MIAMI – U.S. officials charged Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles on Thursday with entering the United States illegally — a move that could lead to his deportation. Venezuela wants Posada in connection with the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner.
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The United States did not immediately say whether its plans in fact, to deport Posada, or where.
Posada, 77, will be held without bail for a hearing before an immigration judge June 13, immigration officials said.
The case has put the U.S. in an awkward position because Castro has repeatedly branded Posada a terrorist and said the Bush administration would be guilty of a double standard in the war on terrorism if it gave Posada asylum in the U.S.
Posada is a former CIA operative and bitter opponent of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
He is wanted by Venezuela for allegedly helping plot the bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people off Barbados in 1976. Posada has denied taking part in the plot, which was allegedly hatched in Venezuela.
Posada has acknowledged entering the United States secretly through Mexico in mid-March. He was seized by U.S. immigration agents on Tuesday, shortly after surfacing for the first time to meet with reporters.
Posada was being held at a U.S. detention center in El Paso, Texas, according to Miami news reports. U.S. authorities would not immediately confirm that.
His lawyer did not immediately return a call Thursday but scheduled a news conference later in the day. The lawyer, Eduardo Soto, has said Posada will seek asylum to remain in the United States.
Soto has said his client should be granted U.S. asylum because of his anti-Castro views, his history as a CIA operative and the ris of persecution from both Cuban and Venezuela.
Posada was acquitted after two trials in Venezuela, then escaped from a prison there in 1985 while awaiting a prosecutor’s appeal. Venezuela is seeking his extradition.
He was pardoned last year by Panama’s president for his role in an alleged assassination plot against Castro and has also been linked to a series of 1997 bombings in Cuba that killed an Italian tourist.
