Venezuela Threatens U.S. With Court Over Cuban Exile

Venezuela threatens US with court over Cuban exile

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12713456.htm

13 Jun 2005 00:51:52 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela, June 12 (Reuters) - Venezuela will take the United States to an international court if it does not extradite a Cuban exile sought by Caracas for blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976, President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday.

In a television broadcast, Chavez said U.S. authorities had no excuse not to grant the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan and ex-CIA collaborator who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985.

Posada, 77, who was arrested in Miami last month, is due to appear before a U.S. judge in El Paso, Texas, on Monday to face charges he entered the United States illegally.

Posada is accused by Venezuela and Cuba of masterminding the 1976 bombing of the Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. He denies any involvement in the attack and was initially acquitted by a Venezuelan military court in the early 1980s.

Chavez said if Washington did not send Posada to Venezuela for trial, "then we'll have to go to an international court and accuse the United States of violating democratic charters, human rights charters, United Nations and Organization of American States charters, all kinds of charters."

Chavez did not specify which court he would go to if the United States does not return Posada.

The case has strained already tense relations between Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, and its biggest oil client, the United States. Both Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro have used it to fiercely criticize U.S. President George W. Bush's administration.

Chavez, an outspoken nationalist, repeated a warning that U.S.-Venezuelan ties could be damaged if Posada's extradition was not granted.

"We would immediately put our relations with this (Bush's) government under a full and severe revision," he said.

The Posada case has placed Bush's administration in a difficult position as it tries to balance its support among the politically powerful anti-Castro Cuban-American community with its global campaign against terrorism.

Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said earlier this month Venezuela does not intend to break ties with Washington.

"We're not going to invade the United States," Chavez joked on Sunday, adding he would carefully weigh any decision.

Venezuela on Friday handed over additional evidence against Posada to back its request he be held for extradition.