Luis Posada Carriles

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Tuesday arrested a Cuban exile who slipped into the country in March and is wanted by Venezuela over the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people nearly 30 years ago. Luis Posada Carriles, 77, a former CIA collaborator and anti-communist activist who has sought political asylum in the United States, was arrested in Miami just hours after he emerged from hiding to give a series of media interviews. Posada's presence on its soil has presented the United States with the dilemma of how to reconcile its sympathy for politically influential Cuban exiles with its tough stance against terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Cuban President Fidel Castro, who accused Washington of double standards in its war on terrorism, led about a million Cubans in a protest march in Havana on Tuesday demanding that the United States act against Posada. "Bush, fascist, capture the terrorist," the crowd chanted. "Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Mr. Luis Posada Carriles into custody, pending review of his immigration status," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, adding that it had 48 hours to decide on Posada's status.

Accused Cuban airliner bomber arrested in U.S.
REUTERS