EFE

January 2, 2007

Hugo Chavez sends complete works of Bolivar to Fidel Castro 

Havana, Jan 2 (EFE)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent an edition of the complete works of South American liberator Simon Bolivar to Fidel Castro on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, state-run media reported here Tuesday. 

The leftist Venezuelan leader also sent Castro "Venezuelan carvings and artesanal works," biographies of Bolivar and of national hero Francisco de Miranda, and several books on Venezuelan geography, according to Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party.

The gifts were sent "together with wishes for (Castro's) rapid recovery and big congratulations to him and the Cuban people" for Monday's anniversary, the daily said. 

Castro has remained in convalescence since July 31 when he announced the delegation of his duties after undergoing surgery for an illness whose exact nature remains a "state secret." 

"In a very special way, President Chavez sent his dear brother in the struggle a competition jersey from one of the members of the Cuban fencing team" who were among the 73 people killed in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, Granma said. 

The newspaper said Chavez received the jersey from the president of the Venezuelan fencing federation, who had competed against the Cuban team in 1976. 

A Cuban airliner left Guyana headed for Cuba and exploded in mid-air off the coast of Barbados on Oct. 6, 1976 with 73 people aboard.  Caracas and Havana have repeatedly accused anti-Castro militants Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch of masterminding the terrorist attack and Venezuelans Hernan Ricardo and Freddy Lugo of carrying it out. 

Posada Carriles, a Cuban-born Venezuelan citizen, was detained in the United States on immigration charges in May 2005 and is wanted in Venezuela, from where he escaped in 1985 to avoid being tried for his presumed role in the the attack. 

Washington has not accepted the extradition request presented by Venezuela, while Posada remains in custody at a Texas prison waiting for his immigration status to be resolved.  Bosch, meanwhile, was granted U.S. citizenship by President George H.W. Bush and now resides in Miami