U.S. May Parole Anti-Castro Militant It Calls Terrorist

After “an exhaustive search . . . of 31 countries on six continents” failed to turn up any nation willing to accept Cuban-born anti-Castro militant Orlando Bosch, the U.S. government said Thursday the jailed doctor may be paroled into the community.

The search for another haven was described by Steven Valentine, an assistant U.S. attorney from Washington, who told U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler that within 30 days the State Department would decide whether to give up its efforts to deport Bosch.

Convicted of a terrorist act in Miami in 1968, Bosch has been imprisoned as a risk to national security since he returned to the United States from Venezuela in February, 1988. He is regarded as a hero by many in the fiercely anti-Castro Cuban community here, while others--including the U.S. Justice Department--view him as an unrepentant terrorist.

Hank Adorno, an attorney representing the 64-year-old Bosch--who was not present in the courtroom--seemed surprised by the government’s announcement. “I’m the gracious recipient of this news,” said Adorno.

But outside the courtroom, Bosch’s wife and two daughters expressed anger that the government needed another month to decide his fate. “Why can’t he be released now?” asked Myriam Bosch, a daughter. “This is foot-dragging and I’m disgusted.”

Bosch became a rabid anti-Castro activist soon after he left Cuba for Miami in 1960. He served four years in prison following his 1968 conviction on charges of firing a bazooka at a Polish freighter in the Miami harbor.

He fled the country in violation of parole in 1974, and two years later was arrested in Venezuela after a bomb ripped through an airborne Cuban jetliner, killing 73 people, including several members of the Cuban national fencing team. Tried three times in Venezuela on charges related to the bombing, he was never convicted. He returned to the United States after 11 years in Venezuelan custody and was picked up as a parole violator.

Last month, Bosch staged a seven-day hunger strike to protest his continued detention.