By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
El Paso Times
 
Luis Posada Carriles, the alleged terrorist in immigration detention in El Paso and a man who once allegedly tried to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, said Monday that recently released film of Castro aimed at dispelling rumors that Castro is on his deathbed misses its goal.

"I have seen the video, yes. I think he looks horrible. Moribund, I would say. Ready to die," he said in a brief phone interview form the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center on Montana Avenue in El Paso.

Posada, 78, has been at the center for more than a year after illegally entering the United States, allegedly through Mexico. He is awaiting a decision, possibly this week, by a federal judge to release him while the government finds a safe country to deport him.

From behind bars, Posada has been following closely the recent development in Cuba, his lawyers have said.

In July, the 80-year-old Castro ceded power to his brother Raul, following intestinal surgery. Over the weekend, a video and photographs of Castro mocked rumors of his death.

Posada, who devoted his life to combating Castro, said Castro's death is around the corner and predicted it would trigger the prompt end of communism in Cuba.

"They will not be able to keep control. Raul will not be able to keep control. There will be confusion, military in the streets," he said.

An El Paso immigration judge decided that Posada could not be deported to his native Cuba, nor to Venezuela, his country of citizenship because he would risk torture there.

Posada, a former CIA operative, is wanted in Venezuela on charges of plotting the Oct. 6, 1976, bombing of a Cuban airplane that killed 73 people. He denies any involvement. He has reportedly admitted involvement in a string of hotel bombings in Cuba in 1997 and in a plot to kill Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000.

Last month, a federal judge in El Paso recommended that the government release Posada while it tries to find a country to take him. The decision now rests in the hands of another El Paso judge, U.S. District Judge Philip Martinez, who has not made a ruling in the case.
 

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.

The Associated Presscontributed to this story.