Million march in protest at Cuban 'bomber'

MIAMI - One million Cubans marched in Havana on Tuesday demanding Washington extradite an accused Cuban airliner bomber who emerged from hiding in Miami, highlighting a dilemma for Washington in its war on terrorism.

Luis Posada Carriles, who slipped into the United States two months ago from Mexico, emerged from hiding on Tuesday and was later taken into federal custody in Miami, CNN and the Miami Herald said.

"Today, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Mr Luis Posada Carriles into custody, pending review of his immigration status," said a Homeland Security statement. It said the Department of Homeland Security had 48 hours to make an official determination of his immigration status.

Venezuela has asked the Bush administration to deport Posada to face trial for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban plane that killed 73 people.

Posada denied in a Miami Herald interview any involvement in the bombing.

The presence in the United States of Posada, a former CIA collaborator and longtime anti-communist activist, has presented US authorities with the dilemma of how to reconcile its sympathy for politically influential Cuban exiles with Washington's firm stance against terrorism suspects after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Castro, at odds with the United States since soon after his 1959 revolution, has furiously charged Washington with hypocrisy. Communist-run Cuba is one of six countries designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the US Department of State -- Havana denies it has backed international terrorism and believes this is a politically-motivated charge.

Castro led a protest march of an estimated 1.2 million people past the US diplomatic mission in Havana on Tuesday to demand that the Bush administration arrest Posada and extradite him to Venezuela, where he is accused of plotting the bombing.

- REUTERS