August 15, 2001. The
Miami Herald
INS frees 2nd Cuban exile convicted in fatal 1976 D.C. bombing
Posted at 9:17 a.m. EDT Wednesday, August 15, 2001
BRADENTON, Fla. -- (AP) -- A second Cuban exile who took part in a
car-bombing that killed a former Chilean ambassador in Washington in 1976 has
been freed from federal custody.
Jose Dionisio Suarez Esquivel, 62, walked out of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service jail in Bradenton Tuesday after serving eight years of a
12-year prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for the
bombing.
"This is a fantastic day because I'm going to embrace my family and my
children,'' said the 62-year-old Suarez.
Killed in the Sept. 21, 1976 blast were Orlando Letelier and his American
aide, Ronni Moffitt. Moffitt's husband, who was in the back seat, was injured.
Letelier served as Chile's ambassador to Washington and foreign minister and
defense minister in the 1970s under socialist President Salvador Allende, whose
friendly relations with Cuban President Fidel Castro earned him the enmity of
Cuban exiles.
Letelier had remained in Washington after Pinochet's 1973 coup overthrew
Allende.
The assassination was the work of the Chilean secret police, DINA, and
carried out by Cuban exiles, prosecutors said. DINA wanted Letelier eliminated
as a leading critic of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military regime.
Prosecutors charged that Suarez, Virgilio Paz Romero and another man went to
Letelier's home in suburban Bethesda, Md., to plant the bomb, which was
detonated in Washington.
Suarez was paroled in 1997 but held in the INS lockup while awaiting
deportation. However, the U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled that indefinite
detentions were unconstitutional.
Paz Romero was released from the Bradenton detention center last month after
being held since May 1998 under similar circumstances.
Pilot ordered by couple to Cuba says he felt excitement, then fear
By Jennifer Babson, jbabson@herald.com. Posted at 9:19 a.m.
EDT Wednesday, August 15, 2001
A Key West pilot who ditched his plane in the Florida Straits after he says
he was hijacked and ordered to fly to Cuba by a couple buying an amorous "mile-high''
flight said Tuesday that his initial excitement at the prospect of visiting the
island quickly turned to fear moments after the hijacking.
"The fact of going to Cuba, I didn't really have a problem with. You
worry about getting shot down, you worry about landing on the beach,'' said
Thomas Hayashi, 36. "The people were so passionate about what they believed
in, why else would somebody hijack an airplane? That's a big set of b---s there,
that's a huge set, and if somebody feels so strongly about it, I didn't really
have a problem with doing it.''
Hayashi's version of Thursday's events has raised some questions, although
investigators are not believed to have found evidence contradicting it.
No missing persons have been linked to Hayashi's description of his
hijackers, nor have any witnesses come forward saying they spotted the couple in
Key West -- or anywhere else -- the day of the hijacking.
Hayashi says that shortly after the male passenger -- who said his name was
Juan -- turned the plane's avionics off, pulled out a pocketknife and ordered
the plane south, he entered a state of "disbelief and surrealness.''
"These things go through your mind and they race through. I was excited
at the prospect of visiting Cuba, but that was quickly taken over by the fear of
the unknown. If he stabbed me in the airplane, we were all going down,'' he
said.
Worried about running into Cuban jet fighters or smacking into a mountain
range, Hayashi says he did a quick series of climbs and dips in an effort to
throw his attacker off after the hijacker refused to allow him to turn his
avionics back on.
The two men, the pilot said, then scuffled in the plane, leading to a broken
throttle and a crash landing on the high seas from which the hijackers never
emerged alive.
The couple were secured by lap belts in the rear of the plane, Hayashi said,
while he was in the front held by a harness and a lap belt when the Piper
Cherokee hit deep waters at 70 to 80 mph.
Hayashi said he called to them after scrambling out of the plane himself,
but they never responded.
"It was a very sickening feeling,'' he said.
The pilot was rescued by the Navy not long after noon Thursday, when a Coast
Guard plane spotted him and threw down a life raft.
"It is just beginning to sink in how lucky I am,'' Hayashi said.
Gripped by mixed emotions, Hayashi -- who says he has lost his business, is
desperately awaiting a meager insurance payment and is under constant
surveillance by the media -- blames the mystery couple for turning his life
upside down.
"In the same breath, I can say they got what they deserved,'' he said.
"Most people think they are exactly where they should be. They have
saved the government a ton of money in terms of incarceration and prosecution.''
While the pilot said he is "waiting'' for relatives of the pair to
emerge, he says he's skeptical it will ever happen.
"It will never be the end of it. These people will always remain an
enigma,'' Hayashi said. "Nobody is going to come forward. If your mom and
dad hijacked an airplane, do you think you would when you knew someone is
getting ready to sue you?''
Hayashi said he's willing to take a polygraph test administered by FBI or
local investigators but said he resents the notion that anyone might request
one.
"Why do I need to be cleared? Two people who are guilty are dead,'' he
said. "I am not guilty of anything other than giving people an airplane
ride.''
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
