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132-517: The Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations ( Spanish : Coordinación de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas, CORU ) was a militant group responsible for a number of terrorist activities directed at the Cuban government following the Cuban Revolution . The United States government provided them with extensive financial and logistical support throughout their existence. It

264-692: A "radio marathon" on Radio Mambí . His charges did not relate to his alleged involvement in the bombing of the Cubana airliner, or in the bombings in Havana. Instead, they revolved around lying to immigration agents about his trip to the US and illegally entering the United States. The fact that he was not tried for murder or terrorism was strongly criticized by Cuba and Venezuela, while the Center for Democracy in

396-514: A 1998 taped interview that "the Italian was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I sleep like a baby." In a taped interview, Posada said: "It is sad that someone is dead, but we can't stop." He added that Raúl Ernesto Cruz León, the man arrested and charged with the bombings, was a mercenary in his employ. Cruz León was sentenced to death by the Cuban authorities after admitting to the attacks;

528-658: A Spanish-based creole language called Chavacano developed in the southern Philippines. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish. The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996. The local languages of the Philippines also retain significant Spanish influence, with many words derived from Mexican Spanish , owing to the administration of the islands by Spain through New Spain until 1821, until direct governance from Madrid afterwards to 1898. Luis Posada Carriles Luis Clemente Posada Carriles (February 15, 1928 – May 23, 2018)

660-603: A considerable number of words from Arabic , as well as a minor influence from the Germanic Gothic language through the period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from both Classical Latin and Renaissance Latin , the form of Latin in use at that time. According to

792-633: A covert campaign against left-wing movements, democratic movements, and human-rights campaigns in South America. Other members helped supply the Contras in Nicaragua, and possibly train them as well. Over the 1980s, the US government and Cuban Exile community shifted away from supporting armed exile groups in opposition to the Cuba state in favour of special interest political groups. Altogether, CORU

924-522: A dramatic change in the pronunciation of its sibilant consonants , known in Spanish as the reajuste de las sibilantes , which resulted in the distinctive velar [x] pronunciation of the letter ⟨j⟩ and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic interdental [θ] ("th-sound") for the letter ⟨z⟩ (and for ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ ). See History of Spanish (Modern development of

1056-477: A failed coup against Castro in 1960. He was a CIA operative at various points in the 1960s, before being arrested in 1968 for attacking a Polish freighter. After serving four years in prison, he went to Venezuela where he was arrested and jailed by Venezuelan authorities for blowing up Cuban and Panamanian buildings in Caracas. He moved to Curaçao soon after, where he claimed to have continued his activities against

1188-571: A federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment, which marked the first time Posada was officially linked by the US government to the 1997 bombings in Cuba. On April 9, 2009, the Miami Herald reported: The superseding indictment from the grand jury in El Paso does not charge Posada, 81, with planting the bombs or plotting the bombings but with lying in an immigration court about his role in

1320-482: A first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos ( Ilustrados ). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing. Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American administration after

1452-588: A larger attack, including through a fundraising dinner held in Caracas , at which donors paid $ 1000 a plate. This larger plot turned out to be the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 , which killed 73 people, and which remained the group's largest attack. CORU continued to carry out violent attacks against the Cuban government until the 1990s. They also participated in attacks against democratic governments elsewhere; CORU members participated in Operation Condor ,

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1584-511: A lengthy relationship with Titi Bosch, who died of cancer in 2001. Towards the end of his life, Posada lived in Miami, where he often attended fund raisers among the right-wing exile groups, and participated in protests against the government of Fidel Castro. Among Cuban exiles, he was nicknamed "Bambi". A November 2016, El Nuevo Herald newspaper article described Posada in a Miami restaurant celebrating Castro's death. The article reported that

1716-415: A long history in the territory of the current-day United States dating back to the 16th century. In the wake of the 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty , hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers became a minoritized community in the United States. The 20th century saw further massive growth of Spanish speakers in areas where they had been hitherto scarce. According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of

1848-580: A more confrontational approach to Cuba and expanded covert operations in Latin America. Posada was given a house and a car, and paid $ 3,000 per month, $ 750 for each flight he made, and sundry expenses, primarily by US Major General Richard Secord , who was directing operations for North. Posada was responsible for managing supply flights from the Salvadoran base of Ilopango to the Contra rebels at

1980-722: A number of suspected terrorists in Guantánamo Bay , the US government was guilty of hypocrisy. Posada died in May 2018 in Florida, where hardline elements of the anti-Castro exile community in Miami still regarded him as "a heroic figure". Reporter Ann Louise Bardach called him "Fidel Castro's most persistent would-be assassin," while Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive referred to him as "one of

2112-760: A part in Letelier's murder were freed. Spanish language Spanish ( español ) or Castilian ( castellano ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe . Today, it is a global language with about 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain , and about 600 million when including second language speakers. Spanish

2244-508: A primarily Hassaniya Arabic -speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its secondary official language, and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf ( Algeria ), where the Spanish language is still taught as

