Miami Herald, The (FL)-December 2, 1999
Author: From Herald Staff and Wire Reports
In a blow to prosecutors Wednesday, the judge in the trial of six Cuban exiles accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro threw out the conspiracy case against one exile and a Miami firm.
Miami businessman Alfredo Otero, 64, "is very relieved" that he was cleared, said Miami attorney Jose Quinon, his lawyer in the first U.S. prosecution of anyone on charges of conspiring to assassinate the Cuban president.
Also cleared was Nautical Sports, the Miami firm that owns the 46-foot yacht Esperanza, where four of the defendants were arrested in 1997. The firm is owned by one of the remaining defendants, Jose Antonio Llama.
SAILING TRIP
Judge Hector Laffitte ruled that prosecutors Miguel Pereira and Scott Glick had not presented enough evidence against Otero or Nautical Sports before they wound up their case Tuesday.
Prosecutors say the defendants were planning to sail the Esperanza to the Venezuelan island of Margarita and use two rifles found hidden on the yacht to shoot at Castro when he visited the island in 1997.
Defense lawyers say the exiles were only going to Margarita to stage peaceful protests against the Cuban president and spirit away any possible defectors from his delegation.
TRIAL FIGURES
Still on trial are Llama, Angel Alfonso, Jose Rodriguez-Sosa, Angel Hernandez and
Francisco Cordova. Llama, a Miami businessman, is a member of the board of directors of the Cuban American National Foundation. The trial of another defendant, Juan Marquez, was put off because he is suffering from cancer.
The defense opened its case Wednesday by calling to the stand Lazaro Betancourt, a Cuban Interior Ministry captain who was part of Castro's security detail at Margarita and defected in April in the Dominican Republic.
Betancourt kept jurors and spectators on the edge of their seats with his descriptions of the extremely tight security around Castro.
Edition: Final
Section: Front
Page: 3A
Dateline: SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
Record Number: 9912030294
Copyright (c) 1999 The Miami Herald
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