MIAMI (AP) -- It may be the closest Fidel Castro ever gets to trial in a Miami courtroom.
A firing-squad execution broadcast on Cuban television and a suffocation death on a jammed truckload of prisoners captured in the Bay of Pigs invasion punctuated the sentencing of a Cuban exile accused of running high-powered guns to his island homeland.
Ivan Rojas, 58, was sentenced Tuesday to the lightest possible prison term of two years on a guilty plea to a single count of possessing unregistered firearms.
The defense argued unsuccessfully for less time, citing Rojas' bloody family history. His 17-year-old brother died on the so-called Truck of Death in 1961, and his uncle was killed by firing squad, two of a dozen relatives who died fighting Castro's communist rule.
It was the second sentencing for Rojas, who initially was placed on probation in the same case when a federal judge cited his patriotism and public support in Miami for his militant anti-Castro stance.
But an appeals court in Atlanta viewed Rojas, who fought with Nicaragua's Contras in the 1980s, as a loose cannon and found ``a significant interest in deterring one-man State Departments.'' U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King, the same judge who shunned prison the first time, imposed the prison term mandated by the appeals court but allowed Rojas to remain free while the same court considers a new appeal.
``He's been through a series of tragedies in his life that would literally disembowel a less courageous or strong individual,'' King said.
Walking out of court, Rojas said, ``Am I happy? No.'' Dr. Harley Stock, a prosecution psychologist, rejected a defense suggestion that Rojas suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder but said he was obsessed with Castro.
``He focuses most of his energy on getting rid of Castro,'' Stock said, noting Rojas is not married and has no full-time job. ``He is very fixated on this one thing.''
Rojas entered a guilty plea following the Coast Guard's discovery of two machine guns, grenade launchers and ammunition on a boat intercepted about 50 miles off the Cuban coast in 1993. The machine guns and a grenade launcher were brought to court.
He and four other men were aboard the 45-foot lobster boat Angelina when they were caught. Charges were dropped against Rojas' companions after he said they knew nothing about the weapons concealed in the boat's hull.
The weapons were put aboard in the Florida Keys community of Marathon and were destined for sympathizers in Camaguey, Cuba.
Rojas, a U.S. citizen, told probation officers that he has been smuggling weapons into Cuba since 1963. He has been linked to the Cuban Freedom Army, which has launched past military ventures aimed at overthrowing Castro.
``I understand that all roads in this case lead to Cuba,'' said defense attorney Luis Fernandez.
Rojas' activities have landed him in court on gun charges once before in the Bahamas, where coral islands close to Cuba have been used as staging areas for guns headed to the communist island and by Cuban rafters heading for Florida.
He and two other Cuban exiles from Miami were cleared of arms possession charges less than a month after their arrest in 1992. They were arrested after their 35-foot boat ran aground on Anguilla Cay and guns were found buried in the sand.
Copyright 1997 The Associated Press