Forever Fighting Fidel

Critics of the government raid that snatched Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives' Little Havana home two weeks ago say, among other things, that far more force was used than necessary. Immigration officials say they had good reason to use force. As CBS News Correspondent Jeffrey Kofman reports, one of those reasons was an organization called Alpha 66.

The groups' 80-year-old general secretary, Andres Nazario Sargen, insists Alpha 66 members would never fire guns at U.S. agents. "No," he says, "All the bullets are for Fidel Castro."

They are anti-Communist commandos dedicated to the armed overthrow of Castro. While they have been linked to past attacks in Cuba, now they are best known for weekend drills in the Everglades.

"No, I don't think America has to be afraid of them and don't think even Fidel Castro has to be afraid of them," says Professor Jaime Suchlicki of the University of Miami.

But the INS sees it differently. Their intelligence reported five Alpha members around the Gonzales home. In fact, says one INS agent, "Three of those five were individuals who had, several years ago, engaged in an extra-territorial attack on a tourist hotel in Cuba."

Alpha insists those individuals were unarmed.

These days, the most radical thing about Alpha is its rhetoric. It makes daily assaults on Cuba with shortwave broadcasts. The walls of Alpha's Little Havana headquarters are lined with photos of the glory days, when operatives tried—with little success—to undermine the Cuban economy. But all that is now a fading memory.

"It's a remnant of the past," says Professor Suchlicki. "Right now they are left over, they're older, they don't have the power that they had."

But for the old warriors, time has stood still. While they still dream of liberating Cuba, they insist they would never bring their war to their adopted homeland.