2376-564: A prosecutor's appeal of his second acquittal in the bombing. His escape is said to have involved a hefty bribe and his dressing as a priest. According to Posada, the escape was planned and financed by Jorge Mas Canosa , who by then had become head of the Cuban American National Foundation . Posada was met in El Salvador by CIA operative Félix Rodríguez , who told Posada that he was supporting him "at

2508-617: A second language features characteristics involving the variability of the vowel system. While far from its heyday during the Spanish protectorate in Morocco , the Spanish language has some presence in northern Morocco , stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media. According to a 2012 survey by Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES), penetration of Spanish in Morocco reaches 4.6% of

2640-531: A second language, largely by Cuban educators. The number of Spanish speakers is unknown. Spanish is also an official language of the African Union . Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During Spanish colonization , it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as

2772-730: A security advisor to the Guatemalan government. He also remained in contact with Cuban exile groups during this period. In February 1990, Posada was shot while sitting in his car in Guatemala City by unknown assailants that Posada believed were Cuban assassins. In his memoir, Posada said that his recovery and medical bills were paid by the Cuban American National Foundation, with additional payments from Secord. Posada recuperated in Honduras , where

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2904-509: A statement renouncing terrorism, and stating that he had been framed for the assassination attempt in Panama by the Cuban intelligence services. By mid-2001, $ 200,000 had been raised via efforts on Miami radio for a defense fund for Posada and his colleagues. Castro announced the alleged discovery of the plot on international television, describing Posada as "a cowardly man totally without scruples". He also blamed CANF for allegedly orchestrating

3036-657: A technicality. Both Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency at various points in time. Bosch was in contact with the CIA in 1962 and 1963, as the agency itself admitted, as recorded in the National Security Archive . Posada Carriles was trained by the CIA for the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and subsequently recruited as a Maritime Training Branch Instructor. The agency severed his contract in 1967, but he began working for

3168-525: A terrorist but rather as a liar. My family and I are outraged and disappointed that a known terrorist, Luis Posada, is going to trial for perjury and immigration fraud, not for the horrific crime of masterminding the bombing of a civilian airliner.  — Livio di Celmo, whose brother Fabio di Celmo was killed in the 1997 bombings in Havana On May 8, 2007, US district judge Kathleen Cardone dismissed seven counts of immigration fraud and ordered

3300-502: A tip that Cuban exiles were planning to blow up a Cuban airliner. Cubana Flight 455 was a Cubana de Aviación flight departing from Barbados , via Trinidad , to Cuba. On October 6, 1976, two time bombs variously described as dynamite or C-4 planted on the Douglas DC-8 aircraft exploded, killing all 73 people on board, including all 25 members of the 1975 Cuban national fencing team. Investigators from Cuba, Venezuela and

3432-519: A tolerant attitude on the part of US law enforcement. As bombs were being placed in tourist hotels and restaurants in Havana, The New York Times reported, a Cuban-American business-partner of Posada's tried to inform first Guatemalan, then US, law enforcement of Posada's involvement and possible links to Cuban exiles in Union City, New Jersey . Posada himself suggested his friendship with an FBI agent made it unlikely he would be officially implicated;

3564-546: Is Mexico . Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group , in which the language is also known as Castilian ( castellano ). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of

3696-416: Is cognate to the root word of satisfacer ("to satisfy"), and hecho ("made") is similarly cognate to the root word of satisfecho ("satisfied"). Compare the examples in the following table: Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent

3828-468: Is a leading purveyor of terrorism.  — Peter Kornbluh , National Security Archive , February 25, 2010 Posada was accused of lying to US authorities about his entry into the country and about his alleged involvement in bomb attacks in Havana in 1997, and went on trial in Texas. Many of his backers in the Cuban exile community gathered thousands of dollars for his defense during what they termed

3960-413: Is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world. Spanish is well represented in the humanities and social sciences . Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet by number of users after English and Chinese and the second most used language by number of websites after English. Spanish is used as an official language by many international organizations , including

4092-454: Is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language , making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers . An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or foreign language , making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers. Spanish is also

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4224-761: Is heavily influenced by Venezuelan Spanish. In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation of Mercosur in the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching in Brazil . In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President , making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil. In September 2016 this law

4356-844: Is spoken by very small communities in Angola due to Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country's independence. Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands , located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (62 mi) off

4488-813: Is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico . The language has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles , Miami , San Antonio , New York , San Francisco , Dallas , Tucson and Phoenix of the Arizona Sun Corridor , as well as more recently, Chicago , Las Vegas , Boston , Denver , Houston , Indianapolis , Philadelphia , Cleveland , Salt Lake City , Atlanta , Nashville , Orlando , Tampa , Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration. Although Spanish has no official recognition in

4620-498: Is the official language of 20 countries , as well as one of the six official languages of the United Nations . Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese ; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English , Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani ( Hindi - Urdu ); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers

