According to Llama, a member of the Cuban American National Foundation recommended "doing more than lobbying in Washington" to overthrow the CubanCommunist government of Fidel Castro in June 1992 during an annual congress meeting in Naples, Florida, with the foundations' general board of directors, including board chairman Jorge Mas Santos, unaware of this at the time. Llama also said that Jorge Mas Canosa and José "Pepe" Hernandez were selected as leaders to choose the group for armed operations. During a 1993 meeting in Puerto Rico, José "Pepe" Hernandez was selected as the group's leader due to his "known record as a fighter in the 2506 Brigade and the Marines".[4][5]
A jury acquitted them on December 8, 1999, after a federal judge threw out one of the defendants’ self-incriminating statement, Angel Alfonso Aleman's, who stated upon the ship's boarding by Customs officials that "They are weapons for the purpose of assassinating Fidel Castro."[4]
In a 2006 interview with El Nuevo Herald, Llama declared about a plot to assassinate Castro and said other members of CANF had assisted in securing items, funding, and participating in the plot. Llama stated he disclosed the information because CANF had received US$1.4 million (roughly $2.7 million in 2023) from him between 1994 and 1997 to plan the operation and considered a lawsuit to recover his money.[failed verification] In the interview he mentioned a list of items acquired for carrying out the assassination: a cargo helicopter, ten ultralight radio-controlled planes, seven vessels, and explosives. One of those vessels was the Midnight Express fast boat, meant to take the CANF leader at the time, Jorge Mas Canosa to Cuba if a power struggle erupted or the missions were completed. Another of those vessels, "La Esperanza", was confiscated by the United States Department of the Treasury following the indictments.[4][6] Llama also said in the interview that he was writing an autobiography.[4]
^ ab"Cuba's Repressive Machinery: XII. International Policy". Human Rights Watch. 1999.
^ ab"Castro assassination charges". BBC. August 25, 1998.
^ abcdefWilfredo Cancio Isla (June 25, 2006). "Former CANF Board member admits to planning terrorist attack against Cuba". El Nuevo Herald.
^ abcdAnn Louise Bardach & Larry Rother (May 5, 1998). "Plot On Castro Spotlights A Powerful Group". New York Times.
^ abcAmbassador Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla (November 6, 2001). "Measures to eliminate international terrorism". United Nations General Assembly Security Council.
^ ab"Seven Cuban-Americans Charged With Conspiracy to Murder Fidel Castro". United States Department of Justice. August 25, 1998.