An attorney representing the Venezuelan government said Luis Posada Carriles could be called to testify in a Cuban spy ring case -- if the exile militant is neither deported nor extradited.

By ROBERT L. STEINBACK

José Pertierra, a Washington lawyer representing the Venezuelan government, said in Miami on Sunday that if Luis Posada Carriles is neither deported nor extradited to Venezuela the Cuban exile militant could end up testifying in the retrial of five Cuban spies whose convictions were recently reversed on appeal.

''The five were sent [from Cuba] to penetrate extremist organizations in the United States that were financing the campaign of terror -- bombings [in Cuba] that Posada Carriles was organizing with money from Miami and the support of organizations in Miami,'' Pertierra said after addressing about 60 people, mostly sympathizers of the so-called Cuban Five.

It isn't clear, however, just how closely the two cases are connected.

Pertierra said the five convicted spies -- Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, René González and Antonio Guerrero -- were sent to Miami because of the 1997 bombings. But FBI documents indicated the Cuban agents had been under surveillance in Miami since at least 1994.

In an interview with the New York Times in 1998, Posada acknowledged organizing the 1997 Cuba bombings.

But at hearings in El Paso last month, Posada denied the report saying he misunderstood the questions.

Matthew Archambeault, one of Posada's attorneys, said that even if his client were subpoenaed for the retrial, the likelihood that he would reveal anything substantive was remote.

''Calling him is one thing, but having him actually testify and do anything other than take the Fifth Amendment is another thing,'' Archambeault said. Posada ``is unwilling to testify against the U.S. government in his own trial so it's unlikely he'd do so for them.''

The 77-year-old exile, detained in Miami-Dade County on May 17, is awaiting a judge's ruling on his request for protection in the United States.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 26 in El Paso, Texas, where he is being held.