By Gail Epstein Nieves . gepstein@herald.com . Published
Friday, March 30, 2001 in the Miami Herald
Under heavy guard by federal marshals, a counterterrorism investigator
summoned from Havana appeared in anti-Castro Miami on Thursday to testify in the
defense of his countrymen: five men accused of spying for Cuba.
The testimony of Roberto Hernández Caballero -- who told jurors about
a series of bomb attacks against Cuban tourist sites in 1997 -- was the first
during this trial from a live witness currently living in Cuba. One other Cuban
witness testified on videotape played for jurors.
Hernández, 37, a lieutenant colonel for the State Security Department
of the Interior Ministry, testified that people living in the United States were
partly responsible for the bomb attacks but that ``evidence'' that Cuba shared
with the FBI about the terrorism has not resulted in any arrests here.
Hernández did not identify the suspected U.S. residents by name or as
Cuban exiles. But he and his bosses in the Cuban government have previously
accused the Miami exile community -- and the Cuban American National Foundation
in particular -- of planning and financing the bomb attacks. CANF has denied any
involvement.
From April through October 1997, 12 bombs exploded or were found in Havana
tourism centers: the hotels Capri, Chateau-Miramar, Copacabana, Melia Cohiba,
Nacional and Triton; the restaurant Bodeguita del Medio; at an airport and a
taxi base.
The explosions killed an Italian tourist, wounded seven and caused extensive
property damage.
Hernández's testimony further confirmed long-running but secretive
contacts between U.S. and Cuban counterterrorism agents about the bomb attacks.
He said FBI agents flew to Havana to meet with him and other investigators in
June 1998, and he reciprocated with a meeting in Washington D.C. in March 1999.
In the meetings, Hernández said he turned over voluminous information
to the FBI, including written lists of all terrorist acts against Cuba between
1990 and 1998, lists of all armed infiltrations and statements from people
convicted in Cuba of the terrorist acts.
Hernández, who traveled to the United States with a diplomatic
passport, appeared under unusually tight security. He is scheduled to continue
testifying today.
At the request of the Cuban government, he is under protective custody of
the U.S. Marshals Service. Some seven marshals guard him at all times, squiring
him in and out of the courtroom through secured entrances and housing him at an
undisclosed location.
Only defense attorney Joaquín Méndez and a few members of his
staff have access to Hernández, who was said to have feared for his
safety in Miami. An official from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington,
D.C., also joined Hernández in Miami.
Before the trial, Hernández gave videotaped testimony in Cuba that
was scheduled to be played in lieu of his live appearance. Lawyers gave no
explanation for why that plan changed. The U.S. Justice Department gave its
approval for his visit.
Through Hernández, Méndez hammered away at key defense themes:
that the accused spies on trial in U.S. District Court allegedly came to Miami
to infiltrate militant exile groups intent on terrorizing Cuba, and that the
U.S. allegedly dragged its feet when Havana provided evidence of who was
responsible.
Prosecutors have not yet cross-examined Hernández. But in the past,
knowledgeable U.S. officials have said that some Havana submissions to the FBI
have ranged from solid to little more than clippings from U.S. and Cuban
newspapers.
As proof of U.S. vigilance, officials also point to the indictments in
Puerto Rico of seven exiles -- including a CANF board member -- who were accused
of plotting to kill Fidel Castro. Ultimately, all of the men were acquitted or
had the charges dismissed against them in 1999.
Hernández testified that the bomb attacks were part of a campaign of
terror designed to scare civilians and foreign tourists, harming Cuba's single
largest industry.
Hernández made the identical claim in March 1999 in Havana, during
the trial of Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, a Salvadoran who was convicted for six of
the bombings. At that time, Hernández blamed CANF and the Miami exile
community, saying the organization ``used mercenaries from Central American for
miserable pay'' to carry out its deeds.
``But note that there's need for a lot of financing when the base of
operations is in Miami,'' he testified in Havana at the time. ``And what
organization in exile can finance these activities but for the Cuban American
National Foundation?''
Other Cuban officials testified in Havana that parts of the bomb campaign
were carried out through Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile and clandestine
figure then living in El Salvador, apparently to avoid violating U.S. neutrality
laws.
Posada, 73, a CIA-trained explosives expert, was identified by The Herald in
late 1997 as the mastermind behind the Havana bombings. Posada later confirmed
his role in the blasts, but ultimately denied that CANF was involved in the
plot.
Posada is now imprisoned in Panama in connection with an alleged plot to
assassinate Castro. He and three other Cubans were arrested Nov. 17 at the
urging of the Cuban intelligence service. Explosives were found in their rented
car.
The Cuban government charged that the men had planned to kill Castro, who
was in Panama attending a summit of Ibero-American leaders.
Thursday was the second time that Hernández has testified in a U.S.
trial, but last time he was a witness for the government, not the defense.
In 1997, he was one of four Cuban government officials who set a precedent
when prosecutors flew them from Tampa to testify against three Cubans accused of
commandeering a small aircraft and diverting it to southwest Florida. The
defendants were found not guilty of skyjacking in federal court.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald |