Prosecutor Enrique Nunez Grillo said Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena's plans to blow up several monuments were ``extremely grave.'' The lawyer on Tuesday upgraded his original sentencing recommendation of 30 years in prison.
Rodriguez Llerena confessed to placing a bomb in the lobby of an upscale Havana hotel and to bringing more explosives to Cuba for additional attacks. He reiterated his plea for forgiveness Tuesday.
A government agent who infiltrated Miami-based Cuban exile groups testified that the second batch of explosives Rodriguez Llerena brought in were intended for sites cherished by Cuban communists: the Monument to the Revolution in Havana and the tomb of revolutionary icon Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara in the central city of Santa Clara.
Another concern for Nunez Grillo was what he said was the U.S. government's tolerance of such acts.
``These actions, prepared and financed from the United States, could not have been realized without the knowledge of the authorities of the United States government,'' he said.
Castro told a congress of Cuban journalists Tuesday afternoon that a meeting President Clinton held early this month with leaders of the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation was proof that the U.S. government ``is responsible for this extremely grave affair through advance knowledge or tolerance.''
The State Department had no comment on the charges. Spokesman James P. Rubin previously has said the United States strongly condemns ``violent activities carried out against Cuba, allegedly supported by persons or groups based in the United States.''
The change in the recommended sentence for Rodriguez Llerena underscores the seriousness Cuba is giving the case -- and a separate trial in which another Salvadoran man is accused of carrying out a string of 1997 bombings.
Prosecutors in that case, which wrapped up last week, recommended that Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon be put to death for the attacks, which killed an Italian tourist and wounded 11 other people, including seven foreigners.
Cuban authorities have used the two trials to specifically accuse Cuban exiles in Miami of plotting violent actions to harm Castro's government.
Cuba has charged that a shadowy exile named Luis Posada Carriles organized the bombings in both Cruz Leon's and Rodriguez Llerena's cases, and that a secret military wing of the Miami-based Cuban-American National Foundation paid for the attacks.
The foundation repeatedly has denied the accusations.
Rodriguez Llerena was arrested July 10 at Havana's international airport as he tried to bring more than 3 pounds of explosives into Cuba.
He is charged with terrorism for that act and for planting a bomb in the lobby of the luxury Melia-Cohiba Hotel on Aug. 3, 1997. The bomb caused no injuries and only minor damage.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press