By Teresa Lane
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

FORT PIERCE — More than 200 Cuban-Americans, angry that their freedom fighters won't be tried in a Miami-Dade County courtroom, brought their battle to Fort Pierce on Tuesday, where pretrial motions were heard inside a packed federal courtroom while protesters outside screamed, "Libertad!"

Longtime Miami residents Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat were arrested last year on charges that they possessed such illegal weapons as machine guns, silencers and a grenade launcher, but their supporters Tuesday claim they were set up by double agents with ties to Cuba and the FBI.
 
A federal trial is scheduled to begin May 8 in Fort Lauderdale, and two key hearings were moved to Fort Pierce after a U.S. magistrate in Broward County recused herself. Supporters who filled three charter buses were angry that the case had been moved north to Fort Lauderdale and were doubly upset to have to drive an additional two hours to Fort Pierce on Tuesday.

"We left Miami at 6 o'clock this morning to get here," said Rene Guerra, representing a group that has raised money for the men's legal defense. "We're protesting the fact that the FBI cooperates with Cuban spies and Cuban agents, and to make matters worse, they're using U.S. taxpayer money to do it."

One of Alvarez's defense attorneys, Ben Kuehne, said he and attorneys for Mitat are seeking to suppress evidence of weapons seized at Alvarez's office in Hialeah and apartments in Lauderhill. Attorneys asked U.S. Magistrate Frank Lynch of Fort Pierce to suppress witnesses' statements last week, and a ruling on both motions is expected soon, Kuehne said.

A federal judge denied the pair's request to move the case to a federal courthouse in Miami-Dade, where there is potential for more Cuban-Americans on the jury panel, and that ruling has been appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Fort Pierce motorists passing by the federal courthouse on Citrus Boulevard and South Sixth Street drove slowly by the well-dressed protesters who waved American and Cuban flags and carried signs about FBI corruption. One Fort Pierce police officer asked a newspaper photographer what the protest was about, parking nearby to ensure the demonstration ended peacefully.

"Santiago Alvarez is not a terrorist," Mario Fernandez of Miami said. "He has spent all his life trying to bring freedom to the people in Cuba. The worst you can do is nothing."