BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A federal jury Wednesday acquitted five
Cuban exiles
accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro, a bitter defeat for
U.S. efforts to crack
down on anti-Castro conspiracies.
In a stunning finale to the 14-day trial, two jurors later said
the verdict was a
``message to the Cuban people, embraced the defendants and went
off to
celebrate with them at a popular Cuban restaurant.
Defendant Jose Antonio Llama, on the board of directors of the
Cuban American
National Foundation, sobbed openly and vowed that the verdict
would invigorate
``our efforts to continue to get freedom for our country.
``Not even the United States can control the minds and spirits
of the people who
want to fight for their country, said Llama, 68, a Miami businessman.
``This is not
the end. This is just the beginning again.
Asked if the acquittals might encourage new exile plots, prosecutor
Scott Glick
said only that the government ``will seek to continue to enforce
the law.
But the verdict was clearly a blow to the government, trying for
the first time to
prosecute a plot to kill the Cuban leader.
Prosecutors had hoped that holding the trial in Puerto Rico would
give them a
better shot at convictions than in Miami, where juries regularly
acquit anti-Castro
plotters.
Llama, Angel Alfonso, Francisco Cordova, Angel Hernandez and Jose
Rodriguez-Sosa would have faced up to life in prison if convicted
on the
assassination conspiracy charge.
FREE AND SINGING
Instead of going to jail, they walked out of the federal courthouse
singing the
Cuban national anthem and accompanied by about 30 leading members
of the
Cuban community in Puerto Rico.
Glick tried throughout the trial to keep Cuban politics out of
what he called ``a
simple conspiracy case. Even if Castro is a ``brutal dictator,
he said, U.S. laws
protect him from assassins.
CUBA DEEDS CITED
But defense lawyers hammered away at the theme, bringing in witnesses
to
testify about Cuban abuses of political prisoners, its 1994 ramming
of a tugboat in
which some 40 would-be-refugees drowned and the 1996 shoot-down
of two
Brothers to the Rescue airplanes.
Comments made after the verdict by jury foreman Carlos Avila,
27, an accountant,
and juror Mayra Massa showed that dislike for Castro and his
government played
a significant role in the jury's vote.
``This was a message to the Cuban people that we're with you,
and not to lose
hope, Avila said after he embraced several defendants and defense
lawyers
outside Judge Hector Laffitte's courtroom.
``Since the prosecutors did not present conclusive evidence, we
wanted to send a
message to the [Cuban] nation not to lose hope, that we in Puerto
Rico are united
with them and that God exists, Collazo said.
MISCALCULATION?
An exultant Miami defense attorney Jose Quiñon said the
acquittals showed
prosecutors had underestimated the animosity toward Castro even
in Puerto Rico.
``This is what happens when the government comes into court to
defend Fidel
Castro, Quiñon said. ``And every time they move to defend
Fidel Castro, we will
be there to knock them down.
But Avila and Massa also said prosecutors simply had not presented
enough
evidence to prove the accused conspired to shoot Castro when
he visited the
Venezuelan island of Margarita in 1997.
The defendants admitted they had planned to sneak into Margarita
but only to
stage peaceful protests and spirit away possible defectors from
Castro's retinue.
Four defendants were arrested in Puerto Rico aboard the Miami-registered
yacht
Esperanza after Coast Guard searchers found two .50-caliber rifles
hidden on the
boat. Alfonso confessed to a plot to kill Castro when arrested,
but only a fraction
of his statements were admitted as evidence.
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