HAVANA (AP) – Cubans marking the 29th anniversary of an airliner bombing that killed 73 people expressed frustration and sadness yesterday at the fact that militant Luis Posada Carriles, currently in the United States, has yet to be punished for his alleged involvement in the crime.

Posada, a Cuban native who became a naturalised Venezuelan, is accused of masterminding the attack in which a Cubana Airlines plane travelling from Barbados to Havana exploded in the air on October 6, 1976. Posada, who was arrested in Miami in May, has denied the bombing charges.

He is currently in a US detention centre in El Paso, Texas after allegedly crossing into the United States illegally from Mexico in March. Cuba and others have been clamouring for him to be sent to Venezuela to stand trial in the bombing, but an immigration judge declared last week he could not be deported there, citing the possibility he would face torture – a claim vehemently denied by Venezuela.

“What we are seeing is that justice doesn’t exist, because he is a murderer,” said Jorge Ramos, who was just 12 when his father Armando, a Cubana pilot flying on the plane as a passenger, died in the explosion.

Relatives of the victims, wiping away tears and embracing, laid flowers at a memorial in Havana’s historic Colon Cemetery. They carried enlarged black-and-white photographs of their loved ones on wooden posts.

Hundreds, including crew members of Cubana Airlines gathered for the ceremony, which included remarks by Margarita Morales, daughter of another victim, Luis Morales Viego.

“We demand that (the US government) stop looking for excuses to protect Posada,” said Morales, 43, whose father coached the young Cuban fencing team that had just won a regional competition before boarding the plane. “We demand … (his) immediate extradition to Venezuela.”

Relatives say the 77-year-old Posada could also be sent to a country other than Venezuela or an international tribunal to face trial.

“What we are looking for is justice,” said Ramos, who restores furniture.

Cuban President Fidel Castro has repeatedly accused the US government of hypocrisy in its “war on terrorism” for not immediately turning over Posada, a one-time CIA operative.

Castro has also publicly accused Posada of leading a plot to kill him at a summit in Panama in 2000. The Cuban government also accuses the militant of overseeing a series of hotel and nightclub bombings on the island in 1997 that killed one Italian tourist.