Havana, Dec 8 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela´s demand for a decision on the case of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles will constitute a conclusive test of the US commitment to its international counter terrorism crusade, experts said.
Posada Carriles is facing two legal procedures: one for illegal entry into the US in March and another on the Venezuelan extradition request, which has wide political ramifications, Granma daily noted.
The two cases are a dilemma for the US as it has vowed to resolutely fight illegal immigration and terrorism in all of its forms and everywhere.
Jose Pertierra, the attorney representing Venezuela in Washington, demanded that the US act consistently and order the extradition of Posada Carriles, mastermind of the bombing of a Cuban airliner off the coast of Barbados that killed 73 people in 1976.
"Posada Carriles is the Latin American replica of Osama bin Laden (chief of the Al Qaeda terrorist network). The US must conform to international law and extradite him to Venezuela," Pertierra said before meeting with advisors to US congress people.
The Venezuelan lawyer pointed out that Washington signed an extradition accord with Caracas in 1922 and is signatory of international agreements condemning terrorism against commercial airplanes.
"Many people believe the extradition case is finished, but it has not even started," he said. "The US administration has so far done nothing because it prefers to shelter that terrorist," added Pertierra.
Posada Carriles is a Cuban-born terrorist and a major crony of the Miami-based mafia from which he has organized and launched sabotage and criminal attacks against Havana.
His huge criminal dossier ranges from crimes and tortures, when he was an officer in the dissolved DISIP (intelligence service) in Venezuela, to his latest assassination plot against President Fidel Castro at Panama University in 2000.