A US judge’s dismissal of charges against Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban militant, after the emergence of “overwhelming” evidence that the US government manipulated the case has incensed both Venezuela and Cuba.

The former Central Intelligence Agency operative was on trial for lying to US immigration officials about how he entered the country after fleeing a Venezuelan prison where he was awaiting trial for the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976, which killed 73 people.