*************** Hundreds of thousands of Cubans march to demand U.S. arrest militant exile
By ANITA SNOW Associated Press May 17, 2005
HAVANA -- Hundreds of thousands of Cubans answered Fidel Castro's call to file past the American mission early Tuesday in a "March against Terrorism," demanding that the United States arrest a Cuban exile sought in a deadly airliner bombing three decades ago.
"Down with terrorism!" the 78-year-old Castro shouted in brief comments before leading the march outside the U.S. Interests Section. "Down with nazi doctrines and methods! Down with the lies!"
Wearing his traditional olive green military uniform and cap, the Cuban president walked six or seven blocks without assistance, despite an accidental fall in October that shattered his left kneecap.
Protesters were calling for the arrest of Castro's longtime foe, Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile who recently traveled to the United States, where he is seeking political asylum. Venezuela has requested the extradition of Posada in the 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 people.
U.S. officials have said they are not actively seeking Posada because there are no American warrants for his arrest, and expressed doubts as recently as last week that Posada was even in the United States.
Castro has accused the Bush administration of hypocrisy for taking no action against Posada while waging a global war against terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He also resents Cuba's continued inclusion on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Marchers began gathering hours before dawn, recalling the scores of massive marches the communist government organized in 2000 during the island government's successful battle for the return of young Cuban castaway Elian Gonzalez.
Cuban state TV showed rivers of people spilling from side streets spilling into the Malecon coastal highway, which runs past the American mission. Most marchers wore T-shirts in red, blue or white, the colors of the Cuban flag.
Cuban officials -- and newly released U.S. archives -- also link Posada to other violent actions, some of them military, some aimed at civilians. The declassified U.S. documents indicate he was on the CIA's payroll until a few months before the 1976 bombing.
"Punishment for the assassins!" a child shouted over a loudspeaker outside the U.S. Interests Section as marchers filed by. "Bush, terrorist!" chanted another.
During a Monday night TV appearance, Castro complained that Posada while remains free, the United States continues to fund groups dedicated to subverting his government.
"This is the empire's answer, money to foment destabilization," he said, adding, "money for terrorist acts, money for subversion."
In his first media interview since arriving in the United States earlier this year, Posada again denied involved in the airliner explosion in a story published Tuesday by the Miami Herald.
"They accused me of being the intellectual author of fabricating a weapon of war and of treason to the homeland. No one saw me make a bomb," Posada said Wednesday in a two-hour interview at a luxury condominium in Miami. "Sincerely, I didn't know anything about it."
But he refused to confirm or deny playing a role in a series of 1997 bombings targeting Cuban tourist sites, including one that killed a young Italian tourist. "Let's leave it to history," he told the Herald.
Posada applied for political asylum after his March arrival in Miami following an illegal trip through Central America.
Castro has since waged a relentless campaign, appearing frequently on state TV in his most intense media battle since the one he launched in late 1999 after the boy Elian Gonzalez was found clinging to an inner tube off Florida's coast.
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