April 18, 1975

By ROBERTO FABRICIO

The State Attorney's Office has launched a wide ranging probe of Cuban terrorism in Dade County - beginning with inquiries into the still-unsolved murders of exile activists Joe de la Torriente and Luciano Nieves.

Six Miami Cubans have already testified before the Dade Grand Jury, and it is believed that at least 25 others have been subpoenaed.

"We are also looking into bombings and other related activity," said Assistant State Attorney James Woodard. More than 30 bombing incidents have been reported in the last 15 months.

"We are going to bring everyone out of the woodwork, and into the light of day," said a Metro detective who is working with the State Attorney's Office in the probe

One of those who testified before the grand jury this week is Max Lesnik, editor of Replica Magazine, target of a terrorist bomb on one occasion. The magazine had also run a story on Nieves two days before he was shot to death in a hospital parking lot earlier this year. Nieves, a onetime officer in Castro's army, had recently been calling for reestablished relations between the United States and Cuba.

"They asked me what I knew about the killing of Nieves and I said I felt there is a conspiracy in Miami to establish an atmosphere of terror," Lesnik said.

"Whether those behind the conspiracy know it or not, they are helping communism by robbing democracy of its freedom, its most precious asset." Other men questioned were friends either of Nieves or El Valentin Hernandez, a user car salesman who was once charged with assault and battery against Nieves after flinging a chair at him in a restaurant. Hernandez fled during his trial on that charge and is now a fugitive. Police want to question him about Nieves' slaying.

Questioned by the jury were Marco Correa, Napoleon Vilaboa, Jose Machado, Gustavo Gonzalez, who allegedly was with Hernandez at the time of the restaurant incident, and Eduardo Paz, allegedly a member of an exile right-wing organization of which Hernandez is allegedly also a member.

The investigation also involves the death of momenta, felled by a sniper a year ago this week. Torriente had been criticized by fellow anti-Castro exiles for devoting more of his time to his construction firm than to exile activities. He had also been accused of improperly using funds raised for a Cuban invasion that never occurred.