Cuba arrests 4 exiles, alleges terror plot

HAVANA - Four Cuban exiles from Miami are being held for planning "terrorist actions" against military targets on the island, Havana authorities said Wednesday in announcing the first such arrests in years.

The Interior Ministry said the men were detained April 26, but released few specific details. It was not clear why it took so long to make the arrests public.

"They intended to attack military installations with the goal of perpetrating violent actions," the ministry said in a statement published by the Communist Party newspaper Granma. "To such ends, since mid-2013, three of them had made several trips to the island to study and carry out their plan."

The arrests come amid increased exchanges between exiles and their homeland, including visits by several prominent former hard-liners who had vowed never to set foot in Cuba while brothers Fidel and Raul Castro were still in charge.

The statement identified the detained men as Jose Ortega Amador, Obdulio Rodriguez Gonzalez, Raibel Pacheco Santos, and Felix Monzon Alvarez.

None are well-known within the exile community in South Florida, but Cuba claimed they were acting on orders from others who do have a history of militancy. Pacheco had been part of a tiny exile group called Fuerza Cubana de Liberacion Inc., defunct since 2010.

The ministry said it was reaching out to U.S. authorities to investigate.

"We have seen the statement by the Cuban Ministry of Interior," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. "We don't have any further information at this time. The Cuban government has also not been in touch with us yet on these cases."

In its statement, the Interior Ministry alleged the plot was masterminded by Santiago Alvarez Fernandez Magrina, Osvaldo Mitat and Manuel Alzugaray in Miami.