Incarcerated since 1998, five Cuban men, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, René González and Ramón Labañino, received excessive sentences after an unjust trial held in Miami in December 2001 for having “conspired” to spy on the United States. In reality, they did nothing more than infiltrate Florida-based groups of anti-Castro radicals who are carrying out more and more armed attacks against Cuba.
On June 4, 2008, while nevertheless confirming their “guilt,” the Atlanta Court of Appeals stated that no crime “against the national security of the United States” was committed and estimated that the sentences imposed on three of the men were disproportionate. It ruled that they should therefore be judged again. They were judged in Miami by the same magistrate as in 2001, Mrs. Joan Lenard.
Recognizing the de facto flagrant injustice that she committed during the first trial, and in light of the international indignation surrounding the case of the “five,” Mrs. Lenard had no other solution than to the reduce the sentences.
On October 13, 2009, Antonio Guerrero, who was serving out a life sentence plus 10 years, saw his punishment scaled down to 21 years plus 10 months in prison.
On December 8th, Ramón Labañino (previously sentenced to life plus 18 years) received 30 years of incarceration. As for Fernando González, he was condemned to 17 years plus 9 months (instead of the initial 19 year sentence).
These sentence reductions, though positive, do not fully cancel out the injustice of which the “five,” who continue to claim their innocence, are victims. Besides, René González (15 years of imprisonment) and Gerardo Hernández (two life sentences plus 15 years) did not benefit from the new ruling.
During the sessions held between October 13th and December 8th, the Secret Service (charged with the security of the American president) opened an investigation into a Miami radio station, Radio Mambi (WAQ1-710 AM). On November 19th, during the program “The News and You/ Hot off the Press,” hosted between 9 and 10 a.m. by Armando Pérez Roura (the station’s director), Ninoska Pérez Castellón and Enrique Encinosa, listeners calling in, affirmed that President Barack Obama had to be eliminated “by a bullet in the head.” It is not the first time that “unfiltered” and virulently anti-Obama interjections have been broadcast. Mrs. Pérez Roura and Encinosa, as well as Mrs. Pérez Castellón are linked to the most extreme groups of the anti-Castro exiles – the Council for the Liberty of Cuba (CLC), Unity Cuba and the National Liberation Front of Cuba (FLNC) – which the five had been charged with infiltrating.
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