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The Cuban Five:  
Let Cuba Live statement on June 4, 2008 Appeals Court decision

Let Cuba Live of Maine rejects the decision announced June 4 by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denying freedom to five jailed Cuban men. In September Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, and Ramon Labanino will have served ten years of unjust imprisonment.

Their alleged crime, so-called, was to have defended their nation, without violence. For almost fifty years, thugs and criminals backed by Washington have directed murder and mayhem against the Cuban people. Five men, courageous and principled, volunteered to monitor armed private groups, in fact gangs. They reported on terrorist plots to Cuban authorities.

Let Cuba Live condemns Washington for complicity in a reign of terror. We view that government – judges included – as party to persecution of the Cuban Five. Their convictions and incarceration epitomize all-out assault on Cuban Sovereignty. The valor and idealism of our brothers in jail exemplify humanitarian and patriotic values that that are universal.

We identify with Gerardo Hernandez as he commented on this unfortunate decision: “This is the same system that has unjustly incarcerated Mumia for more than 20 years along with Leonard Peltier and the Puerto Rican political prisoners.” He asserts that, “We will endure as many years as necessary,” adding that, “As long as one of you is resisting, we will also resist until there is justice.”

Let Cuba Live points to Amnesty International’s denunciation of U.S. persecution of the Cuban Five contained within its annual report issued May 28. We recall that in 2005 a United Nations Working Group designated their convictions and detention as “arbitrary.”

We point to phrasing early in the Appeals Court decision demonstrating bias - or incompetence. Judge William Pryor, writing for the Court, asserts that “Each Cuban agent was convicted of espionage charges...” In fact three were convicted of “conspiracy to commit espionage,” among other charges; none of espionage.

On another occasion Leonard Weinglass, appeals attorney for Antonio Guerrero, pointed out the significance of this imprecision: “By using the charge of conspiracy, the government is relieved of the requirement that the underlying crime be proven.”

Let Cuba Live will continue to fight for liberation of these five Cuban defenders against terrorism. Additionally, we pledge continuing dedication, with others, toward the struggle to bring the arch terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to justice.

 

Cuban Five lose appeal, protests build

By Tom Whitney

Almost ten months after defense attorneys presented oral arguments, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals June 4 delivered bad news to prisoners Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez; Rene Gonzalez; Ramon Labanino; and Antonio Guerrero, collectively known as the Cuban Five. The three judge panel reaffirmed all five convictions plus the sentences imposed on two of the men. However, the Appeals Court did revoke life sentences for Labanino and Guerrero, also Fernando Gonzalez' 19-year term. The judges noted that "no top secret information was gathered or transmitted." Their cases go back to the Miami court for resentencing.

The five Cubans had come to Florida in the 1990s to monitor impending attacks by counter-revolutionary groups in Cuba and warn authorities there. They had been arrested on numerous charges in September 1998 and convicted in 2001.

Gerardo Hernandez' two life sentences stand, one for conspiracy to commit espionage, the other for murder conspiracy, as does Rene Gonzalez' 15-year sentence. Hernandez was charged with contributing to the 1996 downing by Cuban aircraft of two planes flown over Cuban waters by the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue. Four flyers died.

A three judge panel of the same appeals court had reversed their convictions in August 2005, ruling that prejudice had fatally infected their Miami trial. Exactly a year later, the full court reversed that decision. Defense lawyers based their appeal this time on other grounds: neglect of due process, insufficient evidence for conspiracy, "sovereign immunity" and inappropriate sentencing. The 99-page opinion, written by Judge William Pryor, characterized all of them, save the last, as "meritless."

No public commentary from defense lawyers was available immediately following the announcement of the decision, yet the North American movement in solidarity with the Five moved quickly into action. Within hours, demonstrations were set for June 5 in Vancouver and Detroit, for June 6 in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Winnipeg, and Toronto.

Analyst Jane Franklin noted that media bias surrounding the case was continuing. A banner headline in the Miami Herald proclaims, "Espionage!" That paper and others have long failed to specify that the most serious charge on which the Cuban Five were convicted was conspiracy to commit espionage--murder conspiracy in the case of Gerardo Hernandez--not actual spying, which, according to defense lawyer Leonard Weinglass, the government never tried to prove.

 

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