Three officials from Cuba are expected to testify in the U.S. trial of a former CIA operative and anti-communist militant accused of lying during immigration hearings in Texas - a rare example of cooperation between two governments paralyzed by more than a half century of frigid relations.
Two police officers and a state medical examiner from Cuba could begin testifying as early as Tuesday in the U.S. government's perjury case against Luis Posada Carriles. The 82-year-old native of Cuba spent a lifetime using violence to destabilize communist political systems throughout Latin America before seeking U.S citizenship in 2005.
Posada is not on trial for his Cold War past, however. Instead, U.S. prosecutors allege that during immigration hearings in El Paso, Posada made false statements about how he reached American soil in March 2005 and failed to acknowledge planning a series of 1997 bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist. Posada faces 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud.
Neither side in Posada's trial has released a witness list, but both the prosecution and the defense said privately Monday evening that they expect Cuban experts to begin testifying this week, perhaps as early as Tuesday. They have divulged the names of the three witnesses, but only on the condition they not be published until they take the stand.