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 News from Around the Americas | May 2005 
Chavez Slams 'Negative' US Move over Cuban Exile
 Reuters
| | A supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds a poster that portrays U.S. President George W. Bush as a devil during a march against terrorism in Caracas. (Photo: Howard Yanes/Reuters) |
Caracas, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday condemned as "negative" the United States' rejection of an initial attempt by his government to extradite a Cuban exile accused of bombing an airliner.
Chavez repeated a warning made just over a week ago that he would review relations with the United States, Venezuela's biggest oil buyer, if Washington did not agree to the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles.
Posada, a former CIA collaborator, is accused of plotting from Venezuela the 1976 downing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. The 77-year-old anti-communist militant, who is a naturalized Venezuelan, escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985.
Left-winger Chavez, a fierce critic of President Bush, expressed disappointment at the U.S. decision on Friday to reject Venezuela's request that Posada be arrested for extradition.
"They've given a sign, a negative one," Chavez said. "It's a worrying sign," he said during a cabinet meeting broadcast live on state television.
Venezuela plans to deliver a formal extradition request for Posada to U.S. authorities on Tuesday.
Chavez accused Bush, whom he mockingly referred to as "Mr Danger," of "sheltering a terrorist."
The U.S. government told Venezuela on Friday its request that Posada be arrested for extradition was "clearly inadequate," because it lacked supporting evidence.
Chavez scoffed at this. "And what about those CIA and FBI documents that you have over there, Mr Danger? ... You know the truth much more than we do," he said.
He was referring to declassified U.S. intelligence documents which cite informants as saying that Posada, who once worked with Venezuela's security services, had plotted to bomb a Cuban airliner with other Cuban exiles.
Posada, who denies involvement in the 1976 bombing of the Cuban plane, was arrested on U.S. immigration charges earlier this month. He faces a court hearing in mid-June.
His case presents the U.S. government with a dilemma over how to reconcile traditional sympathy for influential Cuban exiles with Washington's tough global anti-terrorism stance.
Chavez and his ally, Cuban President Fidel Castro, want Posada to be tried in Venezuela as a terrorist. Thousands of Chavez supporters marched in Caracas at the weekend to back the extradition request.
The Venezuelan leader denied media speculation that he was planning to break relations with the United States.
"I've never said that ... I said that if they don't extradite Posada Carriles, we're going to place our relations with the United States under complete review ... and I maintain that," he said on Monday.
Since he was first elected president of the world's No. 5 oil exporter in 1998, Chavez's relations with the U.S. have deteriorated as he sought to strengthen links with anti-U.S. states such as Cuba and Iran.
Washington criticizes him as an anti-U.S. troublemaker.
Chavez describes Bush as a menace to world peace and has accused the U.S. administration of plotting to topple or kill him, a charge dismissed as ridiculous by U.S. officials. |
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