`Invasion' Of Cuba Botched From Start -- Tapes Of Havana Trial Show Inept Planning

MIAMI - The ill-fated Cuban exile military expedition to Cuba that has resulted in death sentences for three Miamians was originally planned to include 22 well-armed men and spread to at least three Cuban cities, the three defendants said at their trial in Havana.

But the original plan fizzled after members of the organizing group, the National Insurrectional Directorate (DIN), fought among themselves over who would lead the operation. The expedition received its second major blow only hours before it was launched, when its mastermind bowed out, citing high blood sugar, one of the defendants said on a tape reportedly made at the trial.

Eduardo Diaz Betancourt, one of the three Cuban exiles sentenced to death over the weekend after their arrival Dec. 29 in Cuba armed with weapons and explosives, described an expedition marked by improvisation, blunders and confusion.

Echoing the Castro regime's contention that Cuba's dissidents are part of a U.S. conspiracy, he also named one of Cuba's best-known human-rights leaders, Gustavo Arcos, as somebody whom the invaders should contact "if we ran into trouble."

In his testimony at his trial Friday, a recording of which was brought from Cuba late yesterday and was to be aired today on Miami's Radio Progreso, Diaz Betancourt named the Miami exiles he said were to participate in the invasion. The two other defendants, Pedro de la Caridad Alvarez Pedroso, 26, and Daniel Santovenia Fernandez, 37, backed up Diaz Betancourt's testimony and said he was the de facto leader of their group after the last-minute defection of the expedition's mastermind.

All three identified Reinaldo Dominguez Diaz as the would-be leader of the expedition, who bowed out at the last minute. Relatives in Miami said Dominguez was not at home.

Diaz Betancourt, who arrived in the United States on a raft in April 1991, said he met Dominguez by chance at a little Havana cafeteria one month after his arrival. Dominguez recruited him for the expedition, "because I know the area of Cardenas" where the group would land and could offer services as a guide, he said.

After Dominguez backed out, the three men left from Marathon, in the Florida Keys, on a boat, carrying three bags with weapons and ammunition. They arrived on the Cuban coast near Cardenas, about 80 miles east of Havana, at 8:30 a.m., and hid under a tree until nightfall.

"We were thinking of targeting sugar mills, theaters, tourism centers, etc.," Diaz Betancourt said. "But we only carried smoke grenades. The objective was to create panic, that was it."

The group also carried about 10 cassette tapes with a speech by Felipe Gonzalez calling on Cubans to take to the streets, the defendant said. The exile military group planned to take Radio Progreso and Radio Reloj in Havana, and broadcast the speech, he said.

Defendant Santovenia said the three men were walking toward Cardenas on Dec. 29 when they were stopped by guards.