Cuban President Fidel Castro led an anti-terror march of over 1 million protesters past the US diplomatic mission in Havana on Tuesday to demand the United States arrest an exile with Cuban origin on terrorism charges.

Hours later, the United States immigration authorities detained Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative who had been accused of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976 and also sought by the Venezuelan government.

The US officials had said they did not know Carriles' whereabouts, thought both Cuban and Venezuelan governments quoted Posada's attorney as saying that the suspected terrorist was in the United States and had applied for asylum there.

Carriles emerged from hiding Tuesday in an interview with the Miami Herald, adding fuel to the flames of Cuba's anger.

The marchers carried pictures of Cubans who died on the Cuban plane crashed in 1976. Workers, students and soldiers held banners that said "No to war, no to terrorism," "People want justice."

Castro accused the US of hypocrisy in its war on terror by harboring terrorists, adding Carriles and his collaborator Orlando Bloch have made dozens of atrocious crimes in many countries of the hemisphere, including the United States.

"This is not a march against the people of the United States, but against terrorism, in favor of peace for our people and that of the United States," said the 78-year-old Castro before starting the demonstration march.

The leader made a recount of the terrorist crimes suffered by the island since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 and said " this is a long history of crimes and material destruction."

The demonstration was designed to urge the arrest and return to the Venezuelan justice of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and his accomplices, said Castro, adding the terrorist crimes against Cuba have been financed by the infamous National Cuban-American Foundation.

Posada Carriles, a Cuban-born exile with Venezuelan citizenship, was involved in the destruction of a Cuban airliner, killing 73 people in 1976 off the coast of Barbados, and a wave of bomb attacks on tourist centers resulting in the death of an Italian in 1997 in Havana.

Venezuela's Supreme Court ruled two weeks ago that the government should seek extradition from the United States of Posada, who escaped from prison in Caracas in 1985.

In August 2004, Carriles and three other Cubans were pardoned by then Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso. They had been in jail since November 2000, after being captured for planning an attack on Castro in Panama during a summit of Ibero-American countries.

Declassified US documents show that Posada Carriles, who is seeking asylum in the United States, spent years on the CIA payroll, reports said.

The CIA and FBI files, published by George Washington University's National Security Archives, revealed that US investigators believed Posada Carriles was involved in the 1976 plane bombing.

Source: Xinhua