CUBA NEWS
The Miami Herald

Posada says Castro is persecuting him

Luis Posada Carriles told an immigration court the Cuban regime is persecuting him and denied admitting he masterminded bombings in Cuba in 1997.

By Alfonso Chardy, achardy@herald.com. Posted on Wed, Aug. 31, 2005.

EL PASO - Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles took the witness stand here Tuesday and said he is seeking asylum because Cuban leader Fidel Castro is persecuting him, but then acknowledged having lived and traveled throughout the region without encountering any harm in recent years.

Posada, 77, also denied having admitted in media interviews he was the mastermind of a series of bombings at Cuban tourist sites in 1997. He said one of the interviews, with The New York Times, was in English and therefore he misunderstood questions and misstated his answers because he had difficulty understanding the language. He said he understood similar questions in another interview with a Spanish-language television network but that his answers should not be construed as an admission of guilt.

The Cuban government wants to try Posada for the hotel bombings and has said he could be executed. However, Homeland Security has told the immigration court that the U.S. government would not deport Posada to Cuba.

In Venezuela -- now an ally of Cuba -- Posada was acquitted of the 1976 Cuban jet attack that killed 73 people. He fled from a Venezuelan prison before the government exhausted its appeals to retry him. Posada denies involvement in the case.

U.S. CITIZENSHIP

In Miami, meanwhile, Posada's lead attorney -- Eduardo Soto -- disclosed that he planned to file a U.S. citizenship application for his client on the ground he is eligible for naturalization under a law that makes it easier for members and former members of the U.S. military to apply for citizenship.

''All they need to demonstrate is membership in the armed forces during a period of hostility,'' Soto said, adding that his client was a U.S. soldier during the Vietnam War. Soto said he planned to file the application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services "as soon as possible.''

Posada's 3 ½-hour testimony was the first time the exile militant spoke publicly since giving a clandestine news conference in Miami-Dade County on May 17, just hours before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained and transported him to a detention center in El Paso.

Posada's asylum and deportation trial began Monday when immigration Judge William Abbott said he would order the exile militant deported to Venezuela if he loses his bid for protection and appeals.

Russ Knocke, a Homeland Security spokesman, said late Tuesday his agency had major problems with sending Posada to Venezuela.

His statement seemed to be a shift from the agency's position in court Monday when the Homeland Security Prosecutor Gina Garrett Jackson expressed no objection when Judge Abbott designated Venezuela as the place of deportation because Posada was a naturalized citizen of that country.

Garrett-Jackson did say she ''reserved the right'' to elaborate further on Venezuela at a later date. She said consultations were ongoing.

The first witness, prior to Posada, was his longtime friend and Caracas lawyer Joaquin Chaffardet who testified that if Posada is expelled to Venezuela he will be tortured and then turned over to Cuba.

Posada was briefly questioned by his attorney, Matthew Archambeault, regarding his reasons for seeking asylum in the United States.

Posada said Castro was persecuting him to ''do me harm,'' and then cited an assassination attempt in Guatemala 15 years ago as evidence.

But when Posada was grilled for hours by Garrett-Jackson, it emerged he has used false passports and names to travel extensively around Central America and the Caribbean and nothing has happened to him since the Guatemalan attack in 1990.

INCRIMINATION

In cross-examination, Garrett-Jackson elicited a series of contradictions by Posada about whether he faces imminent danger abroad.

Posada also refused to answer certain questions about using false identities, saying his answers would incriminate him.

But ultimately Posada acknowledged he used one false Salvadoran passport in the name of Franco Rodriguez Mena to travel to the United States on April 26, 2000 and then to enter Panama about seven months later where he was later convicted -- and subsequently pardoned -- in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Castro.

Eventually, Garrett-Jackson asked Posada whether he stood by statements attributed to him in media interviews in which he was quoted as taking responsibility for the bombing attacks against Cuban hotels and restaurants in 1997.

Posada said he wanted to deny the report by The New York Times, not because he was misquoted, but because he had difficulty understanding the questions by reporter Ann Louise Bardach since his English is poor and therefore he probably did not explain himself clearly. Posada also said that The Times had retracted the article because of the language difficulty.