4752-578: Is usually assumed to be derived from castillo ('castle'). In the Middle Ages , the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as Romance and later also as Lengua vulgar . Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as Romance castellano ( romanz castellano , romanz de Castiella ), lenguaje de Castiella , and ultimately simply as castellano (noun). Different etymologies have been suggested for

4884-488: The 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada later admitted involvement in a string of bombings in 1997 targeting fashionable Cuban hotels and nightspots. In addition, he was jailed under accusations related to an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000, although he was later pardoned by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso in the final days of her term. He denied involvement in

5016-659: The Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU). The group first met in the Dominican Republic in June 1976, and laid plans for more than 50 bombings over the next year. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) described CORU as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization." CORU was responsible for a number of attacks in 1976. These included a machine gun attack on the Cuban embassy in Bogotá ,

5148-632: The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), which donated money to a number of politicians, and in return influenced their policy towards Cuba. In 1987, Orlando Bosch was arrested for illegally entering the US, and was to be deported. However, upon the direct intervention of Jeb Bush , he was granted permission to stay by the administration of George H. W. Bush . This was granted despite the Justice Department stating that Bosch had been "resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence," and should not therefore be allowed to remain in

5280-542: The Iran-Contra Scandal , and had close ties to then-US Vice-president George H. W. Bush. Much of the funding that the Cuban exile militants originally received came from other exiles in Miami, including from Jorge Mas Canosa , who had participated in the CIA organized Bay of Pigs invasion. Mas Canosa also gave money to politicians in Florida, and eventually to politicians at the national level, who would support his anti-Castro agenda. In 1982, Mas Canosa founded

5412-568: The Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. Spanish has historically had a significant presence on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao ( ABC Islands ) throughout the centuries and in present times. The majority of the populations of each island (especially Aruba) speaking Spanish at varying although often high degrees of fluency. The local language Papiamentu (Papiamento on Aruba)

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5544-508: The Spanish–American War but was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s. Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English and Filipino , a standardized version of Tagalog . Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under

5676-820: The United Nations , European Union , Organization of American States , Union of South American Nations , Community of Latin American and Caribbean States , African Union , among others. In Spain and some other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian), the language from the Kingdom of Castile , contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician , Basque , Asturian , Catalan/Valencian , Aragonese , Occitan and other minor languages. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses

5808-404: The 2021–2022 school year alone. The local business process outsourcing industry has also helped boost the language's economic prospects. Today, while the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population, a new generation of Spanish speakers in the Philippines has likewise emerged, though speaker estimates vary widely. Aside from standard Spanish,

5940-595: The 20th century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara , and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City . For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language . Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it

6072-620: The Americas described it as "charging Al Capone with tax evasion". Prosecutors alleged that Posada deceived them about his passport and arrived on a boat named the Santrina, not on a bus as he had told the government during interviews. Posada was acquitted on all charges against him in 2011. A spokesman of the US Justice Department expressed disappointment in the outcome, while the Cuban and Venezuelan governments denounced

6204-520: The Bush administration in the US, denied that she had been pressured by US officials to engineer a release of the men, and US officials said they were not involved. "This was a decision made by the government of Panama", said State Department spokesman J. Adam Ereli . "We never lobbied the Panamanian government to pardon anyone involved in this case, and I'd leave it to the government of Panama to discuss

6336-404: The CIA again in the 1980s, this time in Nicaragua, where he supplied the Contra rebels with arms. After Posada Carriles escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985, he was sheltered for a while by Félix Rodríguez , a CIA operative who, at the time, was working on a secret White House operation in El Salvador to airlift weapons to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Rodriguez was a significant figure in

6468-543: The CIA and government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government." During a United Nations Security Council meeting to review the work of its three subsidiary counter-terrorism committees, the US was invited by the representatives of Venezuela and Cuba to comment on the evidence (above) in the Posada case. The US representative, Willson, stated that "an individual cannot be brought for trial or extradited unless sufficient evidence has been established that he has committed

6600-506: The CIA in Miami and was active in the CIA's Operation 40 . He later described his role as that of the agency's "principal agent", informing the organisation about political movements within the exile community and operating anti-Castro activities. In Florida, Posada trained members of the JURE, Junta Revolucionaria Cubana , an anti-Castro militant organization. He was also associated with other militant groups, including RECE (Cuban Representation in Exile). CIA files indicate that Posada

6732-473: The CIA were running too many rogue operations, had a significant impact on the agency, and Posada's association was seen to be "not in good odor". In February 1976, the CIA officially broke off relations with Posada. Subsequently, Posada made several efforts to get back into the agency's good graces, including informing on an alleged plot by Bosch to kill Henry Kissinger , then US Secretary of State . Along with Orlando Bosch and Gaspar Jiménez , Posada founded

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6864-471: The CIA. He received training at Fort Benning , and from 1964 to 1967 was involved with a series of bombings and other covert activities against the Cuban government, before joining the Venezuelan intelligence service. Along with Orlando Bosch , he was involved in founding the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations , described by the FBI as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization". Posada and CORU are widely considered responsible for

6996-402: The Cuban government, including a series of bombings against Cuban consulates as part of a group called "Accion Cuba." Another prominent member of CORU was Luis Posada Carriles . Born in Cuba, Carriles emigrated to Miami in 1961, and quickly got involved with anti-Castro activities. He was trained to be a part of the Bay of Pigs Invasion by the CIA, but did not take part in the actual event. He

7128-404: The Cuban revolution; Posada's sister eventually rose to the rank of Colonel in the Cuban army. When asked in a 1998 interview why he had opposed the Revolution, he stated "All communists are the same. All are bad, a form of evil." Posada was stationed in Guatemala , where he was supposed to participate in a second wave of landings in Cuba. The initial attack on Cuban soil failed, and the operation

7260-523: The Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business. Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes estimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish. The proportion of proficient Spanish speakers in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the proportion of proficient speakers in other West and Central African nations of their respective colonial languages. Spanish

7392-405: The FBI believed him to have had a role in 41 bombings in the country. Posada himself admitted to planning numerous attacks against Cuba. His ploys included attempting to use information obtained from a Honduran captain about the movement of Cuban ships to place a mine on a freighter, and using a base in Honduras to launch an attack on Cuba with a force of Cuban exiles. Despite paying large bribes to

7524-429: The FBI denied claims of any friendship. According to Posada, much of his funding in this period came through Mas Canosa and the Cuban American National Foundation, and that Mas Canosa was aware of his role in the bombings. The Cuban Ministry of the Interior claimed that on the September 4, 1997, three bomb attacks against hotels in Havana, in which one person was killed, were planned and controlled by CANF. CANF denied

7656-501: The Honduran military for their support with the latter scheme, Posada eventually abandoned this plan, believing he could not trust the Honduran military. In 1997, Posada was implicated in a series of terrorist bombings in Cuba intended to deter the growing tourism trade on the island. An Italian-born Canadian national, Fabio di Celmo , was killed and 11 others were wounded as a result. In reaction to di Celmo's death, Posada told reporter Ann Louise Bardach of The New York Times in

7788-577: The Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Proto-Basque , Iberian , Lusitanian , Celtiberian and Gallaecian . The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era , the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages — Mozarabic ( Andalusi Romance ), Navarro-Aragonese , Leonese , Catalan/Valencian , Portuguese , Galician , Occitan , and later, French and Italian . Spanish also borrowed

7920-424: The Old Spanish sibilants) for details. The Gramática de la lengua castellana , written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija , was the first grammar written for a modern European language. According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I , she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire. In his introduction to

8052-443: The Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the term español in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms— español and castellano —are regarded as synonymous and equally valid. The term castellano is related to Castile ( Castilla or archaically Castiella ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name Castile , in turn,

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8184-400: The State. ... The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities... The Royal Spanish Academy ( Real Academia Española ), on the other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language castellano . The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by

8316-502: The U.S. population were of Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin. In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population. Spanish predominates in the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico , where it is also an official language along with English. Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included. While English

8448-434: The US justice department recommended deporting him. His release became a political issue, with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen making his release a campaign position for her congressional campaign. After a personal intervention from Jeb Bush , his father overturned the recommendation of the Justice Department, and allowed his release. Two years later, he was given US residency. In 2001, two Cuban exiles who had been imprisoned for playing

8580-475: The US of having a "double standard in its so-called war on terrorism". The United States government sought to deport Posada elsewhere, but at least seven friendly nations refused to accept him. Posada was referenced in Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez 's address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 2006. Railing against the US for "imperialism" and "hypocrisy", Chávez called Posada "the biggest terrorist of this continent", and said: "Thanks to

8712-408: The US. Similarly, after Posada Carriles came to the US in 2004, the administration of George W. Bush declined to deport him to Venezuela to be tried. Orlando Bosch was also pardoned for his crimes, by the administration of George H. W. Bush. On 16 February 1988 Bosch flew to Miami, despite not having a visa and having previously violated parole in the US by leaving the country. He was detained, and

8844-415: The United States traced the planting of the bombs to two Venezuelan passengers, Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano. Both men were employed by Posada at his private detective agency based in Venezuela. A week later, Posada and Bosch were arrested on charges of masterminding the attack, and were jailed in Venezuela. Declassified FBI and CIA reports also show that the agencies suspected his involvement in

8976-407: The United States. A Cuban exile group known as the "Guides" lobbied the President of Panama to release Carriles and his colleagues after they were arrested in that country in 2000. These Cuban exiles were also able to influence US policy. US federal judge Kathleen Cardone once stated that government prosecutors bungled their case against Carriles; on another occasion, a case against him was dismissed on

9108-408: The action." President Mireya Moscoso also commented, saying that "No foreign government has pressured me to take the decision", she told reporters. "I knew that if these men stayed here, they would be extradited to Cuba and Venezuela, and there they were surely going to kill them there." Moscoso's decision was condemned by incoming Panamanian president Martín Torrijos , and speculation was rife that

