Venezuela Issues Extradition Request for Terrorist in U.S.
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005
By: Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, April 13, 2005—Venezuela formally asked U.S. authorities to extradite an escaped prisoner who was responsible for the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976, in which 73 persons were killed. The former prisoner, Luis Posada Carriles, is a Cuban exile who had escaped a Venezuelan prison in 1985. For a while he lived in Panama, where he was also captured for planning an assassination of Cuba’s President Fidel Castro in 2000. He was then pardoned in Panama, though, and entered the U.S. about a month ago.

Venezuela’s Vice-President, José Vicente Rangel, said, “We going to step up our demands for extradition.” “I hope Mr. Bush will take note of his own anti-terrorism policies and hand over Posada Carriles,” added Rangel.

Posada Carriles’ attorney says that the U.S. should deny the extradition request because he was acquitted in Venezuela of the bombing of the Cuban airliner. Also, if deported to Cuba, he would face possible execution.

Rangel pointed out that it is no wonder that Posada Carriles is requesting asylum in the U.S., “because during all of the acts that he participated in he did so while he was an employee of the CIA.”

On Monday, Cuba’s Castro said that if the U.S. denies the extradition request, then it would effectively be backing international terrorism. He also noted that Bush once said that whoever harbors a terrorist is as guilty of terrorism as the terrorist himself.

According to Associated Press, an unidentified U.S. official said that Posada is “excludable” from the U.S. because of his involvement in the plane bombing.

Carriles Posada, who is 77 years old and dual Venezuelan-Cuban citizenship, is a veteran of the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and has also been connected to a string of bombings in Cuban tourist locations in 1997. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985, disguised as a priest, while prosecutors appealed his acquittal.

The extradition request is one of several that Venezuela has pending in the U.S. Two other requests involve Venezuelan citizens who are wanted for the bombing of the Colombian and Spanish consulates in Venezuela in February 2003.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/print.php?newsno=1584

'Bomb-plot' Cuban crosses into US
Tuesday, 12 April, 2005, 10:33 GMT 11:33 UK

A Cuban exile, accused by President Fidel Castro of plotting to kill him, is preparing to apply for asylum in the United States, his lawyer says.

Luis Posada Carriles managed to cross illegally into the US from Mexico, lawyer Eduardo Soto said.

Mr Castro called Mr Carriles, 77, "a monster" comparable to Osama Bin Laden, and demanded to know how he had breached US border security.

He is also wanted in Venezuela over the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976.

Seventy-three people were killed in that attack.

Mr Carriles once boasted of being responsible for a series of bomb attacks of Havana tourist spots in the 1990s.

In hiding

Five years ago he was arrested in Panama and accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro during a summit there.

He was convicted of a lesser charge, but was later pardoned and freed by the outgoing Panamanian president - causing Cuba to break off diplomatic relations.

Since then he has been in hiding.

Mr Soto said he crossed the US-Mexican border some weeks ago, but would not reveal his whereabouts.

In a three-hour appearance on television on Monday, Mr Castro raged: "It is as if Bin Laden were in the United States and the US president did not know."

Mr Soto says his client will apply for asylum on Wednesday.

He says that his application will be based partly on his claim that he worked "directly and indirectly" for the CIA for years, and has thus helped US interests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/4436079.stm