As Castro arrival nears, Dominicans expel Miami man

             By JUAN O. TAMAYO
             Herald Staff Writer

             SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- In the wake of reported plots to kill
             Fidel Castro during a Caribbean summit here, Dominican officials Wednesday
             expelled a Cuban exile who is from Miami and paid special attention to others
             arriving.

             Local radio and television have carried several reports of ultra-tight security
             because of published reports about exile plots to kill the Cuban president during
             the summit, which begins today.

             Immigration officials at Santo Domingo's international airport were seen checking
             the names of Cuban-born arrivals against a one-page typed list of exiles
             considered worthy of special monitoring.

             One Miami exile on the list, Fernando Canto, flew back to South Florida
             Wednesday after Dominican officials refused him permission to stay longer in La
             Romana, a resort town east of Santo Domingo.

             Canto charged that two Havana security agents and a Dominican police lieutenant
             had interrogated him for 2 1/2 hours this weekend when he flew from Miami to La
             Romana to visit a factory he owns there.

             He was eventually allowed to enter the country but was ordered to leave by
             Wednesday even though he is a legal resident of the Dominican Republic because
             of his businesses here, Canto told reporters Wednesday in La Romana.

             Contacted before the Canto case became known, the head of the country's FBI
             confirmed that security agents at airports have a list of exile ``activists in the
             anti-Castro cause'' but said no one would be blocked from entering.

             ``This is simply vigilance. No one has been turned back, and no one has been
             arrested. But it is logical that we take precautions and monitor some people,'' said
             Gen. Sigfrido Pared Perez, head of the National Investigations Directorate.

             Dominican radio reported that two Cuban airplanes landed Wednesday carrying
             several bomb-sniffing dogs and about 100 Cuban security agents, and metal
             detectors were deployed at the seaside hotel where the summit will be held.

             But security at the airport appeared only slightly less lax than usual, with inspectors
             barely touching the suitcases of two Cuban Americans who arrived Tuesday.

             Castro and 16 other Caribbean heads of government will meet today through
             Saturday to discuss a number of regional issues, but the Cuban president is
             expected to stay on another two days.

             The Herald reported on Aug. 9 that Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile
             implicated in several terror attacks, and three Miami exiles were plotting to
             assassinate Castro during the summit. And last month, the U.S. Embassy in the
             Santo Domingo warned of possible terrorist threats to airliners flying between the
             Dominican Republic and Cuba.

             Pro- and anti-Castro groups that have been girding for weeks for Castro's first
             visit to the Dominican Republic clashed Wednesday in a brief melee while several
             policemen stood nearby. Members of the minuscule Force of the Revolution, a
             communist party, attacked a group of Cuban exiles who tried to talk to the media
             in downtown Santo Domingo.

             Force members also plastered posters of Castro for several blocks around the
             Jaragua hotel, where Castro and the other leaders will stay and meet.

             ``Leader of America, welcome to the Dominican Republic,'' say some of the
             posters.

             Meanwhile, Cuban exiles living here have been holding news conferences and
             sending faxes to reporters saying that Cubans lack the freedoms that Dominicans
             enjoy -- a free press and a multiparty democracy among them.

             ``We want to show Dominicans who don't understand that he is the problem,'' said
             Mario Rivadulla, journalist and former president of the Association of Cubans in
             the Dominican Republic.

             But the bulk of the people preparing for Castro's visit in fact were Ministry of
             Public Works crews ordered to tidy up the capital city of Santo Domingo and the
             towns that Castro will visit after the summit.

             Workers have trimmed trees, filled potholes, replaced burned-out street and traffic
             lights and picked up some of the garbage along the route from the airport to the
             Jaragua Hotel.

             Dominican newspapers reported the crews also gave a new coat of paint to a
             house in the northwest coastal city of Montecristi where Jose Marti, hero of the
             Cuban war of independence from Spain, stayed in 1895.

             Castro is expected to visit Montecristi and Bani, a town 40 miles west of Santo
             Domingo, after the summit ends, although his exact schedule is being kept secret
             for security reasons.