The Miami News
October 12, 1968

8 Exile Suspects Fast In Jail

By LOUSIE BLANCHARD
Miami News Reporter

    A spokesman for eight Cuban exiles, jailed yesterday in connection with the terrorist damage to foreign ships, said today they have begun a limited hunger strike.
    A ninth exile, a woman, also arrested and charged with conspiring to damage ships doing business with Fidel Castro's Cuba, was released.
    Marcelino Garcia, speaking for the "Alianza Movimiento Insurreccional de Recuperacion Revolucionaria Comandos L," said Dr. Orlando Bosch has smuggled a letter out of the Dade County jail.
    The letter Garcia produced said all had been arrested on false charges.  It accused the CIA and the FBI of "tenacious persecution" of members of the organization.  Its name translates roughly as "allied movement for insurrection and to revive the revolution."
    Garcia said the eight still in jail after their arrest by FBI agents would eat only bread, which symbolizes Christianity to them, and a can sugar drink which they consider a symbol of Cuba.
    A spokesman at Dade County jail said he doubted that Dr. Bosch had been able to smuggle anything out.  Jail spokesman also said it was not yet possible to determine whether the men are refusing food.
    Trays are distributed in accordance with the number of men in a cell, the spokesman said, but the prisoners are not observed to determine whether each prisoner gets a tray.
    Garcia, secretary general of the "Alianza M.I.R.R., Comandos L.," issued a press release at a meeting last night denouncing "all the governments of the free world"
    The statement declared that the arrest of Dr. Bosch and the others "confirms the conjecture" that the government of the United States is interested in "sustaining Fidel Castro."
    The press release said, as did the Bosch letter, that members of the organization had been "persecuted and watched" by federal authorities, that the accusations were "political in nature" and that the arrests were intended to "paralyze all our forces for the liberation of our nation."
    Dr. Bosch and two others were charged with shooting at a Polish ship, the Polanica, docked at Dodge Island Sept. 16.  In addition, Dr. Bosch was accused of sending cablegrams June 6 to the heads of Great Britain, Mexico and Spain, threatening to destroy ships and planes of the three countries.
    Aimee Miranda Cruz, 39, the woman, was released.