Bush Refuses to Extradite 'Friendly' Criminal to Venezuela
Special Correspondent Lamia Oualalou
May 30, 2005
Caracas: The United States refuses to extradite Castro opponent Luis Posada Carriles, sought by Venezuela on charges that he was instrumental in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. The State Department refused Venezuela’s extradition request on Friday by arguing that the charges against the anti-Castro militant, "were not sufficiently supported from a legal point of view."
In Caracas the U.S. Embassy maintained that the government of Hugo Chavez had not formally requested his extradition. To add to the confusion, the president of the Venezuela Supreme Court, Omar Mora, announced to the press that the United States had just withdrawn a visa issued to him.
"I don’t want to believe that this is about one response to a request for extradition issued by my Court," he said, nonetheless astonished by the coincidence, if that is what it was.
The United States is in a tight spot. They procrastinated for weeks before acknowledging the presence on their territory of the supposed Cuban terrorist, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985.
MORE
http://www.watchingamerica.com/lefigaro000029.html