9240-399: The administration of Ferdinand Marcos two months later. It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language. Additionally, the constitution, in its Article XIV, stipulates that the Government shall provide the people of the Philippines with a Spanish-language translation of

9372-429: The airline bombing and the alleged plot against Castro in Panama, but admitted to fighting to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba. In 2005, Posada was held by US authorities in Texas on the charge of being in the country illegally: the charges were later dismissed. A judge ruled he could not be deported because he faced the threat of torture in Venezuela. The US government refused to repatriate Posada to Cuba, citing

9504-466: The airline bombing within days of its occurrence. According to a declassified CIA document dated October 13, 1976, with information from what the CIA deemed a usually reliable source, Posada – in Caracas at the time – was overheard to say a few days before Cubana flight 455 exploded: "We are going to hit a Cuban airliner ... Orlando has the details". The details were contained in a memorandum sent to Kissinger. The memorandum suggested that Posada

9636-484: The allegations. Jose Antonio Llama, a former board member of CANF, stated in an interview published in 2006 that several of its leaders planned attacks in Cuba during the 1990s. In 1997, CANF published a statement refusing to condemn terrorist attacks against Cuba; the CANF chairman at the time stated that " We do not think of these as terrorist actions ". The CANF repeatedly denied links with Posada and his activities after

9768-506: The assassination of Orlando Letelier in 1976. Julio Labatut was a professional florist who was also an important member of CORU. Labatut had close ties to the Puerto Rican police . In an interview in 2001, he was asked if he had ordered the assassination of Carlos Muñiz Varela, a Cuban exile who worked as a travel agent. In response, he said "Don't call it an assassination, it was an execution and it should have been carried out before he

9900-775: The assassination of a Cuban official in Mérida, Yucatán , the kidnapping of two Cuban embassy employees in Buenos Aires , the bombing of a Cubana airlines office in Panama City , the bombing of the Guyanese embassy in Port of Spain , and the assassination of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. The information Posada provided the CIA while attempting to reestablish good relations with it included

10032-568: The attacks at hotels, bars and restaurants in the Havana area. The perjury counts were added to the previous indictment that accused Posada of lying in his citizenship application about how he got into the United States. Another new charge is obstruction of a US investigation into "international terrorism." The bottom line is that the Justice Department is trying to hold him accountable for horrible acts of terrorism ... This trial can confirm what everybody already knows, (that) Luis Posada

10164-489: The bombing of Cubana Flight 455 which killed 73 people. The FBI described CORU as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization." According to declassified CIA documents, the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) was set up at a meeting in the small town of Bonao in the Dominican Republic in June 1976. The meeting was attended by a number of Cuban exile militant groups. The FBI later said that at

10296-539: The border. He was also responsible for coordinating between the Contras, their advisers in the US, and their allies in the military forces of El Salvador. Operating with the Salvadoran alias "Ramón Medina", Posada built relationships inside the government of El Salvador, its military, and its infamous death squads. The supply flights to the Contra rebels ceased in 1986, after the Nicaraguan government shot down one of

10428-684: The classic hispanus or hispanicus took the suffix -one from Vulgar Latin , as happened with other words such as bretón (Breton) or sajón (Saxon). Like the other Romance languages , the Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin , which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War , beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages )—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages , and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in

10560-500: The consonant written b (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v . Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboring Gascon extending as far north as the Gironde estuary , and found in a small area of Calabria ), attributed by some scholars to a Basque substratum was the mutation of Latin initial f into h- whenever it

10692-404: The country's constitution. In recent years changing attitudes among non-Spanish speaking Filipinos have helped spur a revival of the language, and starting in 2009 Spanish was reintroduced as part of the basic education curriculum in a number of public high schools, becoming the largest foreign language program offered by the public school system, with over 7,000 students studying the language in

10824-534: The flight narrowly. After Hasenfus's capture became known, Posada gathered a group of soldiers and flew to San Salvador , where he emptied the safe houses used by the operation. By getting rid of this evidence, he would later claim, he saved George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan from impeachment. Posada was forced to remain in hiding in El Salvador during the Iran-Contra hearings before signing up as

10956-683: The following table: Spanish is marked by palatalization of the Latin double consonants ( geminates ) nn and ll (thus Latin annum > Spanish año , and Latin anellum > Spanish anillo ). The consonant written u or v in Latin and pronounced [w] in Classical Latin had probably " fortified " to a bilabial fricative /β/ in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with

11088-466: The former British colony of Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras ) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2022 census, 54% of the total population are able to speak the language. Due to its proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existing native Spanish speaking minority, Trinidad and Tobago has implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian government launched

11220-604: The grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire." From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discovered America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America . Miguel de Cervantes , author of Don Quixote , is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). In

11352-500: The language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in the 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas. As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French , it

11484-549: The language's hegemony in an intensely centralising Spanish state were established from the 18th century onward. Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken include Gibraltar and Andorra . Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom , France , Italy , and Germany . Spanish is an official language of the European Union . Today,

