BY JAY WEAVER

 During Cuba's communist revolution, Joaquin del Cueto played several roles that made him a target for Fidel Castro. He was an officer in Fulgencio Batista's army, worked with an American in Havana with ties to the CIA and headed the anti-communist group, Accion Civica.

 On April 19, 1961 -- two days after the Bay of Pigs invasion -- a government firing squad killed del Cueto, 38.

 Now del Cueto's exile family is relying on a 1996 federal antiterrorist law to sue Cuba in Miami-Dade Circuit Court for his alleged wrongful death. Like other families who have sued Castro's regime, the del Cuetos say they are more interested in justice than money.

 ``Our motivation is just to get the word out to let people know our dad stood for democracy and he gave his life for it,'' said Joaquin del Cueto Jr., 47, a veteran Miami-Dade firefighter. ``A lot of people are not aware of all the atrocities committed by the Castro regime back in the 1950s and 1960s.''

 Their suit is similar to a highly publicized complaint filed last month by the family of Howard F. Anderson, who also was executed by the Cuban government. Anderson worked with del Cueto in the anti-communist movement and carried messages for the CIA, according to his daughter, journalist Bonnie Anderson.

 TRIED TOGETHER

 Both men were tried and convicted at the same trial on arms-smuggling charges that got under way during the Bay of Pigs invasion, according to the lawsuits. The pair had been facing up to nine years in prison, the suits contend.

 ``My husband and Mr. Anderson were executed together on April 19, [1961],'' said Mariana de la Torre del Cueto. ``I saw them bury my husband and Mr. Anderson in separate graves [in Pinar del Rio, Cuba]. I ordered crosses for them and put their names on them.

 ``The [Castro regime] killed so many people in Cuba that year,'' she said. ``It was very sad.''

 One month later, the former schoolteacher moved with her three sons to Miami, where she raised them in Little Havana. ``I was glad to bring my kids over here and not raise them in a communist country,'' she said.

 Like del Cueto and Anderson, Aldo Vera met a similar fate at the hands of the Castro government. And Vera's family in Miami also has sued the regime for his alleged wrongful death.

 DISILLUSIONED

 Vera was a senior police official in Havana before becoming so disillusioned with Castro's revolution that he fled with his mother, wife and son to Puerto Rico in 1960.

 Counter-revolutionary groups and the U.S. Coast Guard helped them get there. In exile, according to his family's lawsuit, Vera advised the Pentagon during the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs.

 In Puerto Rico, Vera became a founding member of ``The Fourth Republic,'' an anti-communist movement. Castro viewed the group as a threat to his communist
 revolution.

 And Vera became a political target.

 The Vera family's suit accuses the Cuban government of ordering his death after a Fourth Republic meeting in San Juan on Oct. 25, 1976. He was 50.

 ``Upon exiting the meeting place, Mr. Vera was shot several times in the back with an automatic weapon,'' the suit claims on behalf of his mother, wife and two sons.

 `A NIGHTMARE'

 ``We've known for years it was all planned this way,'' said the victim's older son, Aldo Vera Jr., 41, who works as a park ranger for Miami-Dade County. ``It's a continuing nightmare, and I want to put an end to it.''

 As in the past, the Cuban government did not respond to a request to comment on the latest wrongful-death suits.

 ``We need to send all this information to Cuba first,'' said Luis Fernandez, a spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C.

 The attorney for the del Cueto, Vera and Anderson families said that even though the Cuban government is not expected to put on a defense in the suits, there will still be a trial before a judge.

 ``You don't win by default,'' said their lawyer, Fernando Zulueta. ``You still have to have a trial because it's a lawsuit against a foreign sovereign.''

 Zulueta did just that last year when he represented Ana Margarita Martinez, the jilted former wife of Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque.

 After a brief trial, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alan Postman ordered the Cuban government to pay her $27 million in total damages. He declared that Cuba orchestrated Roque's phony marriage so he could infiltrate the exile community in Miami.

                                    © 2002