According to NYT, Venezuelan fugitive is a Cuban?

[AP]

Isn't that like saying that the 9/11 terrorists were Americans?

Here's the headline:

U.S. Arrests Cuban Exile Accused in Deadly '76 Airline Bombing

Apparently, the State Department wants to avoid extraditing Posada to Venezuela on grounds revealed in this quote:

In a written statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that it "does not generally remove people to Cuba" or "to countries believed to be acting on Cuba's behalf."

To create the impression that Venezueala is acting as a front for Cuba, they need to create the impression that Posada is a Cuban and that Cuba is driving this thing and that nobody else has a connection to Posada. Yet, it seems that Venezuela has some very real, solid connections to Posada that justify their desire to take him into custody and try him in Venezuela.

For example, Posada is a Venezuelan who was being held in Venezuela for trial when he esacped from custody. He's definitely a fugitive from Venezuelan law.

The New York Times notes that while Posada has been in the US he has "read Confucius and painted Cuban landscapes." As far as I can tell, Posadas only connection to Cuba has been when he's gone there to commit acts of terrorism. It's interesting that, while committing acts of terrorism, he took the time to appreciate the Cuban landscape so much that he'd paint it while running from (Venezuelan) justice.

[morgan2]

1. While I think he should be extradited

there is very good reason to believe that Venezuela will extrodite him to Cuba. Venezuela SHOULD extrodite him to Cuba. He's been planning and plotting terrorist activities against Cuba for 30 years, just because he was supported by the US in those actions he doesn't deserve immunity.

[AP]

2. Just because BOTH Venezuela and Cuba have good claims for jurisdiction...

...doesn't mean the US can't extradite him to Venezuela.

If that became the rule, that would mean that every terrorist in the world should bomb something Cuban (in addition to their US, European, Asian, African, Latin American, etc. targets) and then run to the US.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. As far as I can tell, he was born in Cuba, and lived there till he was 30

or so. Calling him Cuban seems reasonable to me - it looks like he only left because Castro came to power, and he got Venezuelan citizenship for convenience. I'd like to see him extradited to Cuba, too, though Venezuela will do.

Luis Posada Carriles, who was born in Cuba but is a Venezuelan citizen, is reported to be hiding in the US.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4546379.stm

Yahoo! November 22, 2000

Posada Carriles, 72, was arrested at a Panama hotel on Friday ...

Posada Carriles left Cuba after Castro's 1959 revolution. He participated in the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and arrived in Venezuela from Miami in 1967 to work in this South American nation's intelligence service.

By the early 1970s, Posada Carriles had obtained Venezuelan citizenship and become the nation's chief of police intelligence operations, largely with the help of the CIA (news - web sites). He helped direct government strategy against leftist guerrillas in Venezuela but was fired in 1975 after clashing with then President-elect Perez. He then created his own security company in Venezuela.

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y00/nov00/22e4.htm

[AP]

4. Before this, I'd only heard that he was a Venezuelan who served in the VZ

(IIRC) military.

That he left Cuba when he was 30 clears that up the "Cuban" (by birth if not by citizenship) reference.

Nonetheless, the stories about this that I've seen so far are burying the fact that he was in VZ custody and that he was a VZ citizen for the last paragraph.

At least now I know that he has a legitimate reason for painting Cuban landscapes.

I believe VZ said today that they won't extradite him to Cuba and that they want to try him themselves.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Posada is a Bay of Pigs veteran who received a US Army commission

from President Kennedy, as many others did. There is a lot of dirt in his history of terrorism, under Democratic and Republican Administrations.