UPDATE / ORLANDO BOSCH : Terrorist? Patriot? He Vows a Martyr’s Death by Fasting

Six months after he decided to give up his fight to remain in the United States and accept deportation, Orlando Bosch, the Cuban-born anti-Castro pediatrician the U.S. government calls a terrorist, remains locked up here in a federal prison. A State Department source said Monday efforts continue to find a country willing to take Bosch.

But Bosch’s daughter maintains that U.S. officials are lying. “They’re not looking for any place to send him,” said Myriam Bosch. “They’re just holding him. They just want him to rot in jail.”

Now Bosch, 64, is three days into a seven-day hunger strike designed to put the U.S. government on notice. If no action is taken within 30 to 60 days after the week-long strike ends, he said in a statement released by his daughter, he will fast until death.

“I fear he will starve himself to death,” said Myriam Bosch. “And if this government lets that happen, it will be beyond comprehension. But it’s possible.”

The story of Orlando Bosch--called a patriot by many in Miami’s Cuban community, and a national security risk by the U.S. Justice Department--has been a 30-year saga here, and in most accounts it’s a tale filled with intrigue, politics and violence.

After leaving Cuba for exile in Miami in 1960, Bosch briefly practiced medicine until he was discovered storing explosives in a hospital where he worked. After that, he became a full-time anti-Castro activist.

In 1968 Bosch was convicted of firing a bazooka at a Polish freighter in the Miami harbor in what was said to be a protest against that country’s trade with Cuba. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, he was paroled after four. But he fled the United States in 1974 after being subpoenaed to testify in an inquiry into the assassination of a controversial exile leader in Miami.

Bosch first turned up in Venezuela, and later, in the employ of the Chilean secret police. He was back in Venezuala in 1976 when a bomb ripped through a Cubana airlines plane, killing 73 people, including several members of the Cuban national fencing team. Bosch was charged with being involved in the bombing, and although tried three times, he was never convicted.

In February, 1988, after 11 years in Venezuelan jails, he returned to the United States and was immediately arrested for parole violation. Last November, after a federal court upheld the government’s decision to deport him, Bosch declined to appeal, saying he would take his chances in a third country. Although the United States says he will not be sent to Cuba, Bosch’s family has long argued that he would be a target of Castro agents anywhere outside the United States.

Recently, Bosch has drawn support from Florida Republicans such as U.S. Sen. Connie Mack and U.S. Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, and within the Cuban community people have often taken to the streets to demand he be freed. But his hunger strike has attracted little notice--in part, according to his daughter Myriam, “because there are certain leaders in the Cuban community who don’t want him out; they feel threatened by him.”

Myriam Bosch hopes that her father’s hunger strike may bring about his release. “He’s kind of weak,” she said. “He has bleeding ulcers, angina, and he should be on a special diet. But what’s he going to do, rot in jail for not having done anything? Frankly, I think the U.S. government has some sort of deal with Castro. Why else would they not find a country to take him?”