Militant Cuban exile Orlando Bosch today rejected a government offer to trade prison for a restrictive house-arrest program that would return him to his family after the past 14 years in jails. Bosch said the offer would require him to tell the FBI of any contacts with Cuban exile groups that advocate violence, said his daughter, Myriam. ``He's willing to agree to all of the conditions except that one,'' Ms. Bosch said. ``He's not going be an informant. The FBI can do their own work.'' Ms. Bosch said her father informed his attorneys of his decision this morning, and they were to notify immigration officials. A source with the Justice Department said the government will not negotiate the offer. ``Bosch won't accept the conditions, and he won't be released unless he does,'' the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The proposal presented to Bosch by immigration officials Monday night was a departure for the Justice Department, which has maintained for years that the anti-Castro activist would continue his terrorist ways if released. ``He's just not prepared to send a message out that he's an informant,'' said attorney Henry Adorno. ``He believes that lists are kept by people like Joe McCarthy and Fidel Castro.'' On Monday, Bosch's wife, Adriana, had criticized the conditions for his release, but appeared to encourage him to accept the deal, calling the conditions ``better than jail.'' The 63-year-old former pediatrician suffers from ulcers and declining health after years in Venezuelan and U.S. jails. The conditions would have required Bosch to wear an electronic monitoring device, remain at home for 21 hours a day, keep a log of visitors and allow his telephone to be monitored, said Richard Smith, director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami. Smith said Bosch also would be subject to unannounced searches and lie detector tests, and if instructed, must present himself for deportation within 72 hours. ``They're just messing with his head,'' Myriam Bosch said. ``Knowing how they work, I think they probably did this knowing my father would not accept it.'' Justice Department spokesman Dan Eramian in Washington said the government decided to offer Bosch parole for humanitarian reasons, but will continue the two-year effort to deport him. Thus far, 31 nations have refused to accept him. The offer appeared to be an attempt to resolve what has become a cause celebre for Miami's staunchly anti-Castro Cuban exile community, which has held rallies and demonstrations on his behalf. Bosch has been held since 1988, when he was arrested for parole violations and for reentering the country illegally. According to CIA documents, he ran bombing runs on Cuba in the early 1960s. In 1968, he was convicted in a bazooka attack on a Polish freighter at the Port of Miami and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was paroled in 1972 and fled the country in 1974 after he was subpoenaed to testify in an inquiry into the killing of a Miami exile leader. Accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people, Bosch spent 11 years in Venezuelan jails. He denied involvement in the bombing and was acquitted in three separate trials. The parole conditions would require Bosch to wear an electronic monitoring device, remain at home for 21 hours a day, keep a log of visitors and allow his telephone to be monitored, said Richard Smith, director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami.
