He tells of bomb blasts at tourist sites

 BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

 Under heavy guard by federal marshals, a counterterrorism investigator summoned from Havana appeared in anti-Castro Miami on Thursday to testify in the defense of his countrymen: five men accused of spying for Cuba.

 The testimony of Roberto Hernández Caballero -- who told jurors about a series of bomb attacks against Cuban tourist sites in 1997 -- was the first during this trial from a live witness currently living in Cuba. One other Cuban witness testified on videotape played for jurors.

 Hernández, 37, a lieutenant colonel for the State Security Department of the Interior Ministry, testified that people living in the United States were partly responsible for the bomb attacks but that "evidence'' that Cuba shared with the FBI about the terrorism has not resulted in any arrests here.

 Hernández did not identify the suspected U.S. residents by name or as Cuban exiles. But he and his bosses in the Cuban government have previously accused the Miami exile community -- and the Cuban American National Foundation in particular -- of planning and financing the bomb attacks. CANF has denied any involvement.

 From April through October 1997, 12 bombs exploded or were found in Havana tourism centers: the hotels Capri, Chateau-Miramar, Copacabana, Melia Cohiba, Nacional and Triton; the restaurant Bodeguita del Medio; at an airport and a taxi base.

 The explosions killed an Italian tourist, wounded seven and caused extensive property damage.

 Hernández's testimony further confirmed long-running but secretive contacts between U.S. and Cuban counterterrorism agents about the bomb attacks. He said FBI
 agents flew to Havana to meet with him and other investigators in June 1998, and he reciprocated with a meeting in Washington D.C. in March 1999.

 In the meetings, Hernández said he turned over voluminous information to the FBI, including written lists of all terrorist acts against Cuba between 1990 and 1998, lists of all armed infiltrations and statements from people convicted in Cuba of the terrorist acts.

 Hernández, who traveled to the United States with a diplomatic passport, appeared under unusually tight security. He is scheduled to continue testifying today.

 At the request of the Cuban government, he is under protective custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. Some seven marshals guard him at all times, squiring him in and out of the courtroom through secured entrances and housing him at an undisclosed location.

 Only defense attorney Joaquín Méndez and a few members of his staff have access to Hernández, who was said to have feared for his safety in Miami. An official from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., also joined Hernández in Miami.

 Before the trial, Hernández gave videotaped testimony in Cuba that was scheduled to be played in lieu of his live appearance. Lawyers gave no explanation for why that plan changed. The U.S. Justice Department gave its approval for his visit.

 Through Hernández, Méndez hammered away at key defense themes: that the accused spies on trial in U.S. District Court allegedly came to Miami to infiltrate militant exile groups intent on terrorizing Cuba, and that the U.S. allegedly dragged its feet when Havana provided evidence of who was responsible.

 Prosecutors have not yet cross-examined Hernández. But in the past, knowledgeable U.S. officials have said that some Havana submissions to the FBI have ranged from solid to little more than clippings from U.S. and Cuban newspapers.

 As proof of U.S. vigilance, officials also point to the indictments in Puerto Rico of seven exiles -- including a CANF board member -- who were accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro. Ultimately, all of the men were acquitted or had the charges dismissed against them in 1999.

 Hernández testified that the bomb attacks were part of a campaign of terror designed to scare civilians and foreign tourists, harming Cuba's single largest industry.

 Hernández made the identical claim in March 1999 in Havana, during the trial of Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, a Salvadoran who was convicted for six of the bombings. At that time, Hernández blamed CANF and the Miami exile community, saying the organization ``used mercenaries from Central American for miserable pay'' to carry out its deeds.

 "But note that there's need for a lot of financing when the base of operations is in Miami,'' he testified in Havana at the time. "And what organization in exile can finance these activities but for the Cuban American National Foundation?''

 Other Cuban officials testified in Havana that parts of the bomb campaign were carried out through Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile and clandestine figure then living in El Salvador, apparently to avoid violating U.S. neutrality laws.

 Posada, 73, a CIA-trained explosives expert, was identified by The Herald in late 1997 as the mastermind behind the Havana bombings. Posada later confirmed his role in the blasts, but ultimately denied that CANF was involved in the plot.

 Posada is now imprisoned in Panama in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Castro. He and three other Cubans were arrested Nov. 17 at the urging of the
 Cuban intelligence service. Explosives were found in their rented car.

 The Cuban government charged that the men had planned to kill Castro, who was in Panama attending a summit of Ibero-American leaders.

 Thursday was the second time that Hernández has testified in a U.S. trial, but last time he was a witness for the government, not the defense.

 In 1997, he was one of four Cuban government officials who set a precedent when prosecutors flew them from Tampa to testify against three Cubans accused of
 commandeering a small aircraft and diverting it to southwest Florida. The defendants were found not guilty of skyjacking in federal court.