‘Leader’ of Omega 7 goes on trial

Press, 16 August 1984, Page 11

‘Leader’ of Omega 7 goes on trial

NZPA-Reuter New York

The alleged head of the anti-Castro group Omega 7 went on trial yesterday on charges of involvement in the murders of two men and various bombings in New York City and Miami. A Government prosecutor described the defendant, Eduardo Arocena, aged 41, as “founder, bombmaker and commander-in-chief of a sophisticated and vicious gang of terrorists who call themselves Omega 7.” The prosecutor, Michael Tabak, told the jury that Arocena had masterminded the machine-gun killing of Felix Garcia, an attache at the Cuban mission to the United Nations. He was killed as he drove to work in September,-1980. Mr Tabak also accused him of planning the murder of Eulalio Jose Negrin, a member of a group which tried to open a dialogue with the Communist Government of Dr Fidel Castro, in November, 1979. Mr Negrin was shot dead outside his home in New Jersey. The prosecutor said the actual murders were committed by Pedro Ramon, who acted on Arocena’s orders.

But Humberto Aguilar, Arocena’s court-appointed

lawyer, described the prosecutor’s remarks as “a fairy tale.”

After his arrest, Arocena was accused in a 26-count indictment of conspiracy to commit murder and bombings, possession of explosives and other charges. The defence lawyer told Judge Ward and the jury, “No human being could have done 87 acts of violence during the time Mr Tabak said.” He denied Arocena was involved in bombings and noted that Ramon, the man the Government accuses of the actual murders, was never charged with any crime but is in jail for refusing to co-operate with the Government. The Government also accused Arocena of constructing a bomb that was put under the car of Raul Roa, the Cuban envoy to the United Nations, in March, 1980, and said he planned to detonate it as the car drove on a crowded New York City highway. The bomb fell off the car without exploding and the prosecution said it would be produced during the trial to link it to a detonating device found in Arocena’s Mjjkni apartment after his ar?«t in July, 1983.