By JUAN O. TAMAYO
             Herald Staff Writer

             HAVANA -- State security officials testified Wednesday that the Cuban
             American National Foundation financed a campaign of bombings around Havana
             carried out by a Salvadoran man on trial for terrorism.

             But, testifying at the trial of Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, they offered no evidence
             against the foundation and only indirectly linked him to the exile who has admitted
             masterminding the 1997 blasts, Luis Posada Carriles.

             In Miami, a spokeswoman for the foundation said it is not worried by the
             accusations and has not kept close tabs on the trial.

             ``This regime has accused us of worse things,'' Ninoska Perez Castellon said.
             ``The foundation doesn't participate in that kind of activity. It's the type of activity
             that Castro's government used to get into power. What credibility does a
             government have that refused to let peaceful dissenters attend a trial just the other
             day, and now opened this trial to everyone?''

             Cruz Leon, who has confessed to planting six bombs, became ill and was rushed
             out of the courtroom as prosecutors played a video of him reenacting his actions.
             The trial went on without him.

             Havana officials have long alleged that the Cuban American National Foundation
             financed Posada's anti-Castro attacks, and prosecutors had said they would unveil
             new evidence at the Cruz Leon trial, which opened Monday and is expected to
             end this week.

             But, in contrast with the prosecution's meticulous presentation of hard evidence
             against the 27-year-old Salvadoran, the two state security officials who testified
             Wednesday only repeated the broad allegations against CANF.

             ``Behind all these acts is the Cuban American National Foundation and the Miami
             exile community,'' said Maj. Roberto Hernandez, an investigator for the State
             Security Department of the Interior Ministry.

             State security officials ``had independent information'' of Miami exile plans to
             launch a bombing campaign against tourism targets in Cuba in 1997, Hernandez
             added, giving no details.

             Capt. Francisco Estrada testified that Cruz Leon ``has always maintained that he
             does not know who was behind these actions'' beyond Francisco Chavez Abarca,
             the Salvadoran friend who offered him money to place the bombs.

             ``But we know . . . that Chavez Abarca was recruited directly by Posada Carriles
             to destroy our country,'' he said.

             Estrada added that a Salvadoran travel agent had identified the man who picked
             up Cruz Leon's airplane tickets to Cuba as a tall, older white male who mumbled
             when he spoke -- a description that fits the 68-year-old Posada, whose jaw was
             shattered in an assassination attempt several years ago.

             The Miami Herald first linked Posada to Cruz Leon and Chavez, and reported that
             the financing for the bombing campaign had come from a pool of donations made
             by a tight group of exiles in the United States. Posada later admitted to
             masterminding the bombings.

             To bolster the case for a broad conspiracy, Estrada played audio tapes of three
             phone calls that Cruz Leon made to Chavez and his brother, Mario, from Havana
             just days after he was arrested on Sept. 4 1997.

             Pretending he had been discovered and was in hiding, Cruz Leon urged Francisco
             Chavez to ``come and get me out,'' and asked Mario Chavez ``to send something
             from Miami, a boat, anything,'' to rescue him.

             Mario Chavez replied that Francisco ``has talked to his people and they can help
             you.'' Estrada did not say if the Chavez brothers or Posada ever took any step to
             rescue Cruz Leon.

             Hernandez also testified that the six bombings Cruz Leon carried out and three
             others were part of a coordinated campaign of terror designed to scare away
             foreign tourists, Cuba's single largest industry.

             The blasts at five hotels and one restaurant killed an Italian businessman and
             wounded seven other foreigners and several Cubans.

             All the devices used U.S.-made detonators and virtually the same type of
             U.S.-made C-4 plastic explosives, and eight of the nine used the same Casio
             brand calculators as timers.

             All the materials used in the explosives were brought in from abroad, Hernandez
             insisted, saying that investigators had even accounted for all 50 Casio calculators
             of the type used in the bombs ever imported to Cuba.

             ``At the beginning we looked for local participation in all this, and not the slightest
             evidence emerged,'' he said.

             Instead, Hernandez said, investigators found that ``this was an organization that
             used mercenaries from Central America for miserable pay.''

             ``But note that there's need for a lot of financing when the base of operations is in
             Miami,'' he said. ``And what organization in the exile can finance these activities,
             but for the Cuban American National Foundation?''

             Herald staff writer Damarys Ocaña contributed to this report.
 

                               Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald