July 23, 1999

Hearings in Lawsuit Against U.S. Focus on Attempts to Kill Fidel Castro

By Anita Snow
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

HAVANA - Schemes to poison a chocolate milkshake or put lethal powder in a scuba diving suit were among 637 claimed attempts on President Fidel Castro's life recounted during hearings this week in a lawsuit against the U.S. government.

The hearings continued Tuesday with testimony about a 1981 dengue epidemic that Havana maintains was introduced on the island by the American government in an attempt to topple Castro's communist system. The epidemic killed 158 people, including 101 children.

The lawsuit, filed in Havana in late May by popular organizations connected to the government, accuse the United States of conducting a 40-year dirty war against the island nation.

It asks for $181 billion in compensatory and punitive damages for the deaths of 3,478 Cubans and permanent physical damage to 2,099 more people in a variety of acts ranging from the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 to the bombing of Havana hotels in 1997.

Scores of people testified and huge piles of written evidence were presented.

The hearings were held at the Palace of the Revolution - the seat of Cuba's government - rather than in a regular courtroom, demonstrating the political importance Castro is placing on the legal process. As of Tuesday, however, the Cuban leader had not made an appearance at the hearings.

While the Cuban government used the hearings to make a political point, it appeared unlikely the lawsuit would result in any damages being paid. There are no American funds in Cuba that can be frozen and seized.

No U.S. representative attended the court proceedings and the U.S. government has not commented on the claim.

The plaintiffs include the National Association of Small Farmers, the Federation of Cuban Women, the Communist Workers of Cuba and the Federation of University Students - all mass organizations associated with Cuba's government.

The lawsuit appears to be Havana's answer to a lawsuit in the United States.

In that case, a federal judge in Miami ordered Cuba to pay $187 million to the families of three Americans killed in 1996 when Cuban military jets shot down two small private planes in international waters north of Cuba.

Cuban authorities were angered by that lawsuit, and by attempts to seize Cuban funds from telephone companies operating long-distance phone service between the two countries.

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