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News from the Caribbean as of
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Jailed Cuba airline bombing suspect said to be a threat to US security
Friday, March 31, 2006
MIAMI, USA (AFP): US authorities say they will not release Luis Posada Carrilles, wanted in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, because he represents a threat to national security.
"Because of your long history of criminal activity and violence in which innocent civilians were killed, your release from detention would pose a danger to both the community and the national security of the United States," the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) said in a letter to the suspect obtained by AFP.
The immigration authorities announced last week that Posada would remain in custody in El Paso, Texas, but did not publicly announce the reasons for the decision.
Posada was jailed for eight years in Panama in another bomb plot, but was pardoned last year and made his way to the United States, where he was eventually arrested in May after he requested asylum and later withdrew the request.
The United States refused to send Posada, 78, a radical opponent of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and a former CIA agent, to Cuba or Venezuela citing fears that he would be tortured.
But it has also failed to find another third country that would accept him.
Cuban and Venezuelan authorities accuse the US government of harboring a known terrorist.
Posada was detained in Venezuela in 1976 following the bombing of a Cubana airliner that left 73 people dead.
He fled prison in 1985.
Recently declassified US documents show that Posada Carriles had worked for the CIA at least from 1965 until June 1976, and he reportedly helped the US government ferry supplies to "Contra" rebels in Nicaragua.
He also has been accused of taking part in numerous plots to kill Castro, including one to assassinate the Cuban leader during an Ibero-American summit in Panama in 2000.
"Your expertise in assuming false identities, your disregard of immigration laws of the United States, your history of escape and the presence of your pending extradition request demonstrate that you pose a significant risk of fleeing if released from custody," the ICE letter said.
"Further, you have shown a cavalier attitude toward the impact your actions have had on the safety and well-being of persons and property," it said.
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