Exile: We plotted attacks on Cuba

Posted on Thu, Jun. 22, 2006
CUBA
Exile: We plotted attacks on Cuba

A former board member for a prominent anti-Castro group went public with
accusations that leaders of the Cuban American National Foundation
plotted attacks in Cuba.
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
wcancio@ElNuevoHerald.com

A former board member of the Cuban American National Foundation says he
and other CANF leaders created a paramilitary group to carry out
destabilizing acts in Cuba and do away with Cuban ruler Fidel Castro.

Jose Antonio Llama, known as Toñin, told El Nuevo Herald that the
arsenal to carry out these plans included a cargo helicopter, 10
ultralight radio-controlled planes, seven vessels and abundant explosive
materials.

''We were impatient with the survival of Castro's regime after the fall
of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp,'' said Llama, a key
financial backer of the plot in the early 1990s. ``We wanted to
accelerate the democratization of Cuba using any possible means to
achieve it.''

The plans failed after Llama and four other exiles were arrested in
Puerto Rico in 1997 on charges of conspiracy to assassinate Castro
during the Ibero-American Summit on Margarita Island, Venezuela. A jury
acquitted them after a federal judge threw out one of the defendants'
self-incriminating statements.

Llama, a close associate of the late CANF leader Jorge Mas Canosa, left
the group's board in 1999. He said he quit CANF because it refused to
pay his codefendants' legal defense costs after the trial. Llama also
went bankrupt.

CANF spokesman Alfredo Mesa -- speaking for members and leaders -- told
El Nuevo Herald: ``In this case, we consider that it is extremely
irresponsible for a press organization to echo what clearly represents
an extortion and defamation attempt.''

CUBA'S CLAIMS

The Cuban government has long claimed CANF planned armed attacks on the
island, but up until now, none of its claims have been documented. Llama
has been handing out pamphlets in Miami detailing the purported plot. On
Wednesday, Granma -- Cuba's government newspaper -- published a story on
the pamphlets.

Llama -- who says he made his fortune building air conditioners for
Soviet vehicles -- said he's going public because he contributed $1.4
million of his own money to the cause and several CANF members bilked him.

He is currently writing his memoirs, titled De la Fundacion a la
fundicion: historia de una gran estafa (From the Foundation to Meltdown:
Story of a Big Swindle).

''This is the truth -- The only thing I have left at this point in life
is the truth,'' said Llama, 75. ``I am asking for what's due to me,
nothing more and nothing less, to take it to bankruptcy court. Where are
the vessels and planes I financed with my money? Where did they end up?
Who has the original titles?''

Llama said he is also going public because his statements don't affect
old friends who are implicated in the plot, such as exiles Arnaldo
Monzon Plasencia, Raul Lopez and Manuel ''Nolo'' Garcia, who have died.

PERSONAL FUNDS

According to Llama, between 1994 and 1997 he personally spent more than
$1.4 million to finance the purchase of radio-controlled planes and
other supplies, under the cover of Florida-registered Nautical Sports
Inc. and Dominican Republic-based Refri Auto.

Llama showed El Nuevo Herald financial records used to buy the equipment.

Llamas paid Nautical Sports $869,811. The purchase of the seven vessels
equipped with satellite radio and phones, including the Midnight Express
fast boat, was guaranteed through this front corporation, created in
1993, he said. That 40-foot motorboat was meant to take Mas Canosa to
Cuba if Castro died or there was a sudden change of power, he added.

Another vessel, La Esperanza, was confiscated by the Treasury Department
in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, after the 1997 federal indictments against
its crew.

Llama remembers that the project started to take shape during CANF's
annual meeting in Naples in June 1992. He said businessman Miguel Angel
Martinez of Puerto Rico proposed the idea of ''doing more than lobbying
in Washington'' to overthrow Castro. About 20 of the foundation's most
trusted leaders agreed and designated Jose ''Pepe'' Hernandez, the
current CANF president, and Mas Canosa to choose the armed group.

''It was agreed that since this was a delicate matter, details about the
paramilitary group would be discussed in petit comite [a small
committee],'' Llama said. ``At the meeting that board members and
trustees held the following year [1993] in Puerto Rico, the chosen ones
started to meet and consider everything that needed to be bought.''

The foundation's general board of directors didn't know the details of
the paramilitary group, which acted autonomously, Llama said. He added
that current CANF board chairman Jorge Mas Santos was never told of the
plan.

''It was debated whether the group should be led by Miguel A. Martinez
or Pepe Hernandez,'' the activist said. ``We chose Pepe for his known
record as a fighter in the 2506 Brigade and the Marines.''

Among the group members, Llama said: Elpidio Nuñez, Horacio Garcia and
Luis Zuñiga, who left the Foundation in 2001 to establish the Consejo
por la Libertad de Cuba (Council for the Liberation of Cuba, or CLC);
Erelio Peña and Raul Martinez, all of Miami; Fernando Ojeda, Fernando
Canto and Domingo Sadurni of Puerto Rico; and Arnaldo Monzon Plasencia
and Angel Alfonso Aleman of New Jersey.

Former CANF members Garcia, Zuñiga and Nuñez declined to comment.
Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a CLC spokeswoman, said the three men have
referred the matter to attorneys.

Llama also gave this account of the operation:

The 10 small remote-control planes were financed by Llama for $210,000
through the International Finance Bank of Miami, which paid Flight
Rescue Systems, a company owned by Luis Prieto and Rafael Montalvo. The
equipment was stored in a Miami-Dade warehouse to be used against Cuban
economic targets or against Castro. Llama said Pepe Hernandez sold them
after 1997.

Sadurni donated the cargo helicopter, but Llama said he financed $85,360
for it through Republic National Bank, per instructions from Hernandez.
The helicopter would be used as an operation base for the small planes
and was parked at the International Flight Center in southwestern
Miami-Dade.

EXPLOSIVES

To buy explosives, the group used businessman Raul Lopez, an anti-Castro
exile involved in infiltration operations in Cuba in the 1960s, Llama
said. Lopez owned a company authorized to purchase explosives to open up
sewage canals for South Florida's sugar industry.

Eulogio Amado Reyes, alias ''Papo,'' a retired car mechanic, said he
assembled the ultralights in a Miami-Dade warehouse with the help of a
Texas instructor whose last name was Graham.

''All that was said was that it was a foundation project,'' said Reyes, 73.

Jose Pujol, a veteran sailor, said that in 1993 the foundation started
using him as an advisor to purchase vessels.

''El Pelican [a vessel] was put in my name,'' said Pujol, 76. ``The
procedure was that I would look for vessels, Toñin made the down payment
and Elpidio Nuñez was the backer.''

According to Llama, most of the explosives were kept in Miami, but late
in 1996 they were dropped to the ocean bottom from a vessel at a reef
near the Bahamas. The shipment was being transported by ''Nolo'' Garcia
in Nuñez's yacht when a Bahamian patrol boat approached them so they
feared a search.

''For logical reasons, they threw the shipment into the ocean,'' Llama
said. ``Soon after we went there to recover it but didn't find it.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/elnuevo/news/world/cuba/14873233.htm