By JUAN O. TAMAYO
             Herald Staff Writer

             HAVANA -- Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon is a heartless anti-Castro terrorist who
             detonates bombs near children at play. Or he's a Sylvester Stallone wannabe who
             never meant to kill an Italian businessman.

             Those competing images of the 27-year-old Salvadoran emerged Tuesday on the
             second day of Cruz Leon's trial on charges that he bombed five Havana hotels and
             a restaurant in 1997.

             Cuban government TV is broadcasting unusually detailed coverage of the trial,
             including references to two April 1997 bombs at Havana's Melia Cohiba Hotel
             that officials had never before confirmed.

             The fanfare over the terror attacks -- allegedly masterminded by Cuban exiles --
             appeared designed to justify the Havana government's tough crackdown on
             domestic opponents last month that sparked broad condemnation abroad.

             Cruz Leon has confessed to the six bombings he is charged with, and could face
             the death penalty by firing squad if prosecutor Rafael Pino can prove that he is
             something worse than the naive adventurer he claims to be.

             Pino called about 25 witnesses before the court Tuesday to show that the bombs
             had not only killed businessman Fabio di Celmo, 32, and wounded 11 other
             people, but had struck at the very heart of Cuban society.

             ``In Cuba no member of my generation has ever experienced this,'' said Lilian
             Cabeza, a tour guide in her early 30s who was working at the Hotel Capri when a
             bomb ripped through the lobby on July 12, 1997.

             ``We are accustomed to security,'' a shaken Cabeza testified. ``This is a sensation
             that no Cuban has experienced for the past 30 years.''

             Pino also hammered away at Cruz Leon, weaving a meticulous web of evidence
             that showed him as a wanton terrorist who set off bombs in hotel lobbies crowded
             with people.

             He repeatedly asked witnesses about the 200 children who were attending a party
             at the Capri when the bomb went off, and whether they had experienced ``panic''
             in the wake of the blasts.

             Marisol Visoza, a young woman who was sitting about three feet from the bomb
             that Cruz Leon confessed to detonating at the Nacional Hotel on July 12, showed
             the court a long scar where a piece of shrapnel gouged her left cheek.

             Cruz Leon was sitting near her just five minutes before the timed bomb went off,
             she testified, ``and he could have said something, to move or something. But now
             my face is scarred for my whole life.''

             Defense attorney Daniel Rippe got one witness to acknowledge that the children
             were in a room far from the blast and escaped injury, but spent much time
             questioning three state psychiatrists who interviewed Cruz Leon.

             They described the Salvadoran, who claims he carried out the bombings for
             money and not politics, as an imaginative young man who once compared himself
             to Stallone in The Specialist, a movie about an explosives expert.

             During one interview Cruz Leon described himself as ``a crazy adventurer'' given
             to risky activities like parachuting and motorcycle racing, psychiatrist Ernesto
             Perez Gonzalez said.

             Rippe pounced on the comment, asking him whether Cruz Leon's adventurous
             streak could have kept him from a proper understanding of the risks that he ran
             setting off bombs in Cuba. The island's state security agents are notoriously
             efficient.

             ``It could have indeed affected his decision -- like any character trait in any person
             affects their decisions,'' Perez said. ``But we found absolutely no trace of any
             abnormal mental problems.''

             Prosecution officials said their promised evidence on allegations that the
             Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation and exile bomber Luis
             Posada Carriles were behind the bombings would be unveiled today or Thursday,
             which is expected to be the last day of the trial.
 

                               Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald