CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - About 100 Venezuelans protested outside the US Embassy yesterday, demanding the American government turn over a Cuban exile to face justice in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger jet.

The protesters arrived in a caravan of motorcycles and cars, waving Venezuelan flags, blowing whistles and repeating chants to insist Luis Posada Carriles should be extradited and tried in Venezuela.

"Posada, terrorist!" shouted the demonstrators, most wearing the red T-shirts and caps of President Hugo Chavez's party. "The people, united, will never be defeated!"

The protest came a day after Chavez said Venezuela might break diplomatic ties with Washington if the United States doesn't extradite Posada, an ex-CIA operative and militant opponent of Fidel Castro.

Venezuela wants to try the 77 year-old Posada on charges of murder and treason for the 1976 bombing, which tore apart a Cubana Airlines plane after it took off from Barbados, killing 73 people. Posada, a naturalised Venezuelan, is accused of plotting the attack in Caracas.

"Why don't they extradite this terrorist to Venezuela for justice to be done?" said Orlando Lopez, a 34 year-old protester.
American charge d'affaires Stephen McFarland accepted a petition from protesters demanding Posada be turned over, saying US officials would "study" the matter.

"Political pressures really aren't going to influence this legal case," McFarland said. "We're going to decide what to do in accordance with the extradition treaty, with the extradition request and international law."

"We are against any act of terrorism in the world, and any person who commits or who has committed an act of terrorism should face justice," McFarland said, declining to go into specifics on the extradition request.

Posada, who has denied wrongdoing, is being held without bond in the United States while awaiting an immigration hearing set for June 13.

"We can't rush things, but if the United States does not extradite Luis Posada Carriles, we will be forced to reconsider our diplomatic ties," Chavez said Sunday.

Asked about Chavez's comments, McFarland said: "Venezuela has the sovereign right to who it has diplomatic relations with. We do too."

The dispute over Posada has aggravated already tense US-Venezuelan relations. The US government has expressed uneasiness about Chavez's close ties to Castro and his domination of Venezuelan politics, while Chavez accuses Washington of backing plots against him including a short-lived 2002 coup.

Venezuelan troops stood guard outside the embassy, while some protesters held a towel printed with the American flag upside down, then let it fall to the ground, trampling on it.
"Cuba yes, yankees no!" the crowd chanted. One woman shouted, "Yankees, go home!"

Protester Noel Marquez had strong words for McFarland, telling him, "You should apologise to the Venezuelan people for having a terrorist like the criminal Posada Carriles on US soil."

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