By Anthony Boadle
WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Cuban exiles asked the Clinton administration on Thursday to follow Spain's example in prosecuting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet by opening a criminal case against Cuba's leader Fidel Castro.
The Cuban American National Foundation urged Clinton in a letter to instruct Attorney General Janet Reno to prosecute Castro for the murder of three U.S. citizens and Cuban exiles shot down by MiG-29 jets in February 1996.
``Castro's victims ask the world not to differentiate between right-wing and left-wing dictators,'' CANF vice-chairman Jorge Mas Santos told a news conference.
Encouraged by Pinochet's arrest in London on Oct. 16 at the request of a Spanish judge, CANF asked the Spanish courts on Thursday to seek Castro's detention and prosecution on the same charges of genocide, torture and terrorism.
The Miami-based exile group run by Castro's right-wing opponents also sought criminal charges in Spain against his brother Raul Castro and Cuban tourism minister Osmany Cienfuegos.
The case was presented to the Spanish High Court in Madrid that ruled that Pinochet can be tried in Spain for crimes against humanity. The former Chilean strongman is fighting extradition and has appealed to Britain's highest court.
U.S. District Court in Florida rendered a $187 million verdict last year in a civil case that held the Cuban government responsible for the downing of two Cessna planes over the Florida Straits during an anti-Castro protest in 1996.
Four Cuban exiles, three of them U.S. citizens, were killed.
The Cuban exiles were joined by Democratic Congressman Peter Deutsch, of Florida, who urged the U.S. government to present criminal charges against Castro.
Mas said the case in Spain involved 300 people who were allegedly victims of Castro's communist regime.
The defendants included Janette Hernandez, who survived the sinking of a tugboat that was rammed by a Cuban Coast Guard vessel in July 1994 as it sailed away from the island crammed with 72 people. Forty-two people drowned, many of them children.
Hernandez broke down in tears at the news conference as she described how her sister-in-law and a nephew died. She said Cuban Coast Guards beat people back into the water with sticks when they tried to climb to safety.
Miami's large Cuban exile community was quick to point the finger at Castro when Pinochet was arrested in London.
``We want to see Fidel Castro sat in front of an international tribunal and tried for his crimes,'' Mas said.
``The world has gotten smaller for dictators,'' said CANF lawyer George Fowler.
19:05 11-05-98
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.