From Herald Staff and Wire Reports

 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- In a blow to prosecutors Wednesday, the judge in the
 trial of six Cuban exiles accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro threw out the
 conspiracy case against one exile and a Miami firm.

 Miami businessman Alfredo Otero, 64, ``is very relieved that he was cleared, said
 Miami attorney Jose Quiñon, his lawyer in the first U.S. prosecution of anyone on
 charges of conspiring to assassinate the Cuban president.

 Also cleared was Nautical Sports, the Miami firm that owns the 46-foot yacht
 Esperanza, where four of the defendants were arrested in 1997. The firm is owned
 by one of the remaining defendants, Jose Antonio Llama.

 SAILING TRIP

 Judge Hector Laffitte ruled that prosecutors Miguel Pereira and Scott Glick had
 not presented enough evidence against Otero or Nautical Sports before they
 wound up their case Tuesday.

 Prosecutors say the defendants were planning to sail the Esperanza to the
 Venezuelan island of Margarita and use two rifles found hidden on the yacht to
 shoot at Castro when he visited the island in 1997.

 Defense lawyers say the exiles were only going to Margarita to stage peaceful
 protests against the Cuban president and spirit away any possible defectors from
 his delegation.

 TRIAL FIGURES

 Still on trial are Llama, Angel Alfonso, Jose Rodriguez-Sosa, Angel Hernandez
 and Francisco Cordova. Llama, a Miami businessman, is a member of the board
 of directors of the Cuban American National Foundation. The trial of another
 defendant, Juan Marquez, was put off because he is suffering from cancer.

 The defense opened its case Wednesday by calling to the stand Lazaro
 Betancourt, a Cuban Interior Ministry captain who was part of Castro's security
 detail at Margarita and defected in April in the Dominican Republic.

 Betancourt kept jurors and spectators on the edge of their seats with his
 descriptions of the extremely tight security around Castro.