Teenager sentenced
to 6years in first trial
for Madrid bombing
By MARIA JESUS PRADES
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MADRID, Spain — The first trial
stemming from the Madrid terror
bombing ended after only 25 minutes
Tuesday with a Spanish teenager
pleading guilty to charges he helped
transport dynamite used in the attack.
The 16-year-old, who said he acted
unknowingly, accepted the
prosecutor’s request for a six-year term
in a juvenile detention center,
followed by five years of probation.
The trial had been scheduled to last
three days at the National Court, but
the boy pleaded guilty right after the
charges from prosecutor Blanca
Rodriguez were read out by a court
clerk.
The boy was asked if he
understood the charges, confessed to
them and accepted the prosecutor’s
jail-term request. All three times he
answered simply, “yes.”
The March 11 attack killed 191
people and was blamed on Muslim
militants linked to al Qaeda.
Amid a frenzy of media coverage,
the boy went into the courtroom
accompanied by his mother and a
court-appointed lawyer.
He initially faced a jail term of
eight years, but the prosecutor lowered
it to six because Spanish law stipulates
that after age 23, a juvenile has to go
into an adult jail. Counselors said this
would have harmed the youth.
Prosecutors say he collaborated with
a gang that sold drugs and explosives in
northern Spain. The group sold the
dynamite used in the backpack bombs
planted on four trains March 11.
In exchange for an undisclosed
amount of money, the teenager
allegedly took a Madrid-bound bus
from the northern city of Oviedo and
carried with him a gym bag sealed with
a padlock and containing 33 to 44
pounds of dynamite stolen from a mine.
Authorities say an estimated 440
pounds of dynamite exploded on the
trains.
The boy has said he did not know
what was in the bag. He is then said to
have delivered it to a Moroccan named
Jamal Ahmidam, the alleged buyer of
the dynamite.
Ahmidam was one of seven suspects
in the attacks who blew themselves up
in an apartment outside Madrid on
April 3 as police prepared to arrest
them.
Sixteen adults have been jailed on
preliminary charges of terrorism or
mass murder.
The teenager was brought to trial
quickly because under Spanish law, a
juvenile suspect cannot be held for more
than six months without being tried.
Rumsfeld urges Latin American
countries to cooperate in efforts
against drug trafficking, terrorism
4
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
QUITO, Ecuador — Latin American
countries must work together to defeat
drug trafficking and international
terrorism as they have done in working
to keep the peace in Haiti, Defense'
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said
Tuesday.
Rumsfeld, in South America for a
conference of Western Hemisphere
defense ministers, told reporters he
hopes to strengthen regional .security
agreements aimed at stopping narcotics
and terror organizations.
He and other U.S. officials held up
the peacekeeping force in Haiti, which
draws heavily from Latin countries, as
an example of such cooperation.
But despite Rumsfeld’s calls for
cooperation across Latin America,
significant differences exist between the
policies of the United States and many
of the largest countries in Latin America.
Many opposed the U.S.-led war in
Iraq and push a U.N.-based multilateral
foreign policy. Only a few sent troops to
Iraq, and just one Western Hemisphere
country, El Salvador, still has troops
with the United States in the coalition
fighting the insurgency.
In other areas, though, U.S. officials
say cooperation is strong, pointing to
the sharing of intelligence and law
enforcement information, joint naval
exercises and efforts to track drug
shipments.
Still, Rumsfeld’s calls for cooperation
are not universally celebrated given the
unpopularity of U.S.. foreign policy in
some quarters.
On Tuesday, he met with Ecuador’s
embatded president, Lucio Gutierrez,
and Defense Minister Nelson Herrera.
In a press conference with Rumsfeld,
Herrera repeatedly emphasized
Ecuador’s sovereignty in dealing with
international terror, drug trafficking and
other problems that
trouble the region.
Asked about the
civil war in
neighboring
Colombia, Herrera
responded, “The
problem of Colombia
is the problem of
Colombia. The
problem of Ecuador
is the problem of
Ecuador.”
President
Gutierrez has faced
demands for his
resignation in recent
months amid
allegations of
corruption, but
efforts to impeach
him fizzled last week
in Ecuador’s
legislative body. He
also faces domestic
criticism for fostering
such close ties with
rhe United States.
Rumsfeld said the American
delegation “expressed our strong support
for constitutional democracy” in Ecuador.
On drugs, terrorism and organized
crime, Rumsfeld said, “In the 21st
Century, we are finding these problems
are increasingly global and regional.
They are not problems that affect only
one country, and as such they cannot be
solved by only one country.”
In truth, Colombia and Ecuador
cooperate to some degree, and Rumsfeld
praised their efforts. A senior
Colombian rebel leader, Simon
Trinidad, was captured in Quito in
January and turned over to the
Colombian government. Ecuador,
fearful that Colombia’s civil war might
spill over the border, patrols its frontier
extensively with the aid of U.S.-supplied
communications equipment and
PAUL J. RICHARDS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ecuadorian Brig. Gen. Jorge Andrade, Vice Minister of Defense, left, welcomes U.S.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as he is received at the Ecuadorian Minister
of Defense on Tuesday in Quito, Ecuador. Rumsfeld is in South America fora
conference of Western Hemisphere defense ministers.
vehicles. counteroarts from Argentina. Brazil and
On Haiti, a senior U.S. defense
official said the United States, Brazil and
Argentina worry That the United Nations
has provided too few soldiers and police
for the peacekeeping job. More than
8,300 are authorized; but only 5,700 are
in-country, according to U.N. figures.
Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina are
considering sending more troops to assist
the force, which is led by Brazil, the
official said, briefing reporters on the
condition of anonymity. The U.S.
government may also begin providing
further humanitarian aid and surveillance
information to the peacekeepers.
Political and criminal violence,
coupled with natural disasters, left
thousands of Haitians dead this year.
Fighting has continued since the arrival
of the U.N. force.
Rumsfeld also met Tuesday with his
the Central American countries.
He discussed a new environmental
and security surveillance network in
Brazil, and how its information could be.
shared with other countries in the war
against drugs, officials said.
The Central American leaders were
expected to discuss the problems of
gangs in their countries, and fears that
their foreign contacts, in the United
States and in Colombia, could develop
into a transnational threat.
The problem of international
terrorist organizations operating in the
region are on the agenda of the
conference, which begins today.
Rumsfeld has previously
acknowledged fears that international
terrorist organizations would send
operatives into the United States
through holes in the U.S. border.
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