Bardach, who is covering the trial here, said afterward that the interview was mostly in English to make it easier to transcribe. But she said that during the interview in Aruba, Posada never expressed difficulty in understanding questions and that his English was "excellent.''

The Times never published a retraction. It did publish an editor's note in which it clarified that Cuban American National Foundation leaders had not "paid specifically for the hotel bombings.''

Posada may be Venezuela-bound

The U.S. government has agreed that Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles be deported to Venezuela if he loses his plea for asylum and other protections.

By Alfonso Chardy, achardy@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Aug. 30, 2005.

EL PASO - A federal immigration judge on Monday said he will order Luis Posada Carriles deported to Venezuela if he denies the Cuban exile militant protection in the United States. A Department of Homeland Security prosecutor did not object to Judge William Abbott's decision on the first day of Posada's asylum trial at a federal detention center here.

It was the first time since immigration officers detained Posada in Miami-Dade County on May 17 that the United States has publicly named a country where the controversial exile would be expelled if the judge denies his asylum application. Posada was transported to El Paso soon after his detention in Miami-Dade. Despite Abbott's announcement, it does not guarantee that Posada's deportation would be automatic. The judge can order deportation, then suspend it on the ground Posada could face torture in Venezuela, an ally of Cuba. The Cuban government wants to try Posada for a series of hotel bombings and has not minced words that he could be executed if convicted.

Monday's decision by Judge Abbott goes against initial U.S. statements after Posada's detention when federal authorities said they would not deport Posada to Cuba and Venezuela could be out of the question because of its close ties to Fidel Castro.

''As a matter of immigration law and policy, ICE does not generally remove people to Cuba, nor does ICE generally remove people to countries believed to be acting on Cuba's behalf,'' the statement said. Many analysts interpreted the statement as a tacit reference to Venezuela where president Hugo Chávez, an ally of Cuban leader Castro, has also demanded Posada's extradition to stand trial for the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976.

NO OBJECTION

But on Monday, Gina Garrett-Jackson, the lead Homeland Security assistant chief counsel, suggested to Judge Abbott that the federal government would not object to designating Venezuela as the country of deportation since Posada is a naturalized Venezuelan. Garrett-Jackson told the judge that the United States ''reserved the right'' to elaborate further on its position on Venezuela at a later date. She said consultations were ongoing between Homeland Security and the departments of State and Justice. She said the government did not wish to deport Posada to Cuba, his country of birth, because Homeland Security agreed he would face torture.

When Judge Abbott asked Posada's lawyers what country they would like their client deported to if he lost his bid for asylum, attorney Matthew Archambeault said ''we respectfully decline.'' Garrett-Jackson told Judge Abbott on Monday that Posada can't receive asylum because U.S. immigration law bars protection for terrorism suspects and those accused of ''non-political crimes'' committed before arriving in the United States.

Then she listed Posada's alleged crimes: claims that he masterminded tourist-site bombings in Cuba in 1997 and his conviction in Panama in connection with an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Castro in 2000. Posada was pardoned and freed in that case, but U.S. immigration law does not recognize foreign pardons. Posada, 77, sat in the courtroom wearing a bright red detainee jumpsuit, and addressed Abbott when the judge asked if he wanted to press ahead with his asylum application. ''I want to continue,'' Posada said.

The hearing resumes this morning with Posada calling his first witness: Joaquin Chaffardet, Posada's Venezuelan lawyer and longtime friend.

Chaffardet told The Herald recently in Caracas that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he and Posada served together as intelligence officers in DISIP, the Venezuelan state security police, and later opened a private investigation firm.

Chaffardet is expected to testify that Posada could never get a fair trial in Venezuela and that government has no jurisdiction in any subsequent case. Posada was acquitted of the 1976 Cuban jet attack and left the before the government exhausted its appeals to retry him.

VICTIM'S RELATIVES

Two relatives of one of the plane-bombing victims stood outside the detention center during the 45-minute hearing.

