Posada May Participate in Chavez Assassination

The United States released Luis Posada Carriles either to kill him or to give him a new mission, which might be the assassination of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan Higher Education Minister Hector Navarro said on Friday.

The only explanation to release Posada Carriles is to kill him, because they know how to do it, and prevent him from talking about his dirty deals with the US government, or he was given a new mission, Navarro told Venezolana de Television.

The Venezuelan minister recalled that the recently released terrorist is responsible for the deaths of 73 people on board a Cuban civilian plane in 1976. He has contacts with criminals all over the world and knows how to get C-4 explosive.

In particular, Navarro pointed out that Posada Carriles, who was a member of the DISIP (Venezuela's political police), still has relations with officers from that repressive corps, who are also CIA operatives.

He added that many of those CIA agents are still living in Venezuela, participated in the 2002 coup d'etat against President Chavez and can be key elements in a plot to assassinate the head of State.

Navarro noted that in addition to the sabotage of the plane off Barbados, Posada Carriles is responsible for assassinating and torturing Venezuelans during the time he was known as DISIP's "Commissar Basilio" and headed repressive activities against left-wing movements.