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FORT LAUDERDALE, November 14, 2006.- A Federal District Court in Florida sentenced Santiago Alvarez, benefactor of the notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, to four years in prison for conspiracy to possess a weapons arsenal. Alvarez, 64, had been found guilty of conspiracy, but managed to avoid being tried on possession of the arsenal itself, which included automatic weapons, grenades, grenade launchers, and ammunition, all destined for terrorist plans against Cuba, reported Agence France-Presse. Osvaldo Mitat was sentenced to three years in prison for the same charge: conspiracy. However, since the twosome has already spent a year in a Miami jail, they could be released on good conduct in the near future. Both Alvarez and Mitat were part of the crew of the Santrina Yacht that smuggled Luis Posada Carriles, described by the FBI as one of the most dangerous terrorists in the western hemisphere, into the United States from Isla Mujeres, Mexico, in March 2005. Neither of the two was charged for that crime. Posada, a former CIA agent, is currently being protected by the US Immigration Service to avoid his extradition to Venezuela to stand trial for the in-flight bombing of a commercial Cuban airliner killing all 73 persons on board in 1976. He is also credited with several Havana hotel bombings in the 1990s, the killing of Cuban diplomats serving abroad, and several attempts to assassinate President Fidel Castro. Judge James Cohn said he recognized that the final objective of Alvarez and Mitat was to struggle for "a free Cuba and democracy," but added that the US authorities can not ignore violations of the law with such powerful weapons. "Nobody questions the underlying motives," said Cohn. "But, as we all know, we are a nation of the rule of law." (Cubaminrex-Granma)
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