Cuban Tied To Scandal Is Freed -- Patricio De LA Guardia `Ecstatic To Be Free' But Saddened By Death Of 97-Year-Old Father

THE RELEASE of the brother of a disgraced general to attend his father's funeral may be an attempt by Castro to make amends with the military, which was unhappy over the handling of a drug scandal that led to the general's execution in 1989. The twin brother was executed by firing squad along with three other men on charges of treason, drug trafficking and corruption.

MIAMI - A Cuban general jailed for eight years in the worst scandal ever to hit President Fidel Castro's armed forces was freed in time to attend the burial yesterday of his 97-year-old father.

Patricio de la Guardia, twin brother of one of the men executed by firing squad with Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa in 1989, was "ecstatic to be free but saddened by his father's death," said one friend who spoke with him.

He declined to speak to reporters who located him yesterday in a group of some 20 mourners at the burial of his father, Mario, in Havana's Colon Cemetery.

De la Guardia, 58, was taken out of jail Monday under heavy guard to attend his father's wake. But Interior Minister Abelardo Colome Ibarra shocked him at the funeral home with the news that he had been freed, far short of completing his 30-year sentence.

"I am still addled," he told novelist Norberto Fuentes, a longtime friend who lives in Miami and phoned the funeral home on the off chance of being allowed to talk to De la Guardia.

Friends saw his release as the result of years of low-key but steady lobbying by several prominent figures, coupled with a humanitarian decision by Castro to allow De la Guardia to accompany his grieving mother.

Some exiles in Miami speculated that Castro may also have been sending a friendly signal to the Cuban military, presumed by the exiles to have been displeased with Castro's handling of the Ochoa case.

De la Guardia's twin brother, Interior Minister Col. Antonio de la Guardia, was executed by firing squad along with Ochoa and two other men on charges of treason, drug trafficking and corruption.

Prosecutors detailed a two-year conspiracy in which Ochoa joined with Antonio de la Guardia in a plot to ship cocaine from Colombian and marijuana from Jamaica to the United States through Cuba.

Nine men, including Patricio de la Guardia, and one woman were sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison even though the only charge against many of them was failing to report drug-related operations.

Patricio de la Guardiawas allowed weekend visits with his ailing father about once a month in the past year.