While the Cuban government has been railing against Cuban exile Santiago Alvarez for his close ties with exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, Alvarez’s friends and family are drumming up support for him in South Florida.

Alvarez, a developer who served as Posada’s spokesman after Posada surfaced in Miami earlier this year, made headlines of his own after federal agents said they found a cache of high-powered weapons at the Inverrary Village Apartments in Lauderhill, an apartment complex Alvarez owns. Last month, agents arrested Alvarez and an associate, Osvaldo Mitat, whom authorities said received a cooler filled with rifles and grenades from a confidential federal informant.

On Wednesday, Alvarez and Mitat’s family members, friends and attorneys made a plea that the men be released on bail and that they stand trial in Miami. A Fort Lauderdale federal grand jury indicted the men last week and their case has been assigned to a federal judge there.

Supporters of Alvarez and Mitat have taken out advertisements in newspapers and are holding a Mass in their honor tonight at St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Miami.

Rene Guerra, who is on a committee supporting the two, said U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta’s decision to try the case in Broward insults the Cuban-American community.

“Our constitution guarantees the right of an individual to be judged by his peers,” Guerra said. “[Acosta] is saying that we are not capable of judging one of our own.”

Attorneys for the men said Acosta could have chosen to try the case in Miami. Both men were arrested in Miami and the informant delivered the cooler to Mitat in Miami-Dade, according to court papers.

Alicia Valle, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami said the indictment was filed in Broward County because that is where the alleged criminal acts occurred. The weapons were stored in Lauderhill and the cooler originated at the Lauderhill storage facility, according to the indictment. She said a judge will determine whether Alvarez and Mitat should be released on bail at a hearing Friday morning in Miami.

The Cuban government and many Cubans consider Posada a terrorist, accusing him of crimes that include the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976, an attack that killed 73 people.

Posada detractors in Cuba put Alvarez on the same level and accuse him of helping Posada sneak into the United States.

Madeline BarM-s Diaz can be reached at or 305-810-5007.