Castro plot case granted more time

By JUAN O. TAMAYO
Herald Staff Writer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A U.S. prosecutor probing an alleged plot to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro on Thursday won two more weeks to get a broader grand jury indictment in the case, defense attorneys said.

Judge Hector Lafitte gave Assistant U.S. Attorney Miguel Pereira until Aug. 25 to obtain a new indictment or move ahead with the case as it now stands, said defense attorneys who attended a closed-door hearing.

Four Cuban exiles arrested in October aboard a Miami-based yacht spotted by the Coast Guard off Puerto Rico now face relatively minor charges of failing to declare two sniper rifles found hidden under a boat stair.

In the middle of their arrest, one of the exiles blurted out that the guns were for an attempt to assassinate Castro during his visit to the Venezuelan island of Margarita the following month, according to Coast Guard testimony.

Pereira first tried to charge the four exiles with plotting to kill Castro. But a magistrate ruled early this year that the evidence was flimsy, forcing him to seek a new indictment from a grand jury.

Pereira told the judge Thursday, during a conference on the status of the weapons case, that he needed the extra time to wrap up the grand jury inquiry, defense attorneys Jose Masini and Ricardo Pesquera said.

``Pereira said a new indictment is almost certain,'' Masini said. ``He said it would include both more charges and more people.''

Pereira could not be reached for comment.

The four exiles charged are Angel Alfonso Aleman, 57, of Union City, N.J.; Juan Bautista Marquez, 61, of Miami; Francisco Secundino Cordova, 50, of Marathon; and Angel Hernandez Rojo, 64, of Miami. All have a long history of anti-Castro activism.,

Masini is defending Marquez and Pesquera is defending Alfonso, who allegedly blurted out the comment on the assassination plot.

FBI reports filed in the weapons case show the sniper rifles were purchased by Francisco ``Pepe'' Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, and Juan Evelio Pou, a veteran of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

The 46-foot yacht La Esperanza was registered to Jose Antonio Llama, a member of the foundation's 28-member executive committee. Hernandez, Pou and Llama have all declined to comment on the case.

Pereira has been presenting evidence to the grand jury since February, and some of the defense attorneys say he may be having difficulty persuading the jurors to add new charges or suspects to the case.

Pereira told the judge Thursday that the grand jury simply needed more time because of delays in obtaining needed evidence from Venezuela, Masini said.