JOHN FERNANDEZ, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Hundreds of Cuban-run businesses shut down for three hours Thursday in Little Havana and other predominantly Hispanic areas to protest the pending deportation of jailed anti-Castro militant Orlando Bosch .

In the largest show of force yet for Bosch, almost a thousand supporters also marched down Little Havana's main drag, Southwest Eighth Street, waving Cuban flags and chanting "freedom for Bosch " in Spanish.

Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez and congressional candidate Ileana Ros- Lehtinen joined the procession, which included a pickup carrying a coffin draped in a Cuban flag. To the marchers, the coffin symbolized certain death for Bosch if he is deported. Bosch 's daughter, Myriam Bosch, spoke to the demonstrators after the 14- block march when they gathered around a monument to Bay of Pigs veterans.

"I'm really proud to be here, proud of being Cuban and really proud of my father," she said. "All he wants is to be free and live with his family."

Bosch 's daughter said she did not believe Thursday's strike and demonstration would sway federal judge William Hoeveler's decision July 14, when he is scheduled to rule on a possible stay of deportation requested by Bosch 's lawyers.

But, she said, the protest should have an impact on the Bush administration. Officials in Washington "have to face the people," she said.

Along Eighth Street, usually bustling stores, restaurants, gas stations and car dealerships shut down between noon and 3 p.m. Signs on storefronts said they were closing "in support of freedom for Orlando Bosch ."

Others, including banks, only closed their front doors, directing customers to rear entrances.

"I don't mind losing a little business," said Barbara de la Hoya, manager at Protection Insurance Agency Inc. "We've closed because Cubans share the same ideals of liberty that Bosch represents."

Strike organizers estimated 75 percent of Cuban-run businesses throughout Dade County participated in the three-hour boycott.

Bosch has been in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Dade County since August 1988, when he entered the U.S. illegally. He had spent 11 years in Venezuelan jails for his alleged participation in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jet, in which 73 people were killed.

The U.S. Justice Department ordered Bosch deported last week.