"After all these years, we are here to hopefully see Luis Posada Carriles be held accountable for the bombing," said Sharon Persaud, whose brother Raymond Persaud, died in the plane crash.

Herald staff writer Oscar Corral contributed to this report.

Posada asylum trial to open

The asylum trial of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles begins today in Texas.

By Alfonso Chardy and Oscar Corral, achardy@herald.com. Posted on Mon, Aug. 29, 2005.

Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, accused of terrorism against Cuba, goes before a U.S. immigration judge in El Paso today to plead for asylum, claiming that Fidel Castro is persecuting him.

In a second phase of the trial later this year, the U.S. government is expected to argue that Posada -- who has been accused, among other violent acts, of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people -- must be denied asylum because immigration law prohibits it for suspects of terrorism and serious crimes.

The trial will spotlight one of the most controversial figures in the Cuban exile community: a patriot to some and a terrorist to others.

It also poses a dilemma for the Bush administration, which is generally sympathetic to South Florida's exile community, but must weigh the case within the context of the post-9/11 war on terrorism.

Posada's lawyers anticipate calling as witnesses two Cuban torture victims and a Venezuelan human rights expert. They have submitted human rights reports to support arguments that their client would be tortured if deported to Cuba or Venezuela -- respectively, his countries of birth and citizenship. Though immigration officials have signaled they will not send Posada to either country, the decision is up to the judge.

In addition to the jetliner bombing, Posada has been accused in the bombing of Cuban hotels in 1997 that killed one person and of conspiring to assassinate Castro in 2000. He has been in U.S. custody since May, when immigration officers seized him in Miami-Dade County and charged him with illegal entry. He had sneaked into the country in March.

Neither Posada's lawyers nor Homeland Security prosecutors have released the evidence they have filed. Though filings in immigration court are not publicly available, The Herald has examined some of them -- including Posada's asylum application and some of the government's motions.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Homeland Security agency handling the case, declined to comment on grounds the case is still in litigation. Posada's lead lawyer, Eduardo Soto, said he is "confident that we will prevail with respect to obtaining protection for our client.''

The defense plans to portray Posada, 77, as a patriotic anti-Castro militant whose actions should be viewed in the context of an ongoing legitimate struggle between the Cuban regime and antigovernment factions. Lawyers also will argue that Posada, now old and ill, faces constant danger abroad and that his former service as a CIA operative during the Bay of Pigs era should be considered.

The government is expected to cast Posada as a dangerous criminal with access to false passports and powerful friends -- a man who likely could continue living in relative safety abroad using the covert methods that have served him well for years.

A TERRORIST IN '60S?

Immigration Judge William Abbott had asked defense lawyers and the government to file briefs on whether Posada's actions in the 1960s -- when the CIA backed him -- could be construed as terrorism under today's standards.

In response, defense lawyers say Posada is a soldier in the ongoing Cuban ''civil war'' dating to the 1960s, when the CIA encouraged exiles to join the anti-Castro struggle.

In a recent brief, the U.S. government declined to address the issue. In separate filings, government prosecutors allege Posada has been accused of the Cuban jetliner attack, the hotel bombings and the Castro assassination plot.

Posada has admitted organizing the hotel bombings. He denies masterminding the jet attack, and was acquitted of those charges in one court but escaped from a Venezuelan prison before the case ended. He was convicted in connection with the Castro plot in Panama, but later pardoned.

Foreign pardons, however, are not recognized by U.S. immigration law, and thus the original conviction can be weighed by the judge to decide his asylum claim.

To qualify for asylum, an applicant must demonstrate he has a well-founded fear of persecution as a result of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.

Posada's asylum application says he is part of a social group: his lawyers say that group is the community of former CIA operatives trained to fight Castro in the 1960s.

Though Posada says he fears persecution specifically in Cuba and Venezuela, he cited as evidence of Cuban persecution elsewhere a failed assassination attempt in Guatemala in 1990.

''I was shot in the face, causing fractures on both sides of my inferior mandible and deformation to my tongue resulting in trouble speaking and swallowing,'' Posada wrote in his asylum application.