11616-408: The latter was visiting Panama City . He was convicted in Panama and sentenced to eight years in prison, but was pardoned and allowed to go free by the Panamanian president after serving one year. Guillermo Novo was convicted for his involvement in the bombing that killed Orlando Letelier, although he was acquitted on appeal. He nonetheless served four years in prison for lying to the grand jury that

11748-694: The majority of the Spanish speakers live in Hispanic America . Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure —of Argentina , Bolivia (co-official with 36 indigenous languages), Chile , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua , Panama , Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní ), Peru (co-official with Quechua , Aymara , and "the other indigenous languages"), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Uruguay , and Venezuela . Spanish language has

11880-458: The meeting, "these groups agreed to jointly participate in the planning, financing, and carrying out of terrorist operations and attacks against Cuba." Bosch, according to the document, was committed to violent acts against other countries he believed supported Cuba, including Colombia, Mexico and Panama. The groups included the terrorist organizations Alpha 66 and Omega 7 Orlando Bosch, who became leader of CORU, later stated that "Our war strategy

12012-702: The most dangerous terrorists in recent history" and the "godfather of Cuban exile violence." Posada was born in Cienfuegos , Cuba, on February 15, 1928. His family was relatively affluent. He had four siblings. The family moved to Havana when Posada was 17 years old, where he studied medicine and chemistry at the University of Havana . In 1956, he and Antonio Garcia established a pest control enterprise in Cienfuegos called Servicios Exterminadores Fumigadores de Insectos. The station wagon used for their business

12144-734: The northwest of the African mainland. The Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands traces its origins back to the Castilian conquest in the 15th century , and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas, which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish. The Spanish spoken in North Africa by native bilingual speakers of Arabic or Berber who also speak Spanish as

12276-519: The offence charged." Willson said removal to Venezuela or Cuba could not be carried out because, she claimed, "it was more likely than not that he would be tortured if he were so transferred." The Venezuelan representative denied the allegation, and pointed to the United States' own record in Abu Ghraib and in Guantánamo as examples of what Venezuela would not do. He is not being charged as

12408-493: The pardon was politically motivated. Cuba expert Julia E. Sweig said the decision "reeks of political and diplomatic cronyism". Immediately after news of the pardon broke, Venezuela and Cuba withdrew diplomatic ties with Panama. In 2005, Posada requested political asylum in the United States through his attorney. On May 3, 2005, the Supreme Tribunal of Venezuela approved an extradition request for him. Although he

12540-411: The planes. Two of the crew were killed, including a close friend of Posada's. American pilot Eugene Hasenfus survived, thanks to his oft-mocked habit of wearing a parachute, and was captured by the Nicaraguan government. He confessed to the role of the US government in supporting the Contras, and his story made headlines around the world. Posada was supposed to have been on the flight himself, but missed

12672-507: The plot allegedly involved using dynamite to blow up an auditorium full of college students. No foreign government has pressured me to take the decision, I knew that if these men stayed here, they would be extradited to Cuba and Venezuela, and there they were surely going to kill them there.  — Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso In August 2004, Posada and the three other convicted plotters were pardoned by outgoing Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso . Moscoso, who had been close to

12804-427: The plot. Shortly after, Justino di Celmo, the father of Fabio di Celmo, the victim of one of the Havana bombings, appeared on Cuban television to urge the Panamanian authorities to extradite Posada to Cuba. Posada was subsequently convicted and jailed in Panama for the assassination attempt. Bardach described him as "Fidel Castro's most persistent would-be assassin. Posada was convicted of plotting to assassinate Castro;

12936-533: The population. Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, with Spanish being particularly significant in areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla. Spanish also has a presence in the education system of the country (through either selected education centers implementing Spain's education system, primarily located in the North, or the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education). In Western Sahara , formerly Spanish Sahara ,

13068-473: The publication of the 1998 interview, and threatened The New York Times with legal action. Multiple members of the foundation, however, confirmed links with Posada. In October 1997 Posada was implicated in an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro, after four men were arrested by the US Coast Guard in a boat off the coast of Puerto Rico . He denied any involvement, and called the plot amateurish, but

13200-565: The removal of Posada's electronic bracelet. In a 38-page ruling, Cardone criticized the US government's "fraud, deceit and trickery" during the interview with immigration authorities that was the basis of the charges against Posada. Cardone's ruling was overturned in mid-2008 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit , which ruled that Posada should be tried for the alleged immigration violation. In 2009,

13332-589: The request of a wealthy Miami benefactor". Rodríguez had overseen the capture of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1967. He offered Posada a job as his deputy, ferrying supplies to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, in an operation directed by Oliver North : the pair were to coordinate drops of military supplies to the rebels, who opposed the Sandinista government . Posada's fortunes rose after the Reagan administration took

