This report focuses on a recent trial in Miami that resulted in the conviction of five Cuban men for spying. It begins with a survey of background events to the trial and continues with a look at the trial itself. The story of this trial and its cruel outcome raises basic questions as to the nature of democracy in the United States.

On June 8, 2001, a Miami court found the men guilty of conspiracy to fail to register as agents of a foreign government. In addition, three of them, Geraldo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, and Antonio Guerreo, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage, and in December, 2001 they were sentenced to life terms in jail. The other two, Fernando Gonzales and Rene Gonzalez, were sentenced to 19 and 15 years respectively. Geraldo Hernandez was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and received two life terms.

The men had arrived in South Florida in the early 1990’s. There they joined private organizations involved in financing, planning, and carrying out attacks against Cuba, and they began to collect information about anti Cuban conspiracies. They were arrested on September 12, 1998.

Terror From Across the Florida Straits

In Florida the five men were working to defend both the Cuban nation and the Cuban revolution of 1959. That year a coalition of guerilla insurgents, poor peasants and urban workers, and members of a disaffected middle class had overthrown a corrupt, repressive government. The losers –landowners, owners and managers of businesses, and government officials– crossed over to Southern Florida in droves.

That part of Florida became an incubator for counter-revolution. The refugees set up para-military organizations such as Commandos of the United Revolutionary Groups (CORU), the F-4 Commandos, Alpha 66, Omega 7, and more. Many of the emigres were wealthy upon arrival, and continuing to prosper in Florida, they were able to pay for others, especially alumni of Batista’s army and police forces, to do the dirty work,. Later on, at President Reagan’s behest, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) was formed in order to lobby, propagandize, to gather and distribute money. The five men acknowledged that they joined some of these groups, including the more recently formed Brothers to the Rescue.

Washington itself – with the help of paramilitary groups in Florida - is responsible for the Bay of Pigs invasion, guerrilla incursions, assassination attempts, economic blockade, diplomatic isolation, and bacteriologic attacks. But for more than forty years, Cuba has experienced one assault after another for which the Florida Cubans have proudly taken primary responsibility. A listing of these attacks may be found below under "Killings and Assaults". The extent of the mayhem and death described there is astounding, the more so because it originates from one small geographical area at the hands of perpetrators who boast about their misdeeds.

Turning a Blind Eye

What has been the U.S. government response to this private war waged out of Miami? At his sentencing hearing, Antonio Guerrero stated, "more than three thousand four hundred dead…Terror, hardships, and pain have been brought over the entire population. Where have such unceasing ruthless acts been hatched and financed? What has the government of this country done to avoid them? Practically nothing. Today, people who are responsible for some of these actions still walk freely the streets of Miami."

Orlando Bosch, the "killer pediatrician", is the prime example of a terrorist at large. Jailed in Venezuela for his part in the bombing of a Cuban airplane and the death of 73 people. He escaped in 1988 with the help of CANF and the CIA - in particular, from Otto Reich, now Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America. On arrival in Miami, he was jailed again for violating parole, but was released in 1990 by President George Bush. And Cubans know that Luis Posada Carriles for decades has been on the payroll of CANF and formerly worked for the CIA in Central America. In a 1998 New York Times interview, he notes, "The FBI and CIA don’t bother me and I’m neutral with them. I help them whenever I can." He indicated that CANF had paid for his bombings of hotels in Cuba in 1997. He presently is lodged in a Panama jail with three cronies because Panamanian authorities with Cuban help in 2000 unearthed a plot to kill Fidel Castro during an international conference. Back in Miami, operatives are plotting the escape of the Panamanian prisoners and raising money on their behalf.

On May 20, 2002 George W. Bush made a speech in Miami on Cuba. Prominent in the front row seats were, according to Granma,: CANF chieftains, alumni of Posada’s network, some CANF dissidents, (CANF having gone too soft for them), the Watergate burglar and Omega 7 veteran Felix Rodriguez, and a contingent of Alpha 66 stalwarts. The year before, President Bush had freed two of the killers of Letelier and Moffit (See under "Killings and Assaults."), and in appreciation, they were on hand too, along with three Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez. It should be no surprise that in Cuba Miami is seen as a hotbed of friendship and love between rich emigres, police authorities, and politicians. As an illustration of police collusion, Granma notes a series of encounters between Florida law officers and anti-Cuban paramilitaries heading for Cuba. That record is summarized below under "Looking the Other Way".

