For the Cuban Five, Against All the Odds

Prominent intellectuals, artists and celebrities from around the world, Mexicans among them, have today called on the United States government to order “the immediate repatriation of Rene Gonzalez [released on parole a few days ago] and the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez.” Circulated by the In Defense of Humanity network, the petition is open to the signatures of all who wish to join the movement.

Thirteen years after the Cuban anti-terrorists were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 years to two life sentences, a brief review of the case is appropriate