The Miami mafia's September 11
* On that same date in 1980, Miami mafia capos were celebrating the success of their latest feat of terrorism: the murder of Félix García Rodríguez, a Cuban diplomatic at the United Nations, carried out in a New York street by Pedro Remón, the deadliest killer at their disposal * It was the one and only assassination of a UN diplomat and the news immediately made world headlines * Pedro Remón, who was never punished for his crime and continued his life as a terrorist, is currently detained in Panama with gang leader Luis Posada Carriles; he could soon be returning, unpunished, to his Florida residence
BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD
* SEPTEMBER 11, 1980, 6:20 p.m. Traffic in the heart of New York was its usual hellish self. Félix García Rodríguez was driving past the UN building in a vehicle belonging to the Cuban Mission. He was supposed to pick up a work colleague and her children but fortunately, she had decided to stay at home at the last minute. So Félix, having left his apartment in Queens, stopped by a dry- cleaners in his neighborhood to pick up some clothes and was heading towards his office on the corner of 38th and Lexington Avenue, Manhattan
He was driving along Queens Boulevard when he had to stop at the lights at the corner of 55th Street. That was the moment when, in a fraction of a second, his world ended. A car pulled up alongside, and an unknown killer aimed a MAC 10 machine gun at Félix García Rodríguez and pulled the trigger.
One bullet hit him in the neck, and he lost consciousness. His car hit another vehicle coming in the opposite direction.
The killers stopped their car, the one with the machine gun got out and shot Félix again, this time in the head.
That man's name is Pedro Remón, a terrorist from the Omega 7 group. The driver of the car was Eduardo "Omar" Arocena, head of Omega 7 and author of a very long list of attempts.
That day, "Omar" was celebrating the sixth anniversary of his organization. And the first murder of a UN diplomat was an exploit celebrated by the Cuban-American mafia capos in Miami who blindly supported his act of terrorism, along with the blessing of the CIA and the FBI.
Its probable that the "anonymous informer" who later rang the United Press International (UPI) agency to say that the Omega 7 terrorist organization was responsible for the deed was "Omar" himself.
September 13, 1980:
The remains of the young
Cuban diplomat are brought
back to Havana.
Félix García Rodríguez' killer
Pedro Remón was never punished
for the one and only murder
of a UN diplomat.
INDIGNATION AT THE UN
In Washington, the authorities advised the Cuban Interest Section — the island's main representation in the United States — of the murder at 7:00 p.m. Ramón Sánchez Parodi, the section's head at the time, left immediately for New York.
There, UN diplomats were in uproar. For the first time ever, terrorists had used violence against the legitimate representative of a UN member country. Nobody had ever dared to do such a thing, and such a disgraceful act would never be repeated.
Three times on the following day, UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim expressed his horror at the crime. He communicated with the U.S. representative at the United Nations, demanding that full measures be taken to guarantee the safety of all the Cuban personnel in New York, and insisted that the tragic event be thoroughly investigated.
At a press conference Waldheim stated that he strongly condemned the unjustified act of terrorism, adding that it was a new and tragic illustration of the growing violence faced by diplomats around the world.
Secretary of State Ed Muskie called it a reprehensible act and asked for all the relevant federal agencies as well as the New York police department to cooperate in the investigation.
The man responsible for U.S. foreign policy stated that terrorism was to be condemned in all its forms and eradicated.
Donald McHenry, Washington's ambassador to the UN called the crime a blot on the United States.
Nevertheless, both Muskie and McHenry refrained from specifically condemning the anti-Cuban terrorism sponsored, as was well known, by the country's very own intelligence services and to a large degree tolerated by the federal police.
At the UN, Cuban ambassador Raúl Roa Kourí affirmed with total clarity: "these groups of professional killers have various locations in the country that hosts our international organization. Their members and leaders make public statements to New York’s Spanish-language press and hold public meetings on the streets, crudely boasting of their criminal intentions."
He justly recalled: "They are the same ones who have detonated five bombs in the offices of the Cuban Mission at the UN over the last two years and who placed a high-explosive bomb in the car belonging to Cuba’s permanent representative to the organization."
Kourí added: "Félix García Rodríguez has died as a result of his cowardly murderers going unpunished for their previous crimes."
The subsequent investigations, concluded one year later, completely supported his reasoning.
On September 13, the body of the murdered diplomat was brought to Havana accompanied by Victor Villa, a work colleague of Félix and a former guerrilla fighter in the Sierra Maestra. An important group headed by Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, member of the Political Bureau and vice president of the Council of State, was awaiting their arrival at José Martí airport.
On September 14, Félix García Rodriguez was interred in Havana’s Colón Cemetery; thousands of people gathered to give their final salute to a heroic comrade, victim of Miami’s Batista underworld.
His colleagues and friends remembered the murdered Cuban diplomat, who had worked as a journalist on Juventud Rebelde before moving to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as "a great guy." He had worked for the UN Cuban Mission from 1977, joining Alarcón’s team, and his main brief was to look after the many Cuban visitors arriving in New York for reasons of work.
