Cynical decision on Posada Carriles,
says Chávez

CARACAS, September 28.— Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez today described as cynical the decision by a U.S. immigration judge to give indefinite asylum to the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, PL reports.

In that respect he rejected the argument that Posada could suffer maltreatment if he is deported to Venezuela, as the authorities of that South American country are demanding in order to try the criminal responsible for the sabotage of a civilian airliner in 1976.

Speaking at an event to present recourses for free health programs, Chávez contrasted that argument with the case of the torture being applied by U.S. soldiers on the Guantánamo naval base and in the Iraqi Abu Ghraib jail.

From Washington, AP reported that Bernardo Alvarez, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, announced on Wednesday that the decision by an immigration judge not to deport Posada Carriles to that country did not truncate the extradition application and affirmed that his country would follow him to any part of the world where he might be sent from the United States.

"That is our responsibility," the ambassador stated.

José Pertierra, the lawyer for the Venezuelan extradition case, stated that the U.S. authorities should first exhaust the extradition application initiated on June 15 before proceeding to the deportation of Posada Carriles to any part of the world.

He stated that the file has been sent to the Justice Department, but to date this agency has not referred it to a federal judge, who would have 60 days from that point to decide on the extradition or not of the criminal of Cuban origin.

In the AFP version, Ambassador Alvarez noted that the terrorist has more likelihood of being tortured in the United States than in Venezuela.

He added that the lawyer for the Venezuelan extradition case, José Pertierra, stated that "there is a danger that the government will release him on bond," which action already has a precedent going back to when ex-president George Bush Sr. released the terrorist Orlando Bosch in 1990.