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# "The bus has left with the dogs": How they blew up the Cuban planeThe following account of the bombing of the Cubana Airline jet is based on secret Venezuelan court documents. Most of the information comes from the confessions, since repudiated, of the men charged with the crime.Herman Ricardo, 22, had been working at the private detective office of Luis Posada in Caracas for about a year when, on September 10, 1976, Posada introduced him to a "Mr. Panyagua." Posada assigned Ricardo to help. Mr. Panyagua" get around, as lie was a stranger in the country. After a few days of helping "Mr. Panyagua... Ricardo realized that he was really Orlando Bosch, the maximunt lender Fof the Cuban people.The bomb made a big bulge in Ricardo's pocket and he was very nervous.It took only a few minutes in the toilet, but then Ricardo found he couldn't get out. He panicked avad started banging on the door. The stewardess tried to open the door from. the outside, bute couldn't. She called one of the pilots from the cockpit who kicked at it three times with his foot. Finally the door opened and Ricardo stumbled out. By the time he got back to his seat he was drenched in sweat and appeared very nervous. For the rest of the flight Ricardo held a newspaper in front of his face.They got off the plane in Barbados, collected their luggage, and made their way to the Hotel Village. At one point in the cab ride Ricardo told the driver to stop, jumped out and looked up at a passing, plane. He was very agitated and nervous.here, no matter where."They caught a plane to Trinidad, leaving their bags in the hotel room in Barbados. On the plane kicardo buried his head in his hands and said to Lugo, "Shit, Lugo! I'm desperate and I feel like crying. I have never killed anyone before."At the Holiday Inn in Trinidad, Ricardo called Bosch, who told him, "Friend, we have to see each other in Caracas. You never should explode a bomb while a plane is in the air."Meanwhile, the Barbados cab driver, struck by Ricardo's erratic behavior, had contacted the police. They tracked Ricardo and Lugo to Trinidad. In their hotel room the police? found two phone books containing many different aldresses, including those of Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada and Joseph Leo, an FBI legal attache in the United States embassy in Caracas.The Trinidad police separated Lugo and Ricardo and during the questioning that followed over the next few days the police threatened to send them back to Cuba unless they talked they both confessed. Ricardo told Police Chief Denis Elliott Randwar that he had planted the bomb on the airplane. He also said, "I am a membe of a secret organization, the CORU ororganization is Orlando Bosch.Ricardo added that he was a CIA agent of the grade B-1" and that he had been recruited in 1971. He said that he had received training in the manufacturing of bombs, the handling of firearms and photography by the CIAOn the night of October 5. Ricardo, Bosch and Freddy Lugo, 25, met at a Cuban exile meeting. At midnight that same day, Ricardo and Lugo flew to Trinidad aboard a Pan American flight. They stayed overnight and the next morning inquired about Cubana Airline flight 455, stopping in Barbados en route to Cuba. The clerk told thein that the Cuban plane had been delayed, but that there was another flight to Barbados leaving Immediately, Ricardo protestual, but had trouble getting his message across Since his English was not very good. Standing behind Ricardo in line were a fow members of Cuba's championship fencing team, who were returning home after an international tour. One of the fencers, also booked Con Cubana flight 455, translated for Ricardo. He says that he doesn't want to go on an earlier flight. He only wants to travel on Cubana 455 and he's willing to wait until it's ready to go."Lugo and Ricardo each chocked 'e bag, sind Lugo carried with hlin a dark Allluntur shoulder bag with two onneras and a tube of Colgate toothpasto in it. With 16 Cuban fencurs, 6 inediual students from South America, 5 Koreans and 45 other, mustly Cuban, passengers and crow, Largo and Ricardo finally got on the plane. About half-way through the 20-minute Night, Ricardo got up to gu to the bathroom to plant the explosive.Lugo described the scene ten minutes later as follows. The people in the streets were very agitated and pointing up to the sky, saying that asend a plane had fallen. Ricardo said that we were in big trouble because we had traveled on false passports. At the hotel Ricardo told me to take the bags up to the room while he registered in a false name. He said lie was calling, as necesitas Venezuela for advice."He had difficulty getting through. One call that he did get through was to his girlfriend, Marines Vegas. She testified that he gave her a a number and told her to get the following message to Luis or Gustavo:Tell them I am in a desperate situation and that they should send someone quick. That this is a question of life or death and that the bus has left with the dogs. Tell them that I threw away the phone numbersRicardo got a phone call back from Caracas during which Lugo quotes him as saying, "What's happening, Luis? I have a lot of problems. I don't know what to do. The bug has fallen into the water. "Tell this to Panyagua (Rosch)Just as ho put down the phono Kleandu saw someone staring at him and ran up to the room in a pasla, Lugo says Ricardo told him, "Let's get out uf hore right away. The man who atared at me in the lobby is a 0-2 (agent 'of Castro's searst pollue).""We took a cab to the dooks," 1.ugo said, "and Ricardo threw something in the water, 'Then he said, We should get the first plans nit ofBefore a number of Trinidad policemen he drew a picture of bomb and described the plastic explosive that had been used. He said he kept the "pencil detonator in the tube of Colgate toothpaste, Differenti colored chemical pencils could trigger an explosion in 8 minutes, 45 minutes, 2 hours, 8 hours or 24 hours, the bald, He said he had been paid $25,000 1,000 to plant the bombOn October 20, after signing hia confessions, Ricardo tried to kill himself by slashing his wrist whin razor, but he was taken to the hospital and survived.Al funeral services for those ktlied on the plane, Fidel Castro charged that the CIA was directly responsible for the humbing. As s result, he terminated the hijacking agreement Cura Ind signed with tho Untial inten