7 Exiles Charged With Plotting to Kill Castro
The U.S. government on Tuesday announced the indictment of seven Cuban exiles, including a director of Miami’s influential Cuban American National Foundation, on charges of plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro.
Although there have been numerous plots and claims of plots to kill Cuba’s communist leader since he seized power in 1959, the indictment was believed to be the first such accusation in a court of law.
It alleged the defendants planned for four years to kill Castro, 72, outside the United States, in particular during his trip to a Latin American summit on Margarita island off the Venezuelan coast in November 1997.
If convicted, they face up to life in prison.
The indictment suggests that more people could be charged, saying the plotters conspired “with other persons known and unknown to the grand jury.”
At least one defendant, Jose Antonio Llama, 67, is a director of the Cuban American National Foundation, which Castro has accused for years of plotting to kill him. The foundation publicly advocates political pressure to spur change in Cuba.
In Miami, the foundation called the allegations “politically motivated” and expressed confidence that Llama was innocent.
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