US may consider extraditing Posada to TT or Barbados

"Public opinion around the world and especially in the United States can rest assured that if Washington extradites Posada, he will be tried in Venezuela and under no circumstances will he be sent to Cuba," Venezuelan Vice-President Jos? Vicente Rangel said Wednesday.

US immigration agents seized Posada on Tuesday, and Homeland Security Department officials are studying his immigration status.

However, they have cast into doubt the possibility of extraditing the 77-year-old anti-Castro terror suspect to Venezuela, where he is wanted as a fugitive from justice.

"As a matter of immigration law and policy, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not generally remove people to Cuba, nor does ICE generally remove people to countries believed to be acting on Cuba’s behalf," the Homeland Security Department stated in a communiqu?.

It also noted that it had 48 hours (until yesterday afternoon) to determine Posada’s immigration status.

Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez is a good friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro, which has caused enormous friction between the Venezuelan and US governments.

Lawyer Joaqu?n Chafardet, who has defended Posada in Caracas, claimed that if his client "puts one foot in Venezuela, the next day he’ll be on a plane to Cuba."

But according to Venezuelan officials, the extradition request has put the United States in a difficult position, in which it must prove its commitment to fighting terrorism.

Rangel said the case would be "emblematic" in assessing just what the George W Bush administration’s stance is with regard to terrorism.

"It seems that for some there is good terrorism and bad terrorism," he added.

Posada and another notorious anti-Castro Cuban exile, Orlando Bosch, were charged in Venezuela for planning the October 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviaci?n airliner that exploded off Barbados on its way to Havana. Before going to Barbados the plane had stopped in Trinidad.

All 73 crew members and passengers, including the teenage members of Cuba’s national junior fencing team, were killed. The incident was the first confirmed mid-air terrorist bombing of a commercial airliner.

Venezuelan photographers Freddy Lugo and Hern?n Ricardo were tried and convicted as the material authors of the bombing, and have both served their sentences.

But the lengthy, complicated legal process against Posada was cut short when he escaped from a Venezuelan prison, disguised as a priest, in August 1985.