"My left lung was bruised, both my arms were severely bruised and I am partially deaf in both ears. I was hospitalized for a month.''

The government indirectly suggests in its evidence that Posada is exaggerating the danger he faces abroad. U.S. evidence shows Posada has lived without being attacked in other Central American countries and has traveled extensively throughout the region and the Caribbean without being harmed.

FIRING SQUAD FEARS

Posada wrote in his application that if returned to Cuba, Castro would have him shot by a firing squad. And if sent to Caracas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez -- a Castro ally -- ''would more likely than not seek to imprison and torture me on behalf of Castro for crimes I did not commit and for which I was never found guilty,'' Posada wrote.

There is precedent for not deporting someone to Venezuela for fear of torture.

On Feb. 18, a Miami immigration judge suspended the deportation of two former Venezuelan lieutenants accused of bombing diplomatic missions in Caracas on grounds they could be tortured if returned home.

Cheaper oil has a price

For Cubans, healthcare was the one thing they didn't have to wait for. With many doctors being sent to Venezuela in exchange for oil, care is suffering.

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, The Boston Globe. Posted on Sun, Aug. 28, 2005.

HAVANA - Free universal healthcare has long been the crowning achievement of this socialist state, but the system is now under fire from Cubans who complain that quality and access are suffering as they lose tens of thousands of medical workers to Venezuela in exchange for cheap oil, which this impoverished country desperately needs.

The close friendship between Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez has netted Venezuela a loan of 20,000 Cuban health workers -- including 14,000 doctors, according to the Venezuelan government -- who work in poor barrios and rural outposts for stipends seven times higher on average than their salaries at home. Castro has vowed to send Chávez as many as 10,000 additional medical workers by year's end.

In return for farming out more than one-fifth of its doctors to oil-rich Venezuela, Cuba is permitted to import 90,000 barrels of oil a day under preferential terms.

The Cuban doctors program is wildly popular among Venezuela's poor. But Cubans have begun to object that the exodus of their healthcare workers is taking a toll on medical care for Cubans. Most people interviewed would speak only on condition that they not be identified or asked that just their first names be used, for fear of reprisals.

A 45-year-old nurse in Camagüey province said she has worked without a doctor in her primary-care clinic for more than two years since the physician was transferred to another clinic to replace a doctor sent to Venezuela.

''My patients complain every day. They want me to act as a doctor, but I can't,'' she said helplessly. 'The level of attention isn't the same as before. It's not fair . . . to take from us to give to our neighbors. People are now saying, 'I've got to get a ticket to Venezuela to get healthcare!' ''

PLENTY OF DOCTORS

Cuban doctors and nurses have long worked overseas in humanitarian missions. With one of the best doctor-patient ratios in the world, Cuba could afford to lend more than 52,000 medical workers over the last four decades to 95 needy countries. But over the last few years, as Castro and Chávez's cooperation has blossomed, the Cuban assistance program has substantially increased the number of medical workers in Venezuela.

Aware of early grumblings about the exodus, Castro acknowledged in a September 2003 speech that "it could very possibly be true that in the midst of so much movement there is no doctor in a certain place for a short time. These situations must be immediately resolved.''

But rather than being speedily rectified, the situation has gotten worse, ordinary Cubans complain, with the flight of family doctors who handle primary care, a shortage of specialists, and a longer wait for eye surgery, physical therapy, and dentistry. Senior medical workers counter that many doctors were underutilized before, and that the departure of many to Venezuela has spurred efforts to improve efficiency at home.

The Ministry of Public Health and the Cuban press center did not respond to repeated requests over a three-week period for interviews and data for this story.

With 66,567 doctors, Cuba boasts a ratio of one doctor per 170 residents, compared with one doctor per 188 residents in the United States, according to the World Health Organization.

LOSS OF SOVIET AID

Cuba's much-praised system has suffered setbacks, however, since the cutoff of Soviet aid some 15 years ago, with hospitals and clinics in need of renovation and equipment, pharmaceutical costs soaring, and patients complaining that they must bring their own bedclothes, sheets, food, and fans to hospitals.

