The Hindu : International / Globescan : U.S. detains Cuban militant

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 19, 2005

International

International - Globescan

U.S. detains Cuban militant

MIAMI: Under growing international pressure, U.S. authorities seized a Cuban exile accused by Fidel Castro's Government of masterminding a 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 persons. He had been seeking asylum in the United States. Luis Posada Carriles, a 77-year-old former CIA operative, was taken into custody on Tuesday by U.S. immigration authorities, the Homeland Security Department said in a statement. The department did not say what it planned to do with Mr. Posada, who is wanted by Venezuela for retrial in the airliner bombing. Cuban authorities have said in the past they want Mr. Posada to be either extradited to Venezuela, which has no death penalty, or to go before an international tribunal. Homeland Security did not say what it planned to do with Mr. Posada. But it said that generally, the U.S. Government does not return people to Cuba or to countries acting on Cuba's behalf. The department said it had 48 hours to determine his immigration status. Mr. Posada was born in Cuba before going into exile and becoming naturalised as a Venezuelan. He later became a Venezuelan security official. He escaped from prison in Venezuela in 1985 while awaiting a prosecutor's appeal of his second acquittal in the bombing of a Cubana Airlines jetliner near Barbados. — AP

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