US Embassy mum on Cuba’s request

The US government was tight-lipped yesterday over calls to extradite a Cuban renegade wanted for blowing up an airliner in Venezuela in 1976.

US Embassy spokeswoman Karen Kelley said the US government has yet to issue an official reaction to calls by Havana for the Philippine government to assist in extradition efforts against Luis Posada Carriles, the principal suspect in the bombing of a Cuban airliner that left 73 people dead in October 1976.

The Cuban government, through its ambassador Jorge Rey Jimenez, sought the help of the Philippine government in gaining Posada’s extradition from the United States.

Posada has been sentenced in absentia for terrorism by the Cuban government for bombing several tourist destinations in Cuba and for the planned assassination of President Fidel Castro and Panamanian students during the Ibero-American summit held in Havana in 2001.

Posada had sought asylum in the US following his escape from a Venezuelan prison while awaiting sentencing in the bombing of the Cuban airliner.

"There is no official reaction on behalf of the US Embassy" on the extradition calls by Cuba, Kelly told The STAR yesterday.

Cuba has repeatedly called for the extradition of Posada after the Cuban renegade sought asylum in the US last month.

Posada is also reportedly a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset who masterminded several attacks against Castro’s regime.

Former Cuban ambassador to Manila Ramon Alonso Medina earlier sought the extradition of Posada from the US.

Medina disclosed that the US government had recruited Cubans in Miami, Florida to work against Castro’s regime.

Medina warned that Cuba would act "accordingly" against the US in case of provocation.

The US government, along with Israel and allied nations, still imposes economic sanctions against Cuba.

The Philippines, on the other hand, is among the countries that has called for the lifting of sanctions against the Caribbean island nation.

Medina claimed the US and Israel had repeatedly voted down resolutions in the United Nations calling for the lifting of an economic embargo against Cuba.