But complaints about a lack of medical personnel are new, dating to the cooperation with Venezuela that some observers disparagingly call the "oil-for-doctors program.''

María, a Havana dentist, said her clinic now has six instead of 16 dentists, a reduction that has ''affected quality.'' Danilo, 29, a Havana hospital nurse, said his overnight rounds have increased to nine from six times a month.

FOREIGNER FAVORITISM

When Castro boasted that ''100,000 Venezuelan brothers and sisters'' will fly to Cuba for eye treatment this year, a number of Cubans watching at home groaned at what they perceive as favoritism toward outsiders.

''It's all the Venezuelans who need cataracts surgery first, and then the Cubans if there's any time left,'' sniffed Georgina, 60, of Havana.

Carlos, a 37-year-old engineer with a chronic ear problem, used to get house calls. He resents waiting 20 days for an appointment because his specialist is in Venezuela. ''Now when I need hearing tests, I see technicians who haven't even graduated yet,'' he muttered.

Many medical workers dismiss the criticisms as the gripes of a spoiled population unaccustomed to waiting for medical care. But ordinary Cubans, accustomed to waiting interminably for nearly everything -- from transport to rations to salary increases -- retort that medical care was the one thing they never had to wait for.

Health workers also said the situation is temporary, while Venezuela trains its own personnel, 27,000 of whom will begin free medical school this fall in exchange for a commitment to serve poor areas. Venezuela has one doctor per 542 residents, according to the WHO.

Door to asylum may hinge on alleged Honduran trip

Luis Posada Carriles' reported presence in Honduras before arriving in Miami may be key to his asylum bid.

By Alfonso Chardy And Oscar Corral, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Sun, Aug. 28, 2005.

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Like much of the life of Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, the months before he sneaked into Miami last spring are laced with intrigue, danger and deception.

This much is clear, according to interviews with Posada associates and secret documents compiled by the Honduran government:

There was a private jet, paid for by a Miami-area benefactor, that ferried Posada, 77, from Panama, where he was pardoned last August on charges of trying to assassinate Fidel Castro, to northern Honduras.

There was a fake passport, identifying the celebrated Castro-fighter and accused terrorist as an American: "Melvin Clyde Thompson.''

And there were claims -- repeated most recently by his lawyer -- that Posada was in danger of being killed by the Cuban leader's minions.

The seven-month period between Posada's pardon in Panama and his decision to sneak into the United States last March -- and in particular, the question of whether his life was in danger -- will likely play a major role in his asylum trial, which begins Monday in El Paso, Texas.

The most detailed account of that period appears in documents compiled by the Honduran state security agency -- documents that also amount to the first official evidence that Posada was in Honduras after he left Panama in late August 2004.

NO PROOF

The Honduran government continues to insist it has never found conclusive proof of Posada's presence in Honduras -- though officials have acknowledged privately he probably sneaked into San Pedro Sula with the false passport.

Armando Calidonio, the Honduran vice minister of security, told The Herald the documents are ''inconclusive'' because there is no formal immigration entry record for Posada, and witnesses who believe Thompson was Posada could be mistaken.

Posada himself has declined to discuss publicly where he stayed before arriving in the United States -- though The Herald obtained secret U.S. filings in his asylum case that show he told American officials he had been in Honduras.

Posada, a Cuban-born former CIA operative who has been accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner and a 1997 series of bombings at Cuban tourist hotels, is seeking asylum in the United States. The U.S. government, meanwhile, is seeking to deport him -- though it has said it doesn't want to send Posada to Cuba or Venezuela.

Whether Posada's life was in imminent danger in Honduras is important to his asylum claim. One of the factors the judge can weigh is whether Posada felt Honduras was a safe place in which to resettle or whether it was just a way station en route to the United States.

To win asylum, a foreign national must convince a judge he has a well-founded fear of persecution.

