Sept. 11, 2006, 9:52PM
Miami Cubans support arrested anti-Castro activist
Awaiting charges on weapons cache, he's seen by some as a patriot rather than a terrorist
By PETER WHORISKEY
Washington Post
MIAMI - He is, depending upon whom you talk to, either a terrorist or a patriot.
The trial of Santiago Alvarez, a 65-year-old businessman here, is scheduled to begin this week on federal charges of maintaining an illegal armory of machine guns, C-4 explosive and hand grenades at a suburban apartment complex he owned.
Federal prosecutors say the anti-Castro crusader was storing "a staggering amount of illegal weaponry and ammunition." The Cuban government, the presumed target, has denounced him as a terrorist.
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Making matters worse, Alvarez's advocates say, is the slim likelihood of having a Cuban-American on the jury — because the indictment was made in Fort Lauderdale, rather than in Miami, the jury pool will be drawn far from the large Cuban community of Miami-Dade.
Before his arrest, Alvarez may have been best known for his advocacy on behalf of Luis Posada Carriles, a CIA-trained Cuban immigrant linked to the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people in 1976 and to other violent plots. When Posada sought asylum in the United States last year, it was Alvarez who helped present his case to the public.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4179296.html
Photo #1, with Guillermo Novo, fellow terrorist, murderer
Photo #2, by his boat, on which he sneaked back bomber/mass murderer Luis Posada Carriles