BY OSCAR CORRAL AND JAY WEAVER | Miami Herald

Santiago Alvarez, a longtime anti-Castro activist and key supporter of exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, was arrested in Miami this weekend on federal weapons and passport charges -- a move that could cause a clash between the Bush administration and some members of one of the president's most loyal political constituencies.

Alvarez, a wealthy developer, is charged with possession of automatic weapons, including some with the serial numbers obliterated; a silencer not properly registered; and a false passport, Matthew Dates, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Miami, said Sunday evening.

BY RAUL RODRIGUEZ LA O | Special for Granma International

DURING the whole of his life Máximo Gómez Báez was one of the most important and faithful fighters for the independence of Cuba and subsequently against its invasion and occupation by the United States and that country’s interference in the island from 1898. He was particularly opposed to the imposition of the Platt Amendment, which curtailed Cubans’ sovereignty and independence and converted our country into a neocolony in the service of U.S. governors. For his thinking, combative merit, ethical principles, loyalty, bravery in the face of the enemy and military capacity he reached the rank of General in Chief of the Cuban Liberation Army in the third and last War of Independence (1895-1898), organized and initiated by José Martí.

Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents have searched the office of a longtime friend of Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles.

Madeline Baro Diaz

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

An ICE spokeswoman confirmed the agency executed a search warrant on developer Santiago Alvarez' Hialeah office in their investigation, but declined to comment further.

Matthew Archambeault, an attorney for Posada, said he did not know if the search had anything to do with Posada. He referred phone calls to Kendall Coffey, Alvarez's attorney. Neither Alvarez nor Coffey could be reached for comment Friday.