Posada has not mentioned any specific threats in Honduras in his asylum application. And in general, his lawyers argue what's important in their case is not so much what happened in Honduras but whether Posada's life is in imminent danger anywhere outside the United States. Nonetheless, lawyer Eduardo Soto told The Herald he believed mercenaries tried to kill Posada in Honduras.

In addition, two associates of Posada, who asked not to be named, told The Herald men had tried to seize Posada in Honduras and that his allies had shot four people dead to protect him.

PROBLEMS

But there are problems with that account: First, Honduran prosecutors and investigators said in interviews they don't recall any incident that remotely resembles the shootout Posada's associates describe. And official morgue reports and homicide records for the San Pedro Sula area from the past year, obtained by The Herald, show there were no incidents in which four people died in the same place except for a bus attack by gang members in December that killed 28 people.

Second, Posada's chief Honduran ally, a Cuban-American television tycoon named Rafael Nodarse, says it didn't happen. ''That's not true,'' said Nodarse, a colorful executive who met Posada years ago when both were trained by the CIA for the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Of course, as is typical of the murky accounts surrounding Posada, Nodarse denies his friend even visited Honduras last year. That is despite statements gathered from witnesses at the San Pedro Sula airport who say they saw Nodarse greet his old friend there last August, just after Posada was released from prison in Panama.

ARRIVED AUG. 26

According to documents prepared by Honduran government investigators, Posada flew from Panama City to San Pedro Sula on Aug. 26 -- arriving at 7:30 a.m. aboard a Lear jet leased from an Opa-locka charter company by Miami developer and Posada benefactor Santiago Alvarez.

Three Miami friends accompanied Posada on the flight: Orlando Gonzalez, Ernesto Abreu and Miguel Alvarez. Only three passengers and two crew members appeared on the passenger manifest provided by the pilot to Honduran officials. Posada's name was not on the list, Honduran records show.

But the documents note the fourth passenger carried a false U.S passport in the name of Melvin Clyde Thompson. Witnesses later identified Thompson as Posada, the investigators wrote.

U.S. investigators have since learned the number on Thompson's passport is assigned to a woman in Minnesota who said she had never heard "about any of this.''

It is a felony to use a fake passport, punishable by up to 25 years in prison upon conviction if the passport was used for the purposes of terrorism. It is also a criminal offense for a foreign national to claim U.S. citizenship.

Gonzalez and Abreu said they dropped off Posada in Honduras. The company that operated the jet, Executive Air Services, declined comment. A company executive, Carlos Marco, was quoted in the documents as saying the plane was chartered to carry three people to Central America and in Panama they picked up a fourth passenger who was dropped off in Honduras.

Upon arrival in Honduras, Posada got off the plane and, according to witnesses, was greeted by Nodarse.

Hector Montoya of the San Pedro Sula newspaper La Prensa, Tom Webb of the

Ally denies Posada trip but declines to testify

A Cuban-American television tycoon in Honduras has emerged as a Central American benefactor for Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles.

By Oscar Corral And Alfonso Chardy, ocorral@herald.com. Posted on Sun, Aug. 28, 2005.

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - After his closest brush with death, when assassins sprayed his face, arm and torso with machine-gun fire in Guatemala in 1990, Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles turned to one person: television tycoon Rafael Nodarse.

The Cuban-American magnate, one of the richest, most powerful -- and perhaps most colorful -- men in Honduras, had Posada transferred to San Pedro Sula, stationed men at his bedside and nursed him back to health.

''My guards took care of him,'' Nodarse said. "He couldn't eat. He had to be fed through a tube in his mouth.''

Now, facing a trial in immigration court that will decide whether he can stay in the United States, Posada is again calling on his old friend.

But Nodarse, a brash, contentious cross between William Randolph Hearst and the fictional Scarface character Tony Montana, won't be there.

NOTHING TO SAY

Posada's lawyers and Miami supporters wanted him to testify in court in El Paso, Texas, this week, but Nodarse told The Herald he had nothing to say that would be of help.

''If I do [testify], it will backfire on them,'' he said.

Nodarse, who always packs a gun, surrounds himself with young women and chain-smokes in his high-security office, never holds back what's on his mind.

