By TIM GOLDEN

          In a defeat for government prosecutors, five Cuban exiles charged
          with plotting to kill Fidel Castro at a Caribbean summit meeting two
          years ago were acquitted Wednesday of all the charges against them by a
          federal jury in Puerto Rico.

          The federal district judge in the case, Hector Laffitte, had already
          dismissed conspiracy charges against a sixth defendant for lack of
          evidence. A seventh man, who is suffering from cancer, is to be tried
          later.

          The announcement of the verdicts, after only about seven hours of
          deliberations, brought tears from the defendants, the youngest of whom
          was 59.

          The case was the first ever brought in the United States charging a
          conspiracy to assassinate Castro. It also raised questions about the
          activities of the powerful political group with which several of the men
          were affiliated, the Cuban American National Foundation.

          The Foundation, which lobbies on U.S. policy toward Cuba and other
          issues, and the accused men insisted that they channeled their opposition
          to the Castro government through wholly peaceful means.

          Doubts about the defendants' intentions emerged as soon as Coast
          Guard officers intercepted four of the men on a cabin cruiser off Puerto
          Rico in October, 1997.

          When the authorities discovered two huge .50-caliber sniper rifles
          aboard the boat, one of the defendants, Angel Alfonso, blurted out that
          the guns were his and that his "sole mission in life," was to kill the Cuban
          leader.

          In court, where only part of Alfonso's statement was admitted as
          evidence, his lawyer, Ricardo R. Pesquera, said his client was just
          bluffing.

          Without putting any of the aging defendants on the witness stand, their
          attorneys accepted virtually all of the circumstantial evidence the
          prosecution put forth: the contradictory statements to Coast Guard
          officers; the preparation of the boat, the rifles, and night-vision goggles;
          and the renting of a temporary apartment on Venezuela's Margarita
          Island, where Castro met with other heads of state from Latin American,
          Spain and Portugal in the first days of November, 1997.

          But while the prosecutors argued that the rifles and the amateurish
          skullduggery were clearly directed at murdering the Cuban leader,
          defense lawyers insisted that the men were peaceful activists headed for
          the island to protest against Castro and perhaps to help spirit away any
          members of his entourage who might want to seek asylum in the United
          States.

          The heavy, 5-foot sniper rifles, they said, were meant for self-defense.

          While some of the men had at times been associated with militant
          anti-Castro activities, the prosecutors offered virtually no evidence about
          the defendants' political backgrounds. At one point, one of the
          prosecutors said the government was thinking of presenting evidence of
          money transfers linked to violent events in other countries, but it did not.

          Lawyers for the defendants were quick to claim a political victory.

          "This was a message to the U.S. government that you cannot be so
          hypocritical," Pesquera said. He cautioned that he was not admitting to
          any assassination plot but added: "The United States government tried on
          many occasions to kill Fidel Castro."

          The outcome also confounded the expectations of some lawyers that a
          jury of Puerto Ricans, whose politics tend to be liberal, might have
          trouble finding common cause with militantly anti-Castro
          Cuban-Americans. Defense lawyers seemed to have taken care of that
          by taking every opportunity they could to compare the Cubans' battle
          with Washington to those of nationalistic Puerto Ricans, including the
          current furor over a Navy bombing on the Puerto Rican island of
          Vieques.

          Wednesday afternoon, as the defendants congratulated one another
          outside the courtroom, at least two of the jurors hurried over to embrace
          them and then joined them for a celebration at a local restaurant.

          "We wanted to send a message to the Cuban community that we are with
          them and that they should not give up hope," the jury foreman, Carlos
          Avila, 27, told reporters.

          Along with Alfonso, those cleared were: Jose Antonio Llamas, a director
          of the Cuban American National Foundation; Angel Hernandez; Jose
          Rodriguez Sosa, and Francisco Secundino Cordova.

                     Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company