St. Petersburg Times, December 14, 1968, "Bosch, Eight Others Get Jail Sentences" by United Press International

MIAMI - Dr. Orlando Bosch. alleged Cuba Power leader, and eight other exiles were sentenced yesterday to a total of 48 years in jail for conspiring to blow up foreign ships trading with the Fidel Castro regime.

Federal Judge William O. Mehrtens gave the defendants, including one woman, a tongue-lashing for what he called "perfectly stupid" activities after he handed out the tough sentences which actually amount to 39 1/2 years in jail because some are concurrent.

Bosch, a 43-year-old baby doctor, drew the heaviest sentence - a total of 18 years on a five-count indictment. He will not serve more than 10 years, however, because the other eight years are to be served concurrently.

[...]

Relatives wept in the corridor after the sentencing. Mrs. Bosch denounced the penalty and said her husband was fighting for "the same thing American soldiers are fighting for in Vietnam."

"I am proud of my husband," she said.

[...]

Copyright (c) 1968 United Press International

Daytona Beach Morning Journal, November 16, 1968, "Cuban Exiles Guilty of Blasting Ships" by The Associated Press

MIAMI - Nine Cuban exiles, including former Havana pediatrician Orlando Bosch were found guilty in federal court Friday of conspiring to blast ships of foreign countries which trade with Cuba.

In addition, Bosch was adjudged guilty on three counts of sending telegrams to the heads of state of Spain, Mexico and England, threatening that the mysterious Cuban Power organization would bomb their ships.

Bosch and two other refugees - Barbaro Balan and Jose Diaz Morejon - were convicted of firing on the Polish Freighter Polanika while it was in the Port of Miami.

Bosch, frequently afoul of United States neutrality laws in previous plots against Fidel Castro's Cuban government, could be sentenced to a total of 28 years in federal prison.

[...]

Asst. U.S. Atty. Donald Bierman during the trial described Bosch as "a man with a clear contempt for the U.S. system of justice."

The defense, however, contended the nine Cuban refugees were brought to trial for the sole purpose of prosecuting Bosch. Lawyer Melvyn Greenspahn charged the government would not be satisfied "until they put him away."

In a statement after the trial, Bierman praised his key witness, Ricardo Morales [Navarrete], an exile who infiltrated Cuba Power and reported on its activities.

[...]

"His conduct was patriotic and motivated by a desire to stop what he believed was a fraud upon the Cuba people perpetrated by the leaders of Cuban Power. He believed that the activity of Cuba Power in relation to foreign shipping was nothing more than a wanton destruction of the property of our allies Britain, Spain and Japan, which in no way served to hinder or even inconvenience the government of Fidel Castro," Bierman said.

Morales testified that he supplied Bosch with fake dynamite furnished him by the FBI. He reportedly was placed under guard for protection from fellow exiles after having testified.

Copyright (c) 1968 The Associated Press

The Miami News, November 14, 1968, "Bosch Names Cuban Power Leader" by Ian Glass

Ernesto, the mysterious head of the secret Cuba Power Organization and the man who took the credit for its bombings, was identified yesterday.

"His name is Pablo Vega," a reluctant Dr. Orlando Bosch said in federal court here.

Bosch said he originally met Ernesto on Aguila Key in the Bahamas two years ago. He described him as about 5-feet, 4-inches, dark, muscular.

He believed Ernesto who, he said, was military chief of Cuban Power, had left the country after the shelling of the Polish liner Polanica Sept. 16. He did not know where he was now.

[...]

Bosch also said it was Ernesto that fired the 57 mm recoilless rifle at the Polanica, although it was agreed another of the defendants, Jose Diaz Morejon, would take the blame.

[...]

Government attorneys Donald Bierman and Theodore Klein showed earlier that, over the last six months, Morales had been supplying Bosch with phony dynamite supplied by the FBI.

Bosch admitted he had accepted the dynamite, but only to be sent to insurgents in Cuba. He paid $300 for three shipments.

[...]

The case is expected to go to the jury late today [or] tomorrow.

Copyright (c) 1968 The Miami News

Daytona Beach Morning Journal, November 8, 1968, "Phony Dynamite, Says Witness on Exile Duds" by The Associated Press

MIAMI - A Cuban exile testified Thursday that he infiltrated Cuban Power, a secret terrorist group, and supplied it with phony dynamite he obtained from the FBI.

The witness, 29-year-old Ricardo Morales Navarrete, said Orlando Bosch, one of nine exiles on trial in Federal Court, kept complaining that ship blasting attempts with his explosives had been duds.

The nine were charged with conspiring to bomb ships from countries dealing with the Fidel Castro regime.

Morales, who described himself as an arms expert, also testified that at Bosch's request, he assembled a 59 millimeter recoilless rifle to be fired on a Polish vessel.

