By JUAN O. TAMAYO
             Herald Staff Writer

             A second Salvadoran man arrested in Havana in a string of bombings
             masterminded by a Cuban exile was chief of security at a business conglomerate
             and had no known political leanings, officials in San Salvador said Monday.

             One of the officials added that the Salvadoran government learned of the arrest of
             Otto Rene Rodriguez Llereno, 40, sometime in June from ``friends in the U.S.
             Embassy there.

             Guatemalan government spokesmen, meanwhile, said they knew nothing about the
             three unidentified Guatemalans who Cuban President Fidel Castro said were also
             arrested in the bombing spree against tourism centers in the summer of 1997.

             Castro told a group of U.S. newspaper executives visiting Havana on Saturday
             that the four would-be bombers had been sent by Luis Posada Carriles, 70, a
             longtime militant exile who has admitted arranging the bombings.

             Posada, a CIA-trained explosives expert, has lived semi-secretly in El Salvador
             since he escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985 while awaiting trial in the bombing
             of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people.

             `Unofficial channels'

             Salvadoran Interior Minister Mario Acosta told the newspaper MAS that his
             government learned of Rodriguez's arrest just recently through ``unofficial channels
             because El Salvador and Cuba have no diplomatic relations.

             But another official said the U.S. Embassy tipped off the government in July,
             ``about one month after Rodriguez's arrest, which we believe took place around
             June 10.

             Embassy officials could not be reached for comment. Washington ordered its
             Central American embassies in August to make it clear to their host governments
             that Posada was not a U.S. ``protege despite his CIA background.

             A senior Cuban official, Ramiro Abreu, later confirmed Rodriguez's arrest during
             an unpublicized visit to San Salvador, a Salvadoran government official added.

             Rodriguez, 40, was security chief for the Roble Group, a business conglomerate
             owned by the wealthy Poma family, and had no known military or political
             background, said one knowledgeable official in San Salvador.

             Guatemala to Cuba

             Emigration records show Rodriguez left June 10 on a flight to Guatemala and
             presumably flew from there to Cuba, the MAS newspaper reported.

             Salvadoran officials said they found no link between Rodriguez and Posada or the
             other Salvadoran jailed in Havana for the bombings, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon.
             Cuba announced Cruz Leon's arrest in September 1997.

             Cruz Leon's younger brother, William, said he did not know Rodriguez. The two
             families own houses a half mile apart in a middle-class San Salvador suburb, but
             Rodriguez's house has been rented for several years.

             Posada has confirmed publicly that he offered Cruz Leon money to set off some of
             the dozen bombs that wracked Cuba last year, killing an Italian tourist and
             sparking rumors of a menacing internal opposition to Castro.

             He could not be reached for comment on Castro's claims, but The Herald
             reported June 6 that Posada had told exile friends that Cuban police had arrested
             two of his bomb smugglers besides Cruz Leon.

             Smuggled explosives

             The Herald reported that Posada had plotted to smuggle plastic explosives from
             Guatemala to Cuba in the fall of 1997, hiding them in baby diapers, shampoo
             bottles and the shoes of Guatemalan ``tourists.

             Exiles said Posada told them that a third bomb carrier was arrested in similar
             circumstances around June -- which could fit Rodriguez's apparent arrest June 10.

             During a six-hour meeting with the newspaper executives, Castro also repeated
             Havana's allegation that Posada was financed by the Cuban American National
             Foundation. The anti-Castro lobby has denied the charge.

             The arrests reported by Castro brought to at least eight the total of foreigners and
             Cuban exiles known to be held in Havana on charges of plotting or staging
             terrorists attacks. They are:

               Two Salvadorans.

               Three Guatemalans.

               Cuban exiles Armando Martinez Rueda and Jorge Enrique Ramirez, reportedly
             arrested in 1996 after they flew to Havana using false Costa Rican passports.
             Nothing more is known about them.

               Coral Gables handyman Walter Van Der Veer, sentenced to 15 years in prison
             last year on charges of possessing incendiary devices and trying to promote violent
             attacks against the Castro government.
 

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