http://courttv.com/news/2005/0520/carriles_ap.html
Cuban militant wanted in 1976 bombing charged with illegally entering U.S.
MIAMI (AP) — Ever since it was learned that Luis Posada Carriles slipped into the country two months ago, the United States has been in an awkward position about how to deal with the aging Cuban militant wanted in a deadly 1976 jetliner bombing.
On Thursday, the government brought an immigration charge against Posada — a move that could lead to his deportation. But the question remains: Where might the government send him?
Authorities in Venezuela, where the bombing plot allegedly was hatched, desperately want custody of Posada, but U.S. officials have said they won't send anyone to a country that they believe is doing Cuba's bidding. Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are close allies.
The case is politically sensitive for the Bush administration. Chavez lambasted U.S. officials for charging Posada only with entering the country illegally, saying it demonstrates U.S. hypocrisy in the war on terrorism.
"We demand that the United States ... send this terrorist, this international bandit" to Venezuela to face justice, Chavez said in a televised address.
Posada, 77, is a former CIA operative and bitter opponent of Castro but has denied taking part in the downing of a Cuban jetliner off the coast of Barbados that killed 73 people. Recently declassified FBI documents quote informants as saying Posada was deeply involved in the planning.
He will be held without bail at a federal lockup in El Paso, Texas, for a hearing before an immigration judge June 13, officials said. His attorney, Eduardo Soto, said his client will ask to be released on bail.
Posada believes he should be allowed to stay in the United States, although his lawyer left open the possibility that he would agree to depart for a third country if a friendly nation could be found.
"Everything is on the table," Soto said.
Posada has acknowledged entering the United States secretly through Mexico in mid-March. He was seized by U.S. immigration agents in Miami on Tuesday, shortly after surfacing to meet with reporters.
His lawyer said Posada would "vigorously oppose" deportation. Soto said Posada will claim that he never lost permanent U.S. legal residency, originally gained in October 1962 — during the Cuban missile crisis — and that he should be given political asylum in the United States because of his anti-Castro views, his history as a CIA operative and the risk of persecution from both Cuba and Venezuela.
"I believe he is legally in this country now," Soto told reporters.
The lawyer said that it could take months or even years before a final decision is made on Posada's fate. "You could be looking at a two-year process," he said.
The lawyer also said that Posada will ask that the immigration proceedings be moved from Texas to Miami, where Posada has a wife and a 29-year-old son.
Posada was acquitted after two trials in Venezuela, then escaped from a prison there in 1985 while awaiting a prosecutor's appeal. Venezuela has requested his extradition.
Castro has repeatedly renounced Cuba's right to try Posada and has instead argued that he should be turned over to Venezuela or an international tribunal. Castro has 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.
Posada has also been linked to a series of 1997 bombings in Cuba that killed an Italian tourist.
