CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuela yesterday condemned a US court ruling that blocks the deportation of a Cuban militant wanted in the South American country for a 1976 airliner bombing, and strongly denied claims that he could be tortured if handed over.

President Hugo Chavez said yesterday that the decision by an immigration judge in Texas in the case of Luis Posada Carriles, protects a terrorist and shows the “cynicism of the Empire,” a term he often uses for President George W Bush’s government.

“In Guantanamo they torture people. They’re the ones who torture, in that prison, Abu Ghraib” in Iraq, Chavez said. “They torture, they murder, they bomb, they kill children – and now a judge over there says he (Posada) can’t go to Venezuela because he runs the risk of being tortured here.”

In his ruling Monday, the US judge cited conventions against sending Posada, who has Venezuelan citizenship, to the South American country because he could face torture there – a claim made by the 77-year-old Posada.

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel called the ruling “vile, and just as sinister as the very act of terrorism” – which killed all 73 people on board the Cubana Airlines plane that exploded after takeoff from Barbados.

“I would like for them to present just one piece of evidence that Venezuela tortures people when our constitution clearly establishes the prohibition of torture,” Maria del Pilar Hernandez, Venezuela’s top diplomat for North America, told state television. She said Venezuela had not been cited for torturing “even an ant.”

Posada, a naturalised Venezuelan and one-time CIA operative who is an avowed enemy of Fidel Castro, is accused of masterminding the bombing from Caracas but has denied involvement.

The Venezuelan government insisted the United States is still bound by international law to hand over Posada.

Venezuela’s extradition request “remains in effect more than ever,” government lawyer Jose Pertierra told state television. He noted Venezuela and the United States have an extradition treaty that should be respected.

Chavez and Castro have called the Cuban-born Posada the top terrorist in the Americas and have accused the United States of hypocrisy for not turning him over.

A Venezuelan military court acquitted Posada of charges in the bombing, but the decision was later thrown out. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 before a civilian trial was completed.

Two Venezuelans who worked for Posada in his private security firm in Caracas, Hernan Ricardo and Freddy Lugo, were convicted of placing the bomb and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Another co-defendant, Orlando Bosch, was eventually cleared by Venezuelan courts and moved to Miami. He was later pardoned by former U.S. President George Bush for other alleged violent acts.

This week’s ruling is in the same vein, Rangel said. “This is a decision of the Bush family,” he said.

Though Chavez is a friend and ally of Castro, Chavez’s government has insisted Posada would not be turned over to Cuba but would be tried for murder and treason. Cuba has said it would not seek Posada’s extradition.

Castro himself has publicly accused Posada of leading a plot to kill him at a summit in Panama in 2000. Cuba also accuses Posada of overseeing hotel and nightclub bombings in 1997 that killed one Italian tourist.

Posada is accused of illegally entering the United States from Mexico in March. He was arrested in May and is being held in a detention center in El Paso, pending a 90-day review of the case by immigration authorities.

The judge did not rule out the possibility Posada could be sent to another country, other than Venezuela or Cuba.