Controversy
The Cuban American National Foundation has been accused by the Cuban government of planning and funding terrorist attacks within Cuba, including a September 1997 bombing that killed an Italian tourist in Havana. Most notably, the Cuban-born anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles claimed in 1998 that he received financial support from the Cuban American National Foundation for a bombing campaign carried out in 1997, although he has denied ties with the fatal attack. Posada has also been linked with the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455, which killed 73 passengers (all of whom were civilians). In August 1997 CANF released a statement unconditionally supporting terrorist attacks against Cuba; the CANF chairman at the time stated that "We do not think of these as terrorist actions".
Several ranking members of the CANF have been the subject of major drug trafficking prosecutions, and a few even had to step down from leadership positions at the institution due to drug trafficking charges, including Gaspar Jiménez and Rolando Mendoza. Additionally, militants associated with the CANF, such as Luis Posada Carriles (who claims to have been funded by Jorge Mas Canosa) and his Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU) group, and the Contras (Pepe Hernández having been a Contra combatant, and several CANF members having ostensibly provided them with humanitarian aid), have been accused of large-scale drug trafficking.
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