U.S. immigration officials charged Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles on Thursday with entering the United States illegally, which could lead to his deportation to another country. Venezuela wants Posada in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials also said that Posada would be held without bond pending a hearing before an immigration judge scheduled for June 13. The precise location of that hearing was not specified.
“At such a bond hearing, ICE would present its arguments for holding him without bond,” said an ICE statement.
Posada has acknowledged entering the United States secretly through Mexico in mid-March. He was detained by ICE agents on Tuesday, shortly after surfacing publicly for the first time to meet with reporters.
The government by law has 48 hours to bring immigration charges after a person is taken into custody.
Posada was being held at a U.S. detention center in El Paso, Texas, according to several Miami news reports. ICE would not immediately confirm that location.
Reviled as a terrorist in Havana, Posada has denied involvement in the bombing, which killed 73 people when the airliner crashed near Barbados. He was acquitted after two trials in Venezuela, where the plot allegedly was hatched.
