Shadowy figure probed in anti-Castro plot as Latin American leaders meet

PANAMA CITY, Panama - A polite dispute over a resolution against terrorism spiraled into an argument drenched in civil-war bitterness as Cuba's Fidel Castro and El Salvador's leader hurled allegations at the close of a summit on Saturday.

''What you have done here is intolerable,'' Salvadoran President Francisco Flores told Castro, accusing him of ''cruel, bloody responsibility'' for involvement in El Salvador's civil war.

Castro expressed anger that the anti-terrorism measure sponsored by El Salvador and Mexico expressed sympathy for Spain - wracked by violence associated with the Basque separatist movement - but did not mention Cuba, even though Panamanian officials had just detained a man Castro accused of trying to assassinate him.

''None of you have had to run the risks that the president of the Republic of Cuba does each time he appears,'' Castro lectured the leaders of 19 other Latin American nations, plus those of Spain and Portugal, who were attending the Ibero-American Summit.

He charged that several nations had cooperated with or failed to stop those trying to overthrow his government and said the man detained on Friday, Luis Posada Carriles, ''comes from El Salvador, whose government knows perfectly well that he lives there.''

Flores took that as an insult, and in turn accused Castro of involvement in the deaths of ''tens of thousands'' of Salvadorans during El Salvador's civil war, which ended in 1992.

Castro admitted training rebels from many countries, saying ''interrevolutionary support is a tradition,'' but insisted he had stopped such aid when other countries stopped trying to isolate Cuba.

Other presidents tried to cut off the seemingly out-of-control debate. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez appealed for ''unity and brotherhood'' as the session finally ended, hours behind schedule.

On the summit's theme issue, the presidents vowed to devote more resources to children. Chavez suggested that international lenders grant partial debt relief to poor countries in exchange for investments in schools, hospitals or other social projects.

Posada was detained Friday evening a few hours after the Cuban leader accused him of plotting an assassination.

Police Chief Carlos Bares said police had 24 hours to charge or release Posada, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting retrial on charges of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73 people.

Bares said no weapons were found with Posada or three other people detained with him at a Panama City hotel. He said Posada had been using a Salvadoran passport in the name of Franco Rodriguez Mena. He did not identify the others detained.

Castro claimed Posada was working for the Miami-based Cuban-American National Foundation, which immediately denied any connection with Posada.

Born in 1928, according to Cuban sources, Posada fled Cuba after the 1959 revolution led by Castro and was involved in U.S.-backed efforts to topple the communist government.

After working at least briefly for the CIA, Posada went to Venezuela where he rose to become director of operations for the country's intelligence agency, which was monitoring leftist rebels. He lost the job after a change in the presidency in 1974.

Prosecutors accused him of masterminding the October 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviacion jetliner. He was acquitted twice, but officials were making a third try to convict him when he escaped from prison in 1985. Venezuelan officials say he still faces charges there.

After Posada's escape, he allegedly helped send guns to the U.S.-backed Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Honduran officials also have identified him as the associate of an alleged arms dealer in that country.

The Miami Herald reported in 1998 that he had been living off and on in El Salvador and had close ties with current or retired military figures in the region. Salvadoran officials said in 1998 they were unable to locate him.

In a 1998 interview with The New York Times, Posada was quoted as admitting involvement in the bombing of hotels in Cuba in 1997. A Salvadoran man who planted one of the bombs, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, was sentenced to death for killing an Italian tourist.