Strategy: Threat justified spying

 BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

 In 1993 and 1994, law officers stopped Orlando Suárez and his buddies from Alpha 66 -- the oldest Cuban exile paramilitary organization in Miami -- and found their boats
 crammed with machine guns, ammunition and other weapons.

 Suárez, 69, testified in the Cuban spy trial Monday that those ``military preparations'' reflected the real Alpha 66 -- a group of people who trained ``like in a camp with
 weapons'' but did so as ``a way to remain active. It's nothing to do with sabotage anywhere.''

 FBI Agent George Kiszynski had a different take. For some 17 years, he investigated Alpha 66 and other anti-Castro militants for alleged weapons smuggling into Cuba
 and other potential federal violations.

 In a new phase of the defense, lawyer Joaquín Méndez on Monday switched the spotlight from Brothers to the Rescue, a pilot rescue group, to Miami's militant exile
 organizations, some of which have been linked to violent acts against Cuban hotels and other tourist spots.

 DEFENSE STRATEGY

 The defense strategy: to highlight repeated U.S.-launched terror attacks against Cuban territory that were pursued unsuccessfully, or not at all, by U.S. prosecutors and
 to justify infiltration of exile groups as a way to protect Cuban soil and people from attack.

 The five accused spies on trial do not deny being agents of the Cuban government. But they say their targets were exile groups -- not military bases as the government
 charges.

 Outside the jury's presence, the lead prosecutor told the judge the defense strategy smacks of vigilantism and is akin to ``running a Charles Bronson movie in this
 courtroom.'' The judge disagreed.

 Jurors heard testimony about four incidents between 1993 and 1997 in which exiles linked to Alpha 66 were stopped in their boats in the Keys or Puerto Rico and found to
 have weapons on board.

 Alpha 66 supports the overthrow of Fidel Castro, Cuba's leader, and a banner over the door at the group's Little Havana headquarters says, ``Irregular Warfare in Cuba the
 Only Solution.''

 Suárez, a witness who belonged to Alpha 66 for about six years, was among nine members prosecuted for federal weapons violations in the 1993 case, which started
 May 20 that year with arrests at the Sunshine Key marina. Found on board: machine guns, semiautomatic rifles, ammunition, knives, hand grenades and a grenade
 launcher.

 All nine men were acquitted.

 Méndez was prepared to call two other co-defendants from the 1993 case as witnesses. But lead prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller warned outside the jury's presence that
 the men's testimony could lead to racketeering conspiracy charges if they deliver incriminating testimony for the defense.

 Méndez called it an empty threat because the men have been acquitted and some of the incidents happened eight years ago. He said their testimony helps form his
 defense.

 ``These individuals are involved in a long-term pattern of incursions against the Cuban government,'' Heck responded.

 FIFTH AMENDMENT

 The issue came up when Miller argued some Alpha 66 members may claim their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination even though Méndez said his
 questioning would avoid that possibility.

 If the government plans to prosecute now, Méndez protested, ``I think we have to wonder what they've been doing for six years.''

 Méndez said military exiles regularly conducted armed missions ``with impunity. It's a revolving door, nothing happens, and that's why these people [the co-defendants]
 are here keeping an eye on them [militant exiles].''

 The witnesses with possible Fifth Amendment claims were postponed to give U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard time to consider the arguments.

 Customs Agent Marco Rocco testified that in a separate incident in October 1997, after he helped search a weapons-laden boat in Puerto Rico, exile Angel Alfonso told
 him the weapons ``would be used to kill Fidel Castro.''

 In December 1999, a federal jury acquitted Alfonso and four other Cuban exiles accused of plotting to kill Castro. Charges were dropped against two other exiles and a
 Miami firm.