OMAR AND HIS KILLERS
According to information declassified by the FBI in 1993, Omega 7 was a Miami-based terrorist organization founded on September 11, 1974 by Eduardo "Omar" Arocena, with the backing of two fanatical Cuban-American groups: the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM) and the Martí Insurrection Movement (MIM).
Omega 7 was active until 1983, when it was destroyed by the arrest of its leader.
Various of the 20 or so killers gathered around Arocena had been recruited and specially trained in intelligence and commando techniques by the CIA in order to participate in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.
The FBI confirmed that the training of those individuals as mercenaries plus funds guaranteed by the CNM gave Omega 7 an almost unlimited potential for terrorism.
In the majority of their actions, Omega 7 used bombs, bullets and murder.
Despite the international impact of Félix García Rodríguez’ death, the FBI waited until 1981 — at least officially — before beginning to identify the perpetrators of the crime.
An FBI document reads that in December 1980, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) questioned Pedro Remón and Ramón Sánchez, another Cuban immigrant, on crossing the Canadian border, traveling from Montreal.
Although a bomb had gone off at the Cuban Consulate in that city just a few hours earlier, the two men were not questioned about the incident.
However, the INS gave the FBI data on the two individuals and the Feds finally uncovered the Omega 7 network. Investigations into the activities of Remón and Sánchez allowed the experts to discover their links with Eduardo Arocena, Andrés García and Eduardo Fernández Losada, and the existence of the criminal organization.
A FINE AND A CHECK
Thus they were able to prove an important exchange of telephone calls between Arocena and Remón around the dates of various attacks, plus suspicious care-hire information in Newark Airport, New Jersey.
Delving deeper, in the New York police archives investigators found that a vehicle hired by Arocena and Remón had received a fine in front of the UN Cuban Mission on September 11, 1980¼ and that Arocena had signed a check to pay for the infraction.
On December 2, 1982, Arocena was called before the Grand Jury and roundly denied all knowledge of Omega 7’s activities, except for what he’d read about the group in the press.
However, the FBI report stated that the terrorist leader had initially worked as a U.S. government agent. After that appearance, Arocena briefly cooperated with the FBI and talked to investigators Robert Brandt and Larry Wack.
At first he stated that he represented "Omar", the head of Omega 7. But the next day he admitted that "Omar" and himself were one and the same person.
After confessing that he’d traveled to Miami to pick up 600 pounds of explosives from Pedro Remón, "Omar" surprised Brandt and Wack by telling them over the phone that he didn’t want to cooperate with them any more and then disappeared off the face of the earth.
The FBI claimed to have lost track of him, until his arrest on July 22, 1983, seven months later.
* On that same date in 1980, Miami mafia capos were celebrating the success of their latest feat of terrorism: the murder of Félix García Rodríguez, a Cuban diplomatic at the United Nations, carried out in a New York street by Pedro Remón, the deadliest killer at their disposal * It was the one and only assassination of a UN diplomat and the news immediately made world headlines * Pedro Remón, who was never punished for his crime and continued his life as a terrorist, is currently detained in Panama with gang leader Luis Posada Carriles; he could soon be returning, unpunished, to his Florida residence
BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD
* SEPTEMBER 11, 1980, 6:20 p.m. Traffic in the heart of New York was its usual hellish self. Félix García Rodríguez was driving past the UN building in a vehicle belonging to the Cuban Mission. He was supposed to pick up a work colleague and her children but fortunately, she had decided to stay at home at the last minute. So Félix, having left his apartment in Queens, stopped by a dry- cleaners in his neighborhood to pick up some clothes and was heading towards his office on the corner of 38th and Lexington Avenue, Manhattan
He was driving along Queens Boulevard when he had to stop at the lights at the corner of 55th Street. That was the moment when, in a fraction of a second, his world ended. A car pulled up alongside, and an unknown killer aimed a MAC 10 machine gun at Félix García Rodríguez and pulled the trigger.
One bullet hit him in the neck, and he lost consciousness. His car hit another vehicle coming in the opposite direction.
The killers stopped their car, the one with the machine gun got out and shot Félix again, this time in the head.
That man's name is Pedro Remón, a terrorist from the Omega 7 group. The driver of the car was Eduardo "Omar" Arocena, head of Omega 7 and author of a very long list of attempts.
That day, "Omar" was celebrating the sixth anniversary of his organization. And the first murder of a UN diplomat was an exploit celebrated by the Cuban-American mafia capos in Miami who blindly supported his act of terrorism, along with the blessing of the CIA and the FBI.
Its probable that the "anonymous informer" who later rang the United Press International (UPI) agency to say that the Omega 7 terrorist organization was responsible for the deed was "Omar" himself.
September 13, 1980:
The remains of the young
Cuban diplomat are brought
back to Havana.
Félix García Rodríguez' killer
Pedro Remón was never punished
for the one and only murder
of a UN diplomat.
INDIGNATION AT THE UN
In Washington, the authorities advised the Cuban Interest Section — the island's main representation in the United States — of the murder at 7:00 p.m. Ramón Sánchez Parodi, the section's head at the time, left immediately for New York.
