President Chavez Considers Breaking U.S. Ties

Chavez considers breaking US ties

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4571957.stm

Venezuela's flamboyant leader has repeatedly attacked US policies
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he will consider breaking diplomatic ties with the US if it fails to hand over a Cuban-born terror suspect.

Venezuela says Luis Posada Carriles must stand trial over the 1976 bombing of Cuba's plane that killed 73 people.

Mr Chavez says Washington would be guilty of protecting international terrorism if it refused extradition.

Mr Posada Carriles - the 77-year-old former CIA employee - was charged last week with illegal entry into the US.

US immigration officials said that he would be held in custody until an immigration court hearing on 13 June.

Washington has up to 60 days to consider Venezuela's extradition request under a 1922 treaty between the two countries.

'Wasting money'

"If they don't extradite him (Mr Posada Carriles) in the time allowed in our agreement, we will review our relations with the United States," Mr Chavez said in his regular Sunday TV programme.

He said Caracas would decide "if it worth having an embassy in the United States, wasting money, or for the United States to have an embassy here".

"It is difficult, very difficult, to maintain ties with a government that so shamelessly hides and protects international terrorism," Mr Chavez said.

The president last week described Mr Posada Carriles as "a self-confessed terrorist".

Washington stance

Mr Posada Carriles - who was born in Cuba but now holds Venezuelan nationality - has denied involvement in the attack on the Cuban airline passenger plane on a flight from Caracas to Havana.

Mr Posada Carriles escaped a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting a trial on appeal.

He was twice acquitted by Venezuelan courts of plotting to bomb the plane.

The US says it will not deport Mr Posada Carriles to any country that would hand him over to Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba.

Venezuela has said it will not hand Mr Posada Carriles over, and Mr Castro has insisted he will be happy to see him tried there.

The poetic justice here is astounding as one of the most infamous criminals of the Iran-Contra era has become an immense anti-American propaganda tool. Luis Posada Carriles is a terrorist; a cold-blooded murderer. If the United States refuses to hand him over, its War on Terror will stand fully exposed. The US will be known for what it is -- a state sponsor of terrorism. And if the US surrenders him -- as it appears it must -- then Venezuela's Hugo Chavez will have scored a victory for all Latin peoples.

Posada Carriles- a Venezuelan who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985, and who had long before sold out to the Gringos - will receive the justice of his own people.

Karl Rove must be choking. Old time Democrats like Maxine Waters and John Conyers are probably popping champagne corks. Free people who belong to neither party should also be celebrating.

One of the essential ingredients for the destruction of the US Empire is the destruction of the value of its brand name. There is surely not a single soul in all of Latin America, including Mexico, who does not see that a conviction of Posada in Venezuela would be a conviction of the United States in front of the world. Chavez can prove Posada's links to the CIA, Oliver North, William Casey, Elliot Abrams, John Negroponte, Otto Reich and George Herbert Walker Bush.

His execution in Venezuela (for the bombing of a Cuban airliner in flight) would be the execution of the United States. Wisely, Fidel Castro has quickly agreed to have Posada tried in Caracas.

This case could go much further than an extradition fight. Even though he's just one of several ultra-guilty right-wing killers from the regional Miami-based cold war of decades ago, Posada now stands for more than he may realize: from Mayan union leaders getting shot by Coca Cola's goons in Colombia, to the resurgent populists in Ecuador, this case has the potential to unite Latin Americans across ethnic and national boundaries. And not just the Fidelistas. Middle class white moderates who elected Lula da Silva and Vicente Fox may find it harder to forget that they're in bed with the Devil once he starts screaming.

Among other things, the US must now be worried about placing all of its local economic hopes on NAFTA and a solidified governmental/economic/military alliance with Mexico. That country's soul is deeply divided and the Mexican people will not go quietly into the Empire's fold; not while they can see a leader like Hugo Chavez hanging around. He speaks the language. Watch for the drug cartels to rear their heads again soon. They have major axes to grind with Uncle Sam. And they've already been acting up, much to the consternation of Vicente Fox.

Michael Ruppert