A Cuban exile accused of planning the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 73 people is set to make an appearance before an immigration judge in the United States.
today.
Luis Posada Carriles faces charges that he entered the United States illegally earlier this year. His case has sparked an international battle, with several Latin American and Caribbean governments demanding his deportation and retrial as a terrorist in Venezuela.
A staunch foe of Fidel Castro, Mr Posada Carriles is not charged with a crime in the United States, but could be deported - especially as the Bush administration is holding other governments to account for harbouring terrorists.
Mr Posada Carriles, a naturalised Venezuelan citizen who was arrested in Miami last month, has claimed he sneaked into the country from Mexico in mid-March; he has been held in a federal detention centre in El Paso since shortly after his arrest.
A one-time CIA operative and former Venezuelan security official, Mr Posada Carriles has been accused of planning the 1976 attack on a Cuban jetliner in Caracas. He has repeatedly denied involvement in the bombing.
He was twice acquitted in Venezuela of charges related to the bombing that killed 73 people when the plane crashed off the coast of Barbados. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 as a prosecutor's appeal was pending.
Mr Posada Carriles later surfaced in El Salvador, where he worked as part of a US effort to give weapons from Iran to Contras trying to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government.
The Venezuelan government last month requested his provisional arrest, which was denied by US officials because of lack of information. Venezuela sent additional information to the US State Department on Friday.