Posted on 05/22/2005 3:26:29 PM PDT by Cornpone
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on Sunday he could reconsider diplomatic ties with the United States if Washington fails to extradite a Cuban exile Caracas wants to try on terrorism charges.
Venezuela is demanding the United States hand over Luis Posada Carriles, a militant foe of Cuban President Fidel Castro, to face trial for masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban aircraft that killed 73 people.
Chavez has pushed hard for Posada to be sent to Caracas under an extradition agreement with the United States, but Sunday's comments were his first warning that already strained relations with Washington could be damaged by the case.
"If they don't extradite him in the time allowed in our agreement, we will review our relations with the United States," Chavez said on his regular Sunday television program.
"We would have to evaluate whether it is worth keeping an embassy in the United States and whether it is worth the United States having an embassy in Venezuela," he said.
Washington last week detained Posada on immigration charges for illegally entering the United States two months after he sneaked across from Mexico to seek political asylum.
The Posada case has underscored tense political relations between Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, and the United States, its main energy client.
Chavez, a left-wing former soldier elected in 1998 after promising to fight poverty, has deepened ties with Communist Cuba as part of his self-proclaimed revolution. He accuses the United States of plotting to oust or kill him.
U.S. officials brand Chavez an authoritarian who has become a negative influence in Latin America.
Posada's presence in the United States has also presented Washington with a dilemma over how to reconcile its sympathy for politically influential Cuban exiles opposed to Castro with its tough approach to terrorism suspects.
U.S. officials said he would be held without bond before a hearing in an immigration court in El Paso, Texas, on June 13. Posada has denied involvement in the bombing attack.
Chavez and Castro have said Posada's case will test whether U.S. President George W. Bush is serious about fighting terrorism.
"It is difficult, very difficult, to maintain ties with a government that so shamelessly hides and protects international terrorism," Chavez said on Sunday.
He said Venezuela would also consider taking the United States to an international tribunal over the Posada case.
Posada, who holds Venezuelan citizenship, was twice acquitted by Venezuelan courts of plotting to bomb the Cuban airliner. He escaped from a Caracas prison in 1985 while awaiting a third trial on appeal.
The United States has not said whether it would send Posada to Venezuela, but a statement by immigration officials cast doubt on whether Washington would approve sending him to a country so closely allied with Cuba.
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel has insisted that Posada would be tried in Venezuela and not sent to Cuba.
Posada is old - maybe he isn't gonna live long enough to become more of an international problem than he already is.
Do you really think that Chauvez can be trusted? This guy hates the U.S. and all it stands for. He wants to be a dictator, he is probably considering dictating over the whole of S.A.. Ya gotta see this coming?
Oh, I'd say he's serious enough, and the current governments of Afghanistan and Iraq might agree with me. What I don't understand is how a couple of pumped-up nonentities such as Chavez and Castro figure they're the arbiters of the matter.
Chavez was elected largely on the promise to eradicate poverty and provide jobs. His wild statements on foreign policy are nothing more than a smokescreen for domestic incompetence. If he does manage to ruin the Venezualan oil industry as its recent fall-off in productivity seems to indicate that he is, he'll have managed to take one of South American's success stories from riches back to rags, just as his good friend Mugabe has done for Zimbabwe.
"Ya gotta see this coming?"
I do see this coming...that's why I did the post:)
"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on Sunday he could reconsider diplomatic ties with the United States if..."
If it isn't this issue it will be something else. Chavez has decided that eh's going to take a page from Castro - blame everything (including his own tactical failures) on the US. He's just looking for a reason to break relations iwth us and stop selling us oil.
IMHO we should try the Cuban in US courts. If there's evidence he should be jailed - in the US. If not, let him go. Either way, screw Castro and Chavez.
"IMHO we should try the Cuban in US courts. If there's evidence he should be jailed - in the US. If not, let him go. Either way, screw Castro and Chavez."
Well said. Sounds like a plan to me and robs castro and chavez of any limelight and propaganda fooder
ONly one little problem ---- We get upset when other countries won't extradite criminals and terrorists to the US for trial - yet we play the same game to other countries.
I believe that when we want someone extradited to the US, we have to show some sort of evidence that there is a legitimate case. So I don't see a problem with the same being true when another country wants someone extradited to their country.
And in this case - if this guy IS a terrorist (if he can be linked to the blowing up of that plane, he most definitely IS a terrorist), then we have a duty to turn him over to those wanting to prosecute him - even if it was terrorism against Cuba. It's called a double standard. Even if our neighbors like living by such a double standard, we should set the moral high-road.
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