Venezuela condemns US ruling against extradition of wanted exile

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday condemned a US court ruling that the Cuban-born exile Luis Posada Carriles wanted in a 1976 airliner bombing might not be extradited to Caracas.

Chavez said Posada is a terrorist, and the case could harm ties with the United States if the anti-Castro militant is not extradited to Venezuela.

"Now the US government has taken a decision in favor of Posada ...that's what I call imperialistic cynicism," said Chavez.

"The US troops are torturing people in Guantanamo Bay. they are killing, assassinating and bombing people," the Venezuelan president said.

At a hearing in the US city of El Paso, Texas, on Monday, judge William Abbott postponed the handover of Posada, a Venezuelan citizen, to the South American country on the ground of the International Covenant for the Protection Against Torture.

Posada, an alleged Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent, was arrested in May for illegally entering the United States. The 77-year-old exile escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985, while he awaited retrial of the bombing of a Cuban passenger plane, which killed all 73 people on board in 1976.

Posada has denied he was the mastermind behind the 1976 bombing, and expressed his satisfaction over the US ruling on Tuesday, which he said could turn down the extradition request filed by Venezuela on June 15.

The Venezuelan Embassy in Washington said the decision of judge Abbott showed the double standard of US President George W. Bush in the so-called war on terror.

Caracas insisted that the United States be still bound by international law to deport Posada, the embassy said in statement.

Source: Xinhua