Cuba frees man who participated in 1997 attacks on hotels in Havana, orchestrated by Cuban exiles

Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — A government-run news agency in Cuba says authorities have released a Salvadoran man who was convicted of participating in a string of hotel bombings on the island in 1997. The Cubadebate website said Tuesday in a lengthy editorial that Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon was freed after completing a 30-year prison sentence, but added that the men who planned the attacks have not been brought to justice. In 1997, several hotels and bars in Cuba were bombed by enemies of Fidel Castro’s communist government, looking to undermine the island’s tourism industry. An Italian tourist was killed in one of the attacks.