Presidential pardons for four Cuban exiles imprisoned in Panama have been an issue since their arrest in 2000.

BY NANCY SAN MARTIN

Presidential pardons for four anti-Castro Cuban exiles imprisoned in Panama have been considered every Christmas since their arrest in 2000 but never made ''the short list,'' a top aide to Panama President Mireya Moscoso said Wednesday.

Now, Moscoso may pardon the men before she leaves office next week because she's angry with Cuban government charges that she has surrendered to a lobbying campaign by Miami-based exiles who support the four, the aide added.

''My personal opinion, not based on any official information, is that she will do it,'' said the aide, who spoke to The Herald on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job. ``She's very angry with Cuba.''

The aide said the issue of pardons for the four has come up every Christmas, the traditional time for pardons, since 2000, largely through public commentaries on the case, which started out as an alleged attempt to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro during a visit to Panama in the fall of 2000.

SUPPORT

Panama has no formal process for requesting presidential pardons, but there have been dozens of public appeals by the four's sympathizers in Miami and Panama for their release. Supporters in Miami have raised $400,000 for their legal defense and labeled them heroes in the fight to topple Castro.

''This has been a permanent issue in Panama,'' the aide said. 'In the run-up to her Christmas pardons in 2000, 01, 02, 03, this issue came up every time, with their supporters urging a pardon and the [Panamanian] leftist groups saying `don't you dare.' ''

But Moscoso had never before leaned toward approving the pardons, he added. ``She has had the case on the long list, but never on the short list.''

Prosecutors dropped charges of conspiring to kill Castro and possession of 33 pounds of high-grade explosives. But they were convicted in April of endangering the public safety and sentenced to up to eight years in prison.

Luis Posada Carriles, and Miamians Pedro Remón, Guillermo Novo and Gaspar Jiménez have claimed they went to Panama in 2000 only to help a Cuban general who was to accompany Castro and had planned to defect.

Havana has branded Posada, who lived for many years in El Salvador before his arrest, as its most wanted terrorist, accusing him in a string of terror bombings of Havana tourist spots in 1997 and the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 persons.

DISPUTE

Moscoso's dispute with Cuba began earlier this month when Havana complained that she was considering the pardons to curry favor with some Cuban exiles in Miami. Over the weekend Cuba threatened to break off diplomatic relations if she approved the pardons. The Panamanian president recalled her ambassador in Havana on Monday, and the next day ordered Cuba's ambassador in Panama City to return to the communist-ruled island.

Asked if the U.S. government had sought a pardon for the Cuban exiles, William Ostick, spokesman for the U.S. embassy, said no U.S. official ``has requested the Panamanians to pardon these individuals.''