From the Cuban point of view, therefore, aggression orchestrated in Washington is exemplified by terrorist attacks tolerated and actively promoted by U.S. officials. Cuba’ ability to respond is limited. Border security is a difficult task; between 1990 and 2001, Cuban authorities did block 10 attempts by armed bands to enter Cuba, detaining 28 of the intruders. Armed retaliation, of course, is impossible. One defensive tool that remains is the gathering of intelligence.

Geraldo Hernandez, for example, infiltrated the Brothers to the Rescue, a group of fliers given to flying over Cuba dropping literature, religious medals, and, allegedly, poisonous materials. Information provided by Hernandez gave authorities in Cuba advanced notice of the upcoming flight of four light planes on February 24, 1996. As with previous flights, the Cubans notified U.S. officials, giving them the opportunity to stop the illegal flights. Nothing was done, and the planes flew. Two of them were destroyed, four pilots died, and three years later Hernandez was charged with murder

Of Duty and Punishment

Ideas of national integrity and sovereignty loom large in Cuba’s revolutionary ideology. Intelligence gathering, of course, is important to national defense. At his sentencing hearing, Antonio Guerrero stated, "It is my country’s unquestionable right – like that of any other – to defend itself against those who try to harm its people. The job of putting a stop to these terrorist acts has been complex and difficult because the terrorists have enjoyed the complicity or lax tolerance of the authorities. My country has done everything possible to warn the U.S. government of the danger of these acts and to do so it has used official, unofficial, and public channels…What could Cuba do to defend itself and be forewarned of the terrorist plans against it?…There was no alternative but to rely on men who – out of love for a just cause, out of love for their country and their people, out of love for peace and life –were prepared to voluntarily agree to carry out this honorable duty against terrorism, that is, to give advanced warning of the danger of attack….We did nothing detrimental to the national security of the United States."

Guerrero and his colleagues undoubtedly accepted the risk of arrest and prosecution as part of their "honorable duty". What they – and we – can not accept, however, is a judicial process that undermines the notion of equal justice under the law. From the beginning, the prisoners were subjected to repeated violations of basic rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. Even the pretense of fairness was lacking. These are the particulars:

For three years prior to making arrests, the police had been searching their homes and tapping their telephones without warrants.

The media turned the arrests into a propaganda frenzy. News stories flourished about a "spy ring" - "600 spies" - having been unearthed. The Miami radio personality Ninoski Perez Castellon broke away from her accustomed theme of fund-raising for the Brothers to the Rescue to vilify the detainees. The police informed Representatives Lincoln Diaz -Balart and Ros- Lehtinen of the arrests immediately, leaving 25 other representatives in the dark.

For three days the prisoners were questioned without being charged or arraigned, with no access to a lawyer.

They languished in solitary confinement for 17 months, with limited access to lawyers, family members, and mutual support. They returned to solitary confinement for 45 days after their convictions. (Prison authorities usually apply solitary confinement to prisoners charged with murder or to those who misbehave in prison)

Defense attorneys were denied access to the 1400 pages of information on which the prosecution based its case. Some of that material was given out selectively to the media and to groups sympathizing with the prosecution..

Prospective jurors indicated that if a jury on which they were serving decided to acquit, they would be afraid for their safety. Many withdrew from the jury pool because of a professed inability to remain impartial.

The prosecution blackmailed potential witnesses for the defense by threatening them with incrimination unless they pled the Fifth Amendment.

During the trial, jury members faced intimidation from the media and the courthouse crowd. Their cars were followed, and their license plates appeared on Miami television.

Judge Joan Lenard rejected a motion for a change of trial venue based on alleged prejudicial publicity. A few months earlier, another Miami judge had readily moved the trial of drug baron Magulta from Miami to Tampa because a fair trial was impossible in Miami.

The prosecution waited for eight months after his arrest to charge Geraldo Hernandez with conspiracy to commit murder, thereby inflating the political dimension of the trial.

Prominent U.S. military figures testified for the defense that Cuba represented no military threat to the United States, that the defendants sought no intelligence from U.S. government or military sources, and that none of the information that they sent to Cuba was classified.

As the jury withdrew for deliberation, the foremen announced to the press the precise day and time that the jury would be announcing a verdict. They made good on that prediction. No clarifications or further instructions were sought.

On the day that guilty verdicts were returned, prosecutors were seen embracing and joining in victory toasts with media representatives and leaders of the paramilitary groups.

Life sentences for three of the defendants – one extra for Hernandez – seem excessive by any standard: an understatement?

Prison officials sent the men to separate prisons, the closest two of them being 870 miles apart. Family members in Cuba have been denied visas to visit them.

The appeal process remains on hold, because so far the Miami prosecutors have failed to send essential materials and documents to the appeals court in Atlanta.