13464-507: The same reason. His release on bail in 2007 elicited angry reactions from the Cuban and Venezuelan governments. The US Justice Department had urged the court to keep him in jail because he was "an admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks", a flight risk and a danger to the community. The decision was also criticized within the US; an editorial in the Los Angeles Times stated that by releasing Carriles while detaining

13596-419: The same time, Posada's relations with the CIA also deteriorated. The agency began to suspect that he was involved in cocaine trafficking and dealing in counterfeit money. Posada was not confronted with these allegations to avoid compromising existing operations, but internal CIA communications referred to him as a serious liability. The Church Committee hearings of 1975, which had been triggered by fears that

13728-463: The sentence was later commuted to 30 years imprisonment. Posada repudiated his statements after being arrested in Panama in 2000. Posada was reportedly disappointed with the reluctance of news organisations in the US to report the bombing attacks, saying "If there is no publicity, the job is useless". In 1998, The New York Times indicated that, even after the US government no longer sponsored Posada's violent activities, Posada may have benefited from

13860-415: The term castellano to define the official language of the whole of Spain, in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. "the other Spanish languages "). Article III reads as follows: El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. ... Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas... Castilian is the official Spanish language of

13992-610: The term español (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, español derives from the Occitan word espaignol and that, in turn, derives from the Vulgar Latin * hispaniolus ('of Hispania'). Hispania was the Roman name for the entire Iberian Peninsula . There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal suggested that

14124-444: The theories of Ramón Menéndez Pidal , local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of Burgos , and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo , where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century. In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese , and, according to some authors,

14256-768: The third most used language on the Internet , after English and Chinese. Spanish is the official language of Spain . Upon the emergence of the Castilian Crown as the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the Middle Ages, the Romance vernacular associated with this polity became increasingly used in instances of prestige and influence, and the distinction between "Castilian" and "Spanish" started to become blurred. Hard policies imposing

14388-533: The time included Frank Rosenthal , described as a "well-known gangster". Posada relocated to Venezuela , taking with him various CIA-supplied weapons including grenades and fuses. In Venezuela, Posada quickly rose through the ranks of Venezuelan intelligence. He became head of the service, known as DIGEPOL and later as DISIP , in 1969. The role involved countering various guerrilla movements supported by Cuba, and Posada threw himself into his work with enthusiasm. He invited Orlando Bosch , another Cuban exile who

14520-528: The time. Posada later said that Castro was three years ahead of him at the university. Misgivings about the Cuban revolution led Posada to become an activist in open opposition to the new government. After a spell in a military prison, Posada sought political asylum in Mexico . By 1961, Posada had relocated to the United States where he helped to organize the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba. The rest of Posada's family remained in Cuba, and continued to support

14652-422: The time. The four were arrested in Caracas, and tried before a military court, which acquitted them. However, a higher military tribunal annulled the verdict, and ordered a new trial, this time in a civilian court. This trial did not have the time to occur before Carriles escaped prison in 1985. Bosch was released two years later. In 2000, Carriles was arrested again, for planning to assassinate Fidel Castro while

14784-483: The trial: Venezuela stated that the US was protecting a known terrorist. Posada married in 1955. He separated from his first wife a few years after first moving to the US. He married his second wife, Elina Nieves, in 1963 while at Fort Benning. Nieves and he had a son while still in the US: a daughter was born after the family had moved to Venezuela in 1968. Posada and Nieves lived apart for most of their marriage. He had

14916-512: The two men became fast friends. He graduated from the training program with the rank of second lieutenant , but he and Mas Canosa left the army when they recognized that the US was unlikely to invade Cuba again. In a 1998 interview, he stated that "the CIA taught us everything ... explosives, how to kill, bomb, trained us in acts of sabotage." Posada received further training in guerrilla tactics in Polk City, Florida . He worked closely with

15048-511: Was a Cuban exile militant and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent. He was considered a terrorist by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Government of Cuba , among others. Born in Cienfuegos , Cuba, Posada fled to the United States after a spell of anti- Castro activism. He helped organize the Bay of Pigs Invasion , and after it failed, became an agent for

15180-523: Was arrested following international pressure on the administration of George W. Bush to treat him on par with other suspects in the War on Terror , the US refused to extradite him to either Venezuela or Cuba. On September 28, 2005, a US immigration judge ruled that Posada could not be deported because he faced the threat of torture in Venezuela. The Venezuelan government reacted angrily to the ruling, accusing

15312-506: Was believed to have been involved by the FBI. On November 17, 2000, Posada was discovered with 200 pounds of explosives in Panama City and arrested for plotting the assassination of Castro, who was visiting the country for the first time since 1959. Three other Cuban exiles were also arrested: Gaspar Jiménez who worked at the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami, Pedro Remón Rodríguez and Guillermo Novo . While in prison, Posada released

15444-410: Was born." Perez Franco, who later became the president of Brigade 2506 , another anti-Castro organization, was also a founding member of CORU, along with Lopez Estrada , who became its military chief. Carriles and Bosch were linked to the bombing of the Cubana flight soon after it occurred, partly because Hernán Ricardo Lozano and Freddy Lugo, the men who placed the bombs, were employees of Carriles at

