The Venezuelan government promised Wednesday not to extradite to Cuba anti-Castro figure Luis Posada Carriles, accused of a terrorist attack, if the United States decides to send him to Venezuela.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said that if Posada is extradited to Venezuela, he will be judged and sentenced in the country's territory, and not be sent to a third nation.

Venezuela has an independent position with respect to this case.

If Posada is sent to Venezuela, based on an agreement signed between the South American country and the United States in 1922, there is no possibility of sending him to Cuba, he stressed.

Rangel made the statement after learning that Posada was arrested Tuesday in the United States and that he is in the hands of the Immigration and Customs Office of the Security Department.

Posada escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985 when he was on trial for the explosion of a Cubana de Aviacion airliner flying over Barbados in 1976, covering the Caracas-Havana route, with several athletes of the island on board.

Source: Xinhua