Unlike other Posada loyalists who strive to maintain a united front, Nodarse openly criticizes Posada's main Miami benefactor, developer Santiago Alvarez -- whom he blames for Posada's jailing.

Nodarse said Alvarez mishandled Posada's publicity in Miami -- and said the idea that Posada gave media interviews after sneaking into the United States in March was ludicrous.

Federal authorities detained Posada on the day The Herald ran an exclusive interview with him and just two hours after he held a news conference.

''Alvarez wanted to do it,'' Nodarse said of the news conference. "Luis didn't want to do it. . . . Santiago Alvarez wants to be a big shot.''

Alvarez's curt response: "That's not a problem for me. I don't care.''

Not only does Nodarse decline to testify -- he denies Posada even visited Honduras last year.

That denial is contradicted by secret Honduran government documents, U.S. records and interviews with authorities and witnesses who confirm Posada sneaked into Honduras with a fake U.S. passport last summer.

Nodarse moved to Honduras in the early 1970s after he met his first wife, a Honduran who worked for the American Embassy. He started his business with a single radio station, Radio Swan.

Recently, as Nodarse sat with Herald reporters, his 21-year-old mistress sashayed into his office clad in a hot-pink suit, planted a kiss on his lips and briefly sat on his lap before he asked her for a quick favor: "Bring me my gun.''

His wife is 22; they have a newborn. Nodarse proclaims proudly that after two open-heart surgeries and a stroke, he keeps company with several young women -- "without taking Viagra or anything.''

''I have a reputation for being a puto [slut],'' he said. ". . . I'm not going to take a cent to the grave with me, so I might as well have a good time.''

Nodarse glances at his security monitors every time someone triggers the chime on the television station's front door.

''I find out about everything here,'' Nodarse said of Honduras. "Even if it didn't happen, I still know about it.''

LOTS OF CONTACTS

His contacts are extensive -- even among drug dealers, he says. "They tell me where to film drug deals at night. I do them favors so they'll give me information. Most of the police here are corrupt.''

He makes news in addition to reporting it as the owner of Channel 6, the only Honduran television station that broadcasts local news nationwide.

Nodarse said he was jailed three times during the past decade because he broadcast news reports outside the San Pedro Sula area. He finally won the battle to broadcast nationwide in the Honduran high court.

He's just as committed to his anti-Castro militancy; Nodarse said he has survived 11 gunshot wounds in connection with this work over the years.

Instead of a bodyguard, he packs his own peacekeeper, a black, .40-caliber German pistol.

Born in New York to Cuban parents, the only time Rafael Nodarse has ever set foot in Cuba was when he was taken prisoner during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. He spent 1 ½ years in detention there.

It was then he first met Posada -- and formed a friendship his wealthy chums in Honduras joke about to this day.

THE GROUP OF 10

On a recent afternoon, Nodarse drove two Herald reporters to a private restaurant for lunch with 10 of the most powerful men in Honduras, known as ''Grupo de los Diez'' the group of 10.

One of them, Carlos Rosenthal, owner of El Tiempo newspaper, the largest in Honduras, said Nodarse has found strong allies among the dominant Honduras businessmen.

''He's had a lot of bad struggles with the government, but we've been his biggest supporters,'' Rosenthal said. "He's got a strong character, strong opinions and a clear vision. He knows what he wants to do with his news channel.''

One of the things Nodarse did with his news channel is broadcast an editorial late last year in support of Posada, at a time when most of the Central American media criticized him.

Suspicion ran deep in Honduras that Nodarse was harboring Posada; the media reported Posada was spotted at the best hotel in San Pedro Sula having breakfast with Nodarse -- which Nodarse squarely denies.

''Luis couldn't live in Central America,'' Nodarse said. "Cuban intelligence had us under surveillance.''

A few days after reports surfaced that Posada was in Honduras, Nodarse accosted two people who were staking out his house. He said he approached the car, pistol in hand, and got the two people out of the car.

'I said, 'If I find you here again, los van a venir a buscar en las cañerias,' '' -- they are going to come looking for you in the sewers.

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