This trial of 5 Cuban men has had nothing to do with reason, impartiality, or the presumption of innocence. Irregularities and legal lapses were rampant, and public prejudice pervaded the courtroom proceedings. The fact was that the defendants were defending their own country from terrorism. No evidence was ever produced to indicate that they had harmed U.S. citizens, property, or legitimate national interests.

Heroes in Cuba

Any notion that the Miami trial might have won favor in Cuba for U.S. policy was misconceived. In Cuba, the prisoners are the "five heroes". Their faces and names appear on banners, walls, billboards, and signs. Millions attend allies and marches. Speeches from government officials and greetings to foreign visitors are rare that do not begin and end with celebrations of their heroism and exhortations for their release from prison. Their mothers, wives, and children are honored in speeches and in the media, and their poems, writings, and statements have been widely disseminated.

In the United States, among the general public, they are virtually unknown.

Their persecution has inspired a worldwide movement of support and solidarity. Unions in France, the United Kingdom, and Spain have issued statements of condemnation about their trial and unjust sentences. The trial has reminded Latin Americans of the terrorism experienced in many of their own countries at the hands of paramilitary forces and conspirators organized by the U.S. government. At a meeting with the families of the five prisoners on Mothers’ Day, 2002, Fr. Geoff Bottoms, visiting from England, learned that Ramon Labanino has yet to know a prison day without a letter from Britain. Fernando Gonzalez’ guards are astounded at how much mail he receives from around the world.

The five prisoners have unfailingly expressed gratitude for the skill and dedication of their lawyers, and in August, the high profile civil rights lawyer Leonard Weinglass joined the appeal effort. Their appeal is based on three points. One, prejudice relating to the hostile political climate of Miami made a fair trial impossible. Two, the prosecution was unable to prove that the prisoners had spied on any agency having to do with the U.S. government. Three, Geraldo Hernandez’s conviction on a charge of murder is flawed, because the Cuban air force had reason enough, unrelated to information provided by Hernandez, to shoot the planes down. They had entered Cuban airspace, and their approach to Cuba had been apparent on radar as soon as they had taken off from Florida.

Implications for U.S. Citizens

This story of the five prisoners has meaning for anyone embarking upon a critical look at democracy in the United States. For example:

The trial was a "show" trial in the tradition of the purge trials of Stalinist Russia during the late 1930’s. Thoughtful citizens should worry when hyperbole and propaganda replace fairness and simple justice in judicial proceedings.

The practice of terrorism in any form represents a departure from democratic values.

The conduct of U.S.- Cuba relations has been privatized - farmed out to a loud minority with vested interests. As with the Contra war in Nicaragua, Savimbi’s army in Angola, and the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan, Washington utilizes proxy warriors to limit the number of full body bags returning from foreign wars.

The Florida Cubans have been given carte blanche in shaping U.S. policy toward Cuba. Overview of that aspect of U.S. foreign policy by regular citizens would seem to have gone by the boards.

In a democracy, a free press is supposed to be part of the civic process. The mainstream media, however, generally have ignored the story of the five Cuban prisoners.

The U.S. democracy began with a seeking out of "a decent Respect to the opinions of mankind" (Declaration of Independence). Staging a show trial for the world’s inspection is not helpful in this regard.

There is no shortage of irony, even hypocrisy, for Washington to expect mankind to put up with its own, homegrown war against terrorism while at the same time blocking another nation’s defense against terrorism.

Neighborliness is a democratic value; there is nothing about the trial and its outcome that suggests that the United States is serious about seeking friendship with the Cuban people.

Through their example and eloquence, the five prisoners have been able to reach out to all humankind as exemplars of selflessness and of lives guided by principle, and we honor them.
 
 

Most of the data contained in this report has been taken from the pages of the weekly, English language international edition of Granma, the Cuban newspaper.
 

Geraldo Hernandez

Born June 4, 1965, in Havana . His university degree was in international relations. His cartoons have been displayed both in Cuban publications and in galleries
 

Antonio Guerrero

Antonio was born in Miami, on November 18, 1958. He graduated as an engineer, specializing in airport construction. He is a poet and has two sons, age 16 and 11 years
 

 Ramon Labanino

Born in Havana, June 4 1963 and graduated from the University of Havana in economics. He has three daughters.
 
 

Fernando Gonzalez

He was born in Havana, August 18, 1963 and graduated with honors in international relations.
 

Rene Gonzalez

Rene was born in Chicago in 1956. He is a pilot and flight instructor He has two daughters, and his trial diary is being published.
 

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SOME FACTS RELATING TO TERRORISM AGAINST CUBA