Cuban-born ex-CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles hospitalized after crash

MIAMI – Former CIA agent and anti-Communist activist Luis Posada Carriles was hospitalized after he crashed his car into a lamp post and flipped the vehicle, the El Nuevo Herald reported Wednesday.

A fierce opponent of Cuba’s Communist regime, Posada Carriles broke his collar bone and cracked several ribs in the accident, his attorney told the Spanish-language newspaper.

“He’s not seriously injured, but at the age of 87 any type of accident or incident could be dangerous,” attorney Arturo Hernández told the newspaper.

Cuban officials accuse Posada Carriles of masterminding the downing of a Cuban jet off Barbados in 1976 that killed 73 people.

Havana also says that he was behind several assassination plots against former President Fidel Castro, and was involved in a 1997 Havana hotel bombing that killed an Italian tourist.

In the accident, Posada Carriles said he drove off the highway to avoid an oncoming car, then crashed into the lamp post and flipped his vehicle.

The aged former asset, who according to declassified U.S. documents worked for the CIA from 1965 to 1976, has been in the hospital since Aug. 27.

A Cuban-born Venezuelan national, Posada Carriles was jailed in Venezuela in 1976 for his alleged role in the Cuban jet crash, but escaped in 1985. He was then sentenced to eight years in jail in Panama for a 2000 bomb plot to assassinate Castro. He served four years before being pardoned.

U.S. officials have refused to extradite Posada Carriles to either Cuba or Venezuela, despite extradition requests, on grounds that he could be tortured.