BY ELAINE DE VALLE

Three Miami Cuban exiles jailed after Fidel Castro claimed they were plotting to assassinate him came home amid cheers and tears at Opa-locka Airport on Thursday, having been pardoned by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso.

A fourth, alleged mastermind Luis Posada Carriles -- a man Castro once called ''the worst terrorist in the hemisphere'' -- immediately went into hiding.

Making victory V's with both hands as he was swallowed in a sea of hugs and handshakes, one of the three men, Guillermo Novo, said he had a message for Castro: ''Te la ganamos.'' We beat you.

''We suffered for four years [in prison] but we won the battle. We have one victory against Fidel,'' Novo said. ``He wanted us to spend 20 years in prison.''

Novo, Posada, Gaspar Jiménez and Pedro Remón -- all involved in past anti-Castro violence -- were arrested in Panama in 2000 on charges that they planned to kill Castro during his visit to the Ibero-American Summit, held in Panama that year. Though Panamanian courts ruled that there was not enough evidence to accuse the men of attempted murder or possession of explosives, they were convicted in April of endangering public safety and sentenced to up to eight years.

Moscoso pardoned the men Wednesday, less than a week before she is to leave office, telling The Herald she did so for ''humanitarian reasons'' and because she feared that her successor would extradite the men to Cuba, where they could face a firing squad.

'At 5 in the morning [Thursday] they woke us. `Get up. You're leaving,' '' Remón said. ``They gave us five minutes to get dressed.''

Jiménez, 69, was rushed to an area hospital with high blood pressure after he landed at Opa-locka aboard one of two small airplanes chartered by Santiago Alvarez, a longtime friend of the four and Miami developer who spearheaded a campaign to raise money for their legal defense.

Alvarez said the second plane stopped in an undisclosed country to drop off Posada, who is not a U.S. citizen.

He has both admitted and denied orchestrating a dozen terror bombings of Havana tourist spots in 1997 in which one person, an Italian tourist, was killed. He was tried in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 but was found not guilty and escaped from jail while awaiting retrial.

''Nobody knows where he is and nobody is going to know,'' Alvarez told The Herald. He would not disclose the cost of the airplane charters or the name of the company involved.

''That was one of the conditions [the pilots] placed. Because if the Cubans know who they are, later those planes won't get access to fly over Cuban airspace,'' he said.

Alvarez said he spoke to Posada by phone early Thursday after Posada landed at the secret location. ''He is well, happy,'' Alvarez said, adding that Posada has no current interest in coming to the United States.

The other three, all U.S. citizens, are Miami-Dade residents and returned to the homes they left behind four years ago.

The men and their supporters have long insisted that they went to Panama to help a Cuban army general who planned to defect during Castro's summit visit. But soon after he arrived, Castro announced that Posada and the others were there to kill him. Police arrested them.

About 50 relatives and supporters -- including Miami Commissioner Angel González and the Cuban Liberty Council's Alberto Hernández -- waited several hours Thursday as the men were questioned by U.S. Customs and immigration officials at Opa-locka Airport.

Among those waiting: Peter ''Pedrito'' Remón, 7, who brought two Florida Marlins caps for the occasion -- one for himself and another for his father. Peter recognized his father immediately and pushed his way through a wall of TV cameramen to hand him the cap with a big, gap-toothed smile.

Novo, whose two brothers died while he was in prison, said he would visit his sister later Thursday, call another sister in New York and visit friends who have supported him and his family.

''I dreamt of this day, but I did not have the confidence that it would come,'' he said. ``This is a triumph for the Cuban exile. . . . It was the Cuban exile community that did this.''

Before they hurried to meet their father at a hospital, Jiménez's two grown daughters were unable to contain their tears as they waited. ''I haven't seen him in 2 ½ years. I want to hug him,'' Sonia Jiménez-Victores said. ``We are very, very grateful to President Mireya Moscoso for doing this.''

Praise for the Panamanian president, who lived in Miami for 11 years in the 1980s and 1990s, was plentiful.

''As a woman I salute her, and all Panamanians for having elected her,'' said Miriam Novo.

The news did not make everyone happy, however. Some question the hero's welcome for men who have been linked to anti-Castro violence.

''It just brings up some dreadful memories for my mother,'' said Al Milian, whose father, radio commentator Emilio Milian, lost his legs in a car bombing in which Jiménez was indicted, although the indictment was later dropped.

Milian declined to comment further, saying his father had forgiven his attackers and had asked his sons -- on his deathbed -- to do the same.