MIAMI (Reuters) -- Prosecutors have asked a judge in Puerto Rico to
                  reconsider a decision to move the trial of seven Cuban exiles accused of
                  plotting to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro to southern Florida, a hotbed of
                  anti-Castro politics.

                  In court documents filed in San Juan on Wednesday, the U.S.

                  Department of Justice asked Puerto Rico U.S. District Judge Hector Laffitte
                  to reconsider his decision to move the trial from the U.S. Caribbean
                  territory.

                  The boat containing four of the alleged plotters was heading to Puerto Rico
                  when it was stopped in October 1997 with sniper rifles, ammunition and
                  other military supplies.

                  "Contrary to the impression the defendants sought to convey in the Court,
                  approximately half of the overt acts... occurred outside of Miami," the
                  16-page motion said.

                  Federal prosecutors charge that the seven men plotted to kill the Cuban
                  leader during the November 1997 Ibero-American summit on Margarita
                  Island off Venezuela.

                  The debate over the trial's venue highlighted the difficulty of finding an
                  impartial jury in the Miami area, where many of an estimated 800,000
                  Cuban-American residents consider plotting to kill Castro a heroic act, not a
                  crime.

                  WIOD-AM, a Miami radio station, responded to news of the government's
                  appeal by polling its listeners on whether they thought it would be possible to
                  find an impartial jury in Miami. Results of that poll were not expected before
                  late on Thursday.

                  Ricardo Pesquera, an Orlando, Florida, attorney representing Angel
                  Alfonso, said he did not believe a trial in Miami would be an advantage to
                  the defence and slammed the government for seeking to remain in Puerto
                  Rico.

                  "I think that's ridiculous and it's an insult to the people that would be
                  eventually trying this case. We're confident that we can win this case
                  anywhere," he said.

                  "These are very, very serious charges," he said. "...They should be in a
                  position to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, anywhere, any
                  state, any jurisdiction."

                  In issuing his ruling granting the defence motion for a venue change, Laffitte
                  said most of the activities in the alleged plot to kill Castro had taken place in
                  southern Florida.

                  "It was hatched, nurtured and fledged from the Southern District of Florida,"
                  he wrote.

                  Five of the seven suspects live in Miami; one is from Marathon, in the
                  Florida Keys south of Miami, and another is from Union City, N.J., a
                  community outside New York City that like Miami is home to many Cuban
                  exiles who vehemently oppose Castro's Communist government.

                  During the raid, one of the men on board the boat, Alfonso, allegedly blurted
                  out that the weapons were to be used to kill Castro.

                  Besides Alfonso, the seven Cuban-Americans facing charges include the
                  three other men on board the boat-- Angel Hernandez Rojo, Juan Bautista
                  Marquez and Francisco Secundino Cordova. All four were charged with
                  conspiracy to kill an internationally protected person.

                  The other three-- Jose Rodriguez, Alfredo Domingo Otero and Jose
                  Antonio Llama-- are charged with complicity in the assassination plot.

                   Copyright 1999 Reuters.