Judge William O. Mehrtens admitted his testimony over the objection of defense attorney Melvyn Greenspahn who pointed out it came from a paid informer.

[...]

Morales testified he first saw the [recoilless] rifle in the apartment of Aimee Miranda, one of the defendants, and that he put it in shooting condition. He said he also equipped it with sights fashioned from a coat hanger.

Morales, speaking with a strong accent, also testified that at his first meeting with Bosch, on Jan. 20, Bosch told him "a suitcase full of money has arrived from Cuba for Cuban Power."

[...]

Copyright (c) 1968 The Associated Press

The Miami News, October 11, 1968, "8 Exile Suspects Fast in Jail" by Louise Blanchard

A spokesman for eight Cuban exiles, jailed yesterday in connection with the terrorist damage to foreign ships, said today they have begun a limited hunger strike.

A ninth exile, [Aimee Miranda Cruz], also arrested and charged with conspiring to damage ships doing business with Fidel Castro's Cuba, was released.

Marcelino Garcia, speaking for the "Alianza Movimiento Insurreccional de Recuperacion Revolucionaria Comandos L," said Dr. Orlando Bosch had smuggled a letter out of the Dade County Jail.

The letter Garcia produced said all had been arrested on false charges. It accused the CIA and the FBI of "tenacious persecution" of members of the organization.

[...]

Garcia, secretary general of the "Alianza M.I.R.R., Comandos L.," issued a press release at a meeting last night denouncing "all the governments of the free world."

The statement declared hat the arrest of Dr. Bosch and the others "confirms the conjecture" that the government of the United States is interested in "sustaining Fidel Castro."

The press release said, as did the Bosch letter, that members of the organization had been "persecuted and watched" by federal authorities, that the accusations were "political in nature" and that the arrests were intended to "paralyze all our forces for the liberation of our nation."

[...]

Copyright (c) 1968 The Miami News

The Herald-Tribune, October 12, 1968, "Nine Cuban Exiles Jailed As Terror Plotters" by The Associated Press

MIAMI - Nine Cuban exiles were jailed here Friday on federal charges of plotting terro attacks on ships and planes of Spain, Mexico and Great Britain as part of a nationwide anti-Castro vendetta by the group calling itself Cuban Power.

The man indicted as the leader, Dr. Orlando Bosch, seemed triumphant after his arrest by FBI agents. While being taken to jail under $50,000 bond, Bosch raised his handcuffed arms and made "V's" with fingers of each hand as he shouted: "Victory for Cuban liberation."

Bosch and two of the nine were chraged in the Sept. 16 cannonading of a Polish freighter in Miami. The attack became an international incident.

The indictment also identified Bosch as the mysterious "Ernesto," the voice of Cuban Power who announced attacks sometimes before the occurred.

Bosch was charged separately with cabling threats to Harold Wilson, prime minister of Great Britain, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, president of Mexico, and Gen. Francisco Franco, head of state in Spain.

All nine of those arrested Friday by FBI agents were charged with conspiracy to violate the neutrality of the United States by making war against another nation from U.S. soil.

In announcing the arrests, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said, "Cuban Power is a militant anti-Castro organization which has publicly claimed responsibility for various acts of violence against property of those nations which have continued to carry on trading with Cuba."

Some of the targets included consulates, offices of government airlines and companies which shipped mercy packages to families in Cuba.

The indictment, returned secretly in Miami Thursday by a federal grand jury, said all nine of those indicted had conspired with the Cuban Power group. Among the attacks claimed by Cuban Power were bombings of a cargo plane at Miami Airport, a British freighter at sea near Key West, and a Japanese freighter at Tampa, Fla.

A tenth man identified in the indictment, but neither charged nor listed as a coconspirator, was Ricardo Morales Navarrete. Morales had been arrested earlier by Miami police in connection with one of the 39 bombings that struck the city's Cuban colony.

Morales' testimony to the grand jury was reportedly the key to breaking the facade of the secret group.

[...]

Copyright (c) 1968 The Associated Press

[More from The Miami News, Oct. 11, 1968]

The Miami News, October 8, 1968, "Dynamite Found Near Dante's Office" by The Miami News

Twenty-four sticks of dynamite, with detonation caps and primer cord, were found outside the Miami campaign headquarters of Rep. Dante Fascell yesterday but the explosives had not been rigged as a bomb.

Dick Nellius, press assistant to Fascell, a Democrat who is running for re-election, said the 50-pound box of dynamite was found in bushes outside a building at 2901 S. Bayshore Dr., where the Fascell forces have offices on the ground floor.

Nellius said the explosives were found by someone connected with Alliance Machinery Corp., which owns the building and has offices on the upper floor. The dynamite was removed by the Metro Bomb Squad.

Copyright (c) 1968 The Miami News