Cuban exile arrested

last updated 8 January 2015

Miami

Homeland Security agents this week detained Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile wanted in Venezuela for the deadly 1976 bombing of an airliner bound for Havana. Posada, 77, slipped into the country from Mexico in March and requested asylum. Venezuela has asked the U.S. to extradite Posada, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro called Posada a terrorist and demanded his arrest. Posada has also been implicated in a plot to kill Castro in Panama, and the bombings of tourist hotels in Havana. Posada was picked up shortly after he held a news conference to say that if his asylum request had embarrassed the U.S., he was “ready to reconsider.” It was not immediately clear what the U.S. planned to do with him.