten tourists from visiting the island.
The attacks happened at a time when Castro was looking to develop new sources of income for his cash-strapped government, which was reeling from the economic impact of U.S. sanctions and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In a 2011 interview with The Associated Press, Cruz Leon confessed to placing a bomb in the Hotel Copacabana that killed the Italian tourist. Cruz Leon said he had received the explosives from Francisco Chavez Abarca, another Salvadoran mercenary. Chavez Abarca was arrested in Venezuela in 2010 and extradited to Cuba, where he was also convicted for his role in the attacks.
“I am simply a soldier who was sent to a war that I did not belong to, and in which I should have not gotten involved,” Cruz Leon told AP in the 2011 interview.
Cruz Leon was initially sentenced to death. But his penalty was reduced to 30 years in prison in 2010. Under Cuba’s legal system, 10 months in prison is equivalent to a year of sentencing, which explains his release in 2024.
Cuban officials have not provided further information on where Cruz Leon has gone since being released, or made any other statements about his release.
Cubadebate’s article on Monday reiterated demands made by the Cuban government for the island nation to be removed from a U.S. government list of nations that sponsor terrorist groups.
Cuba was removed from the list in 2015 by the Obama administration as relations warmed between the countries, but it was once again designated a state that sponsors terrorism by the first Trump administration.
Cuba’s latest inclusion on the list happened after its government refused a request by Colombia to arrest rebel leaders from that country who had been in Havana for peace talks.
Colombia's new government run by leftist leader Gustavo Petro has withdrawn that request and asked the U.S. to remove Cuba from the list of terrorist states.
“The U.S. list of terrorist states is hypocrisy,” the article said.
FILE - Raúl Ernesto Cruz León, who admitted to setting the bomb at a Cuban hotel in 1997, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Havana, Cuba, Feb. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in Virginia will begin the new year filling state Senate and House vacancies on Tuesday in a trio of special elections that could determine control of the narrowly divided chambers.
In the Washington suburbs of Loudoun County, Democratic state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam’s election to Congress in November has triggered a special election for his seat in state Senate District 32, as well as in state House District 26, where the Democratic incumbent resigned after winning the nomination to fill the state Senate vacancy.
The nominees to replace Subramanyam are Democratic state Del. Kannan Srinivasan and Republican Tumay Harding. Running to replace Srinivasan in the House of Delegates are Democrat JJ Singh and Republican Ram Venkatachalam.
In state Senate District 10 to the west of Richmond, voters will elect a replacement for Republican state Sen. John McGuire, who was elected to Congress. In August, McGuire defeated U.S. Rep. Bob Goode in the Republican primary in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District. The nominees are Republican Luther Cifers and Democrat Jack Trammell.
The state Senate and House seats in Loudoun County are both reliably Democratic. Former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe carried the overlapping districts with more than 60% of the vote in his failed 2021 reelection bid. In presidential elections, President Joe Biden carried Loudoun County with about 62% of the vote in 2020, while Vice President Kamala Harris received about 57% of the vote in 2024. Meanwhile, voters in state Senate District 10 preferred Republicans Donald Trump and Gov. Glenn Youngkin in previous elections. McGuire ran unopposed for this seat in 2023.
Democrats hold slim majorities in both the state Senate and state House of Delegates. Assuming Republicans hold McGuire’s Senate seat, Democratic losses in either Loudoun County seat could throw control of the state Senate to Republicans or force a power-sharing agreement in the state House of Delegates, where Democrats had reclaimed control after the 2023 elections.
The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday:
Virginia’s state legislative special elections will be held Tuesday. Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.
The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in three contests in state Senate Districts 10 and 32 and state House District 26.
Voters registered in state Senate Districts 10 and 32 and state House District 26 may participate in the special election in their district.
As of November, there were about 177,000 registered voters in Senate District 10, 155,000 in Senate District 32 and 58,000 in House District 26. Voters in Virginia do not register by party.
In the last state legislative elections in 2023, turnout was 38% of registered voters in Senate District 10, 42% in Senate District 32 and 40% in House District 26.
In the 2024 presidential election, the AP first reported results at 7:11 p.m. ET, or 11 minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at 3:56 a.m. ET with about 95% of total votes counted.
As of Tuesday, there will be 301 days until Virginia’s general elections for governor and state House of Delegates.
FILE - House of Delegates members walk past the south portico at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP, Pool, File)
