Bosch became a lightning rod in the Cuban-exile world. His supporters called him a hero, holding rallies for him and lobbying to name a Miami expressway after him. Richard L. Thornburgh, when he was the United States attorney general under the first President George Bush, called him “an unreformed terrorist.” Mr. Bosch maintained that he had fought a “just war” against Fidel Castro — whom he called a “a monster” — often with support by the American government.
Orlando Bosch Avila was born on Aug. 18, 1926, in the village of Potrerillo, Cuba, about 150 miles east of Havana. His father was a restaurateur and his mother a teacher. He went to medical school at the University of Havana, where he was president of the student council. He worked on student issues with Mr. Castro, the law school’s delegate to the council, then cooperated with him in fighting the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
When Mr. Bosch arrived in Miami in February 1988, however, the welcome was not warm. He was arrested for violating his parole. In June, the Justice Department ordered him deported. But legal maneuverings and political support, including that of Jeb Bush, then a Florida businessman and later the state’s governor, kept him in detention as an undesirable alien until the first President Bush, Jeb Bush’s father, overruled the deportation order in 1990.In return, Mr. Bosch renounced the use of force, an agreement he later called “a farce.”
Another great Bush act.
“They purchased the chain,” Mr. Bosch said, “but they don’t have the monkey.”
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