15576-561: Was called off before Posada's force was to take part. After the failure at the Bay of Pigs, Posada attended officer candidate school at the United States Army 's facility in Fort Benning . There, he was trained by the CIA in sabotage and explosives between March 1963 and March 1964. While at Fort Benning, he served in the same platoon as Jorge Mas Canosa , later the founder of the Cuban American National Foundation :

15708-480: Was created there—everything. All the top leaders of the paramilitaries in Miami were there." Carriles and Bosch were both present at the meeting in Bonao, at which CORU was formed, along with Gaspar Jiménez . A number of violent actions followed in the months after this meeting, for some of which CORU directly claimed responsibility. The group used the reputation they had gained from these attacks to generate support for

15840-471: Was destroyed by a bomb while parked on the street on the night of January 3, 1957. Posada worked in 1958 as a supervisor for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company . He worked initially in Havana, and was transferred to Akron, Ohio , after the Cuban Revolution of 1959. As a student, he had come in contact with Fidel Castro , who had become a figure of some significance in the student politics of

15972-634: Was developed in the cities of Toledo , in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid , from the 1570s. The development of the Spanish sound system from that of Vulgar Latin exhibits most of the changes that are typical of Western Romance languages , including lenition of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin vīta > Spanish vida ). The diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o —which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in

16104-622: Was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see Iberian Romance languages ). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of the Reconquista , and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus , much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000 Arabic -derived words, make up around 8% of the language today). The written standard for this new language

16236-713: Was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The h- , still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects, it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and neighboring Romance languages, there are many f -/ h - doublets in modern Spanish: Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish for "smith"), fierro and hierro (both Spanish for "iron"), and fondo and hondo (both words pertaining to depth in Spanish, though fondo means "bottom", while hondo means "deep"); additionally, hacer ("to make")

16368-559: Was founded by a group that included Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles , both of whom worked with the CIA at various times, and was composed chiefly of Cuban exiles opposed to the Castro government. It was formed in 1976 as an umbrella group for a number of anti-Castro militant groups. Its activities included a number of bombings and assassinations, including the killing of human-rights activist Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., and

16500-476: Was investigating the case. At the time that he was held in Caracas for the Cubana flight bombing, Bosch was also wanted by US authorities for his role in the Letelier killing. FBI agents unsuccessfully attempted to interview him in Caracas. Throughout the existence of CORU, the militant Cuban exiles, such as Bosch and Carriles received financial and logistical support both from the United States government, and from wealthy Cuban exiles living in Miami and elsewhere in

16632-487: Was involved in a 1965 attempt to overthrow the Guatemalan government. The same year, the CIA reported that Posada was involved in various bombing plans in association with Mas Canosa. Posada also supplied information about the Cuban exile community to the CIA, and unsuccessfully attempted to recruit his brother to spy for them. In 1968, relations frayed with the CIA when Posada was questioned about his "unreported association with gangster elements". Posada's other associates at

16764-492: Was likely to have planned the bombing. Another CIA document, based on a Miami-based informant, also implicated Posada in the conspiracy. Posada, who denied involvement in the Cubana-455 bombing, insisted his "only objective was to fight for Cuba's freedom". In prison, Posada and Bosch learned to paint, and sold their artwork in the US via intermediaries. Posada was found not guilty by a military court; however, this ruling

16896-515: Was overturned and he was held for trial in a civilian court. Posada escaped from prison with Freddie Lugo in 1977, and the pair turned themselves in to the Chilean authorities, expecting to be welcomed for their role in the killing of Letelier, who was a target of the government of Augusto Pinochet : however, they were immediately handed back to Venezuela. Posada was held awaiting trial in Venezuela for eight years before escaping in 1985 while awaiting

17028-556: Was recruited by the CIA as a "Maritime Training Branch" instructor in 1965. He was also expected to provide information on his fellow Cuban exiles. He spent the next several years working on several CIA projects, including a plot to blow up a Soviet and a Cuban ship in Mexico. Other members of CORU included Guillermo Novo , who unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Che Guevara at the United Nations in 1964. Novo participated in

17160-427: Was responsible for more than 50 bombings, in Miami, New York, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico and Argentina. Orlando Bosch , a prominent Cuban exile, was the head of CORU. Born in Cuba, Bosch met Fidel Castro while at the University of Havana , and was a member of some groups that took part in the Cuban Revolution , before being forced to flee to Miami. Later, he became disillusioned with the movement, and tried to organize

17292-462: Was revoked by Michel Temer after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff . In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during the Spanish colonial period . Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in

17424-473: Was then on parole from US federal prison, to join his operations in Venezuela: Bosch accepted his offer in 1974, thereby violating the terms of his parole. Posada was dismissed from the service in 1974 due to ideological differences with the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez , who had assumed office in that year. Posada went on to found a private detective agency in Caracas . At approximately

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