Militant Castro Foe Seized In Miami

CARLOS HARRISON And RICHARD WALLACE Herald Staff Writers

Orlando Bosch, the anti-Castro militant who spent 11 years in Venezuelan prisons as a suspect in the deadly bombing of a Cuban jetliner, returned to Miami Tuesday. Bosch, acquitted last August of the plane bombing, was taken into custody by U.S. marshals immediately after disembarking from Viasa Flight 820 from Caracas. He was held on a parole violation stemming from his 1968 conviction in a bazooka attack on a Polish freighter docked in Miami.

Bosch was handcuffed and taken out of sight to an airport office about 11 a.m. His family and a group of eight supporters waited as a throng of television crews, photographers and reporters milled at the U.S. Customs exit.

It was a quiet return to Miami for Bosch, a pediatrician who has been revered as a patriot among many Cuban exiles but regarded as a fugitive terrorist by federal officials.

Bosch rose to prominence among Cuban exiles as the leader of a variety of anti-Castro groups that each claimed responsibility for a string of mostly unsuccessful bombings aboard ships and at travel agencies doing business with Cuba.

The Cubana airliner bombing for which he was arrested in Venezuela killed 73 people.

Tuesday, at a hearing before a federal magistrate, Bosch was ordered held overnight. A private interview with a federal parole officer was scheduled for 2 p.m. today.

Parole authorities could decide to release Bosch pending a formal parole commission hearing, as yet unscheduled. But any such release would be unlikely for at least a week, said Bosch's attorney, Hank Adorno.

When the parole commission meets, it could send Bosch back to prison for 4 1/2 years or release him on parole again.

As Bosch was led to U.S. Magistrate Linnea Johnson's courtroom Tuesday, he was greeted by about a dozen supporters singing the Cuban national anthem. A U.S. marshal hushed the singers.

"Hey, hey, hey, you're in the courthouse," the marshal said. "You want to sing? Go outside and sing."

Inside the courtroom, Bosch seemed agitated at the way marshals handled him, once brushing away a hand placed on his arm.

Dressed in a navy blue suit and a light blue dress shirt, collar open, Bosch had only to state his name and age during his three-minute hearing. Bosch said he was 60. Court records state that he is 61.

Bosch's sudden arrival at the airport Tuesday morning surprised even his family, who heard from the media that he was coming just 30 minutes before he landed.

"What a great birthday present," said one of his daughters, Lourdes, who turned 30 Tuesday.

"It's happiness and sadness because you don't see your father for 11 years and you can't even hug him because they have him in handcuffs," said another daughter, Myriam Bosch.

Before the hearing, Bosch's family was able to visit him for about 20 minutes.

"It was very sad to see him walk into the courtroom with handcuffs on with common criminals," Lourdes said.

UNLIKELY TO FLEE?

Attorney Adorno sought Bosch's release pending a parole hearing, contending that Bosch would not be likely to flee the country again, as he did in 1974.

"He chose to come to the United States, knowing that he would be arrested. Therefore, by that act, he is indicating a desire to face whatever charges are pending," Adorno said.

"The reason he fled was because his life was threatened and he served 11, 11 1/2 years in a Venezuelan prison for a crime that he didn't commit," he said.

Bosch made no deals with U.S. authorities before entering the country, Adorno said.

"There was no communication with U.S. officials before his arrival. It was a straight surrender," he said.

State Department spokesman Ben Justesen declined comment.

"We don't have anything yet to say," he said. "I don't have any information, and it's unlikely we will have anything today."

In the hours after Bosch's arrival, there was relatively little public reaction.

SYMPATHY ABOUNDS

Some Cuban Americans said the only reason they were not at the airport was that they had not been aware of Bosch's impending arrival.

"If I had known, I would have greeted him," said Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez .

Martinez said the State Department actively lobbied the Venezuelans to keep Bosch in prison. "I have friends in the Venezuelan government. I know that as a fact, a fact," he said.

Many people consider Bosch a hero, Martinez said. "He always stood fighting against Fidel Castro. He spent 12 years in jail. That's enough."

On the streets of Little Havana, sympathy for Bosch was easy to find.

"Anyone who struggles against Castro is a hero," said Aurelio Rodriguez, a 50-year-old restaurant owner who left Cuba in 1968.

Jesus Cartaya, vice president of the Association of Businesses and Neighbors of Little Havana, praised Bosch as "a man who has never surrendered. He's not a terrorist. He's a fighter for the liberation of Cuba."

But furniture store owner Pedro Castro, 49, challenged the heroic image surrounding Bosch, who some people still believe masterminded the Cubana airliner bombing despite his acquittal.

"To struggle for Cuba, you don't have to put a bomb on a plane," he said. "I don't think it's right to blow up planes or commit sabotage for Cuba."

Throughout the 1960's Bosch was arrested on a series of weapons-related charges, most of which were dropped. The most spectacular case resulted in his conviction in 1968 in an attack with a bazooka that dented a Polish freighter docked in Miami.

Sentenced to a 10-year federal prison sentence, Bosch served four, then was paroled.

Bosch disappeared in 1974, surfacing intermittently in Latin America amid an array of alleged assassination plots and bombings.

In 1976, while Bosch was in Caracas, a violent group of anti-Castro radicals associated with him claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Cuban jetliner. The crash of the Venezuela- to-Cuba flight killed all aboard, including members of the Cuban national fencing team.

Bosch was arrested and jailed, charged with masterminding the bombing.

Bosch was twice acquitted of responsibility for the destruction and deaths. He remained as a prisoner in Venezuela, however, while the acquittals were subjected to legal review, going all the way to the country's supreme court.

His release from a Venezuelan maximum security prison came in August, after prosecutors failed to appeal the latest acquittal. A Supreme Court review of the technicalities of the decision and bureaucratic delays in getting travel documents stalled his return to the United States.

Herald Staff writers Frank Burgos, David Hancock, Stephen J. Hedges, Andres Viglucci and Christopher Marquis contributed to this report.