SAN JUAN (PUERTO RICO), SEPT 3: In a trial that could signal a thaw in decades of US-Cuban enmity, three Cuban exiles, including a director of a key Miami-based lobby, pleaded innocent to charges they plotted to kill Fidel Castro.They are among a group of seven exiles indicted by a federal grand jury in San Juan in what is believed to be the first such proceeding after years of reported assassination plots against the Cuban dictator. The others pleaded innocent last week.Bail was set at 100,000 dollars for Jose Antonio Llama, 68, a director of the influential, Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation, and 75,000 dollars each for Jose Rodriguez, 59, and Alfredo Domingo Otero, 68.Attorneys for the other four - Angel Manuel Alfonso, 58, Angel Hernandez Rojo, 64, Juan Bautista Marquez, 62, and Francisco Secundino Cordova, 51 have condemned the charges as hypocritical given past alleged US-sponsored attempts on Castro's life.But Llama's lawyer Jose Antonio Pagan said they have not made adecision on whether ``we're going to follow that line'' also.Llama told reporters, ``I am going to cooperate in everything''.For Cubans who fled Castro's 1959 revolution, the trial is a bitter pill especially at a time when the man they revile is being embraced by his Caribbean neighbors and many countries are challenging the 37-year US-led economic boycott of Cuba.Some observers believe the case might reflect a desire by the Clinton administration to back away from the demonisation and isolation of Castro.``If this were Ronald Reagan or George Bush, they'd be giving these people a freedom medal,'' said Juan Masimi Soler, lawyer for Bautista Marquez.Asked last week whether the indictments represented a change in US policy toward Cuba, attorney general Janet Reno said she was not aware of any change.
