Anti-Castro warriors now too old to fight

By Jim Loney

MIAMI (Reuters) - The aging Cuban warriors who once waded ashore in their Caribbean island hoping to oust Fidel Castro with guns still pine for a free Cuba, but most have long since turned their attention to more pacifist opposition to communism.

The men routed by Castro's forces at the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 or who fought his troops afterward, scheming against him in the cafes of Miami's Little Havana or training with weapons in Florida's Everglades swamplands, are now in their 60s, 70s and 80s.

Many died before realizing their dream of seeing Cuba freed from communism and from Castro, who retired this week after nearly half a century in power.

Those that remain are more likely to be dressed in guayaberas or suits than military fatigues, shaking hands and lobbying in support of Cuban dissidents rather than practicing combat at the training camp that Alpha 66, an anti-Castro paramilitary group, says it still maintains south of Miami.

"We were fighting for Cuba's freedom with guns. After many years, we understood that was not the way," said Ernesto Diaz Rodriguez, secretary-general of Alpha 66. "The times changed."

Diaz, who was 24 when he was named chief of military operations for Alpha 66, was captured in Pinar del Rio province during a combat operation several years after the Bay of Pigs invasion.

He spent more than 20 years in a Cuban jail, seven in solitary confinement without "any kind of clothes other than my underwear."

Now 68 and the group's leader, he said Alpha 66 remains a large organization with some 10,000 "members or contributors" including a lot of supporters inside Cuba and chapters in Miami, New York, Boston and other U.S. cities.