There, UN diplomats were in uproar. For the first time ever, terrorists had used violence against the legitimate representative of a UN member country. Nobody had ever dared to do such a thing, and such a disgraceful act would never be repeated.
Three times on the following day, UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim expressed his horror at the crime. He communicated with the U.S. representative at the United Nations, demanding that full measures be taken to guarantee the safety of all the Cuban personnel in New York, and insisted that the tragic event be thoroughly investigated.
At a press conference Waldheim stated that he strongly condemned the unjustified act of terrorism, adding that it was a new and tragic illustration of the growing violence faced by diplomats around the world.
Secretary of State Ed Muskie called it a reprehensible act and asked for all the relevant federal agencies as well as the New York police department to cooperate in the investigation.
The man responsible for U.S. foreign policy stated that terrorism was to be condemned in all its forms and eradicated.
Donald McHenry, Washington's ambassador to the UN called the crime a blot on the United States.
Nevertheless, both Muskie and McHenry refrained from specifically condemning the anti-Cuban terrorism sponsored, as was well known, by the country's very own intelligence services and to a large degree tolerated by the federal police.
At the UN, Cuban ambassador Raúl Roa Kourí affirmed with total clarity: "these groups of professional killers have various locations in the country that hosts our international organization. Their members and leaders make public statements to New York’s Spanish-language press and hold public meetings on the streets, crudely boasting of their criminal intentions."
He justly recalled: "They are the same ones who have detonated five bombs in the offices of the Cuban Mission at the UN over the last two years and who placed a high-explosive bomb in the car belonging to Cuba’s permanent representative to the organization."
Kourí added: "Félix García Rodríguez has died as a result of his cowardly murderers going unpunished for their previous crimes."
The subsequent investigations, concluded one year later, completely supported his reasoning.
On September 13, the body of the murdered diplomat was brought to Havana accompanied by Victor Villa, a work colleague of Félix and a former guerrilla fighter in the Sierra Maestra. An important group headed by Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, member of the Political Bureau and vice president of the Council of State, was awaiting their arrival at José Martí airport.
On September 14, Félix García Rodriguez was interred in Havana’s Colón Cemetery; thousands of people gathered to give their final salute to a heroic comrade, victim of Miami’s Batista underworld.
His colleagues and friends remembered the murdered Cuban diplomat, who had worked as a journalist on Juventud Rebelde before moving to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as "a great guy." He had worked for the UN Cuban Mission from 1977, joining Alarcón’s team, and his main brief was to look after the many Cuban visitors arriving in New York for reasons of work.
OMAR AND HIS KILLERS
According to information declassified by the FBI in 1993, Omega 7 was a Miami-based terrorist organization founded on September 11, 1974 by Eduardo "Omar" Arocena, with the backing of two fanatical Cuban-American groups: the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM) and the Martí Insurrection Movement (MIM).
Omega 7 was active until 1983, when it was destroyed by the arrest of its leader.
Various of the 20 or so killers gathered around Arocena had been recruited and specially trained in intelligence and commando techniques by the CIA in order to participate in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.
The FBI confirmed that the training of those individuals as mercenaries plus funds guaranteed by the CNM gave Omega 7 an almost unlimited potential for terrorism.
In the majority of their actions, Omega 7 used bombs, bullets and murder.
Despite the international impact of Félix García Rodríguez’ death, the FBI waited until 1981 — at least officially — before beginning to identify the perpetrators of the crime.
An FBI document reads that in December 1980, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) questioned Pedro Remón and Ramón Sánchez, another Cuban immigrant, on crossing the Canadian border, traveling from Montreal.
Although a bomb had gone off at the Cuban Consulate in that city just a few hours earlier, the two men were not questioned about the incident.
However, the INS gave the FBI data on the two individuals and the Feds finally uncovered the Omega 7 network. Investigations into the activities of Remón and Sánchez allowed the experts to discover their links with Eduardo Arocena, Andrés García and Eduardo Fernández Losada, and the existence of the criminal organization.
A FINE AND A CHECK
Thus they were able to prove an important exchange of telephone calls between Arocena and Remón around the dates of various attacks, plus suspicious care-hire information in Newark Airport, New Jersey.
Delving deeper, in the New York police archives investigators found that a vehicle hired by Arocena and Remón had received a fine in front of the UN Cuban Mission on September 11, 1980¼ and that Arocena had signed a check to pay for the infraction.
On December 2, 1982, Arocena was called before the Grand Jury and roundly denied all knowledge of Omega 7’s activities, except for what he’d read about the group in the press.
However, the FBI report stated that the terrorist leader had initially worked as a U.S. government agent. After that appearance, Arocena briefly cooperated with the FBI and talked to investigators Robert Brandt and Larry Wack.
At first he stated that he represented "Omar", the head of Omega 7. But the next day he admitted that "Omar" and himself were one and the same person.
After confessing that he’d traveled to Miami to pick up 600 pounds of explosives from Pedro Remón, "Omar" surprised Brandt and Wack by telling them over the phone that he didn’t want to cooperate with them any more and then disappeared off the face of the earth.
The FBI claimed to have lost track of him, until his arrest on July 22, 1983, seven months later.