Venezuela, Cuba Ask UN to Probe US Release of Cuban Exile

Venezuela and Cuba have asked a United Nations committee to investigate the release on bail of a Cuban militant from a U.S. prison.

The governments in Caracas and Havana sent a letter Wednesday to the U.N.'s Counter-Terrorism Committee, urging it to examine the release of Luis Posada Carriles.

Venezuela and Cuba accuse the U.S. of "flagrantly violating" U.N. Security Council resolutions on counter-terrorism by releasing him.

Venezuela convicted the former U.S. intelligence operative of plotting the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada Carriles denies the charge. He escaped a Venezuelan prison in 1985.

Posada Carriles has been in U.S. custody since 2005 for alleged immigration offenses. A U.S. court released him on bail last week ahead of his trial on May 11.

Posada Carriles was born in Cuba and is a naturalized Venezuelan citizen.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.