Gaspar Jiménez

Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo (October 6, 1935 – October 29, 2014) was a Cuban exile living in Miami. An associate of Luis Posada Carriles, he was convicted of attempting to kidnap a Cuban consul in Mexico in 1976, for which he served 27 months in prison. He was also convicted of attempting to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000, and was jailed until 2004 when he was pardoned by outgoing Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso.

Biography Jiménez was born on October 6, 1935, in the Cuban city of Camagüey. He worked as a day laborer in Miami for some time, and had a wife and two daughters in 1983. Jiménez was a naturalized US citizen. A physically imposing man who weighed 300 pounds, Jiménez was nicknamed "El Gordo", or "Fat". Jiménez worked for Alberto Hernández, who would later head the Cuban American National Foundation, in the 1990s, and later worked for the foundation himself.

In July 1976, Jiménez and an associate named Orestes Ruiz were arrested in Mexico, and accused of attempting to kidnap Cuban consul Daniel Ferrer. Ferrer's bodyguard, Artagnan Diaz, was killed in the attempt. A third accused, Gustavo Castillo, avoided arrest and returned to the US. A witness said he saw Jiménez working on Milian's car shortly before the bombing. However, soon after Jiménez's release from prison, the indictment was dropped, with the prosecuting attorney stating that there was insufficient evidence. No one was prosecuted for the bombing.

Jiménez worked for a while as a courier carrying money and messages to Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile associated with multiple terrorist attacks against the Cuban government. An acquaintance of Jiménez stated that the money came from Cuban exiles in Miami. On November 17, 2000, 200 pounds of explosives were discovered in Panama City in the possession of Posada Cariles. Posada and three others, including Jiménez and Guillermo Novo, were arrested for plotting to assassinate Castro, who was then visiting Panama for the first time since 1959. While Jiménez and the others were incarcerated in Panama, Cuban-American US congressmen Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart wrote to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso asking for their release. Convicted in 2004, the four men were pardoned by Moscoso shortly before she left office later the same year. Jiménez died on October 29, 2014, of natural causes: he was 79 years old.