MIAMI (AP) - A Cuban exile who calls himself a freedom fighter was sentenced to two years in federal prison for trying to run a boatload of machine guns, grenade launchers and ammunition to his homeland.
It was the second sentencing for Ivan Rojas, 58, who got on probation in 1993 for the same single count of possessing unregistered firearms. In imposing probation, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King had cited Rojas' patriotism and public support in Miami for his militant anti-Castro stance.
But an appeals court in Atlanta viewed Rojas as a loose cannon, and in 1995 found ``a significant interest in deterring one-man State Departments.''
He will remain free while the appeals court considers a new appeal.
Rojas, a U.S. citizen who fought with Nicaragua's Contras in the 1980s, was with four other men aboard a 45-foot lobster boat in 1993 when they were intercepted by the Coast Guard about 50 miles off the Cuban coast. Charges were dropped against Rojas' companions after he said they knew nothing about the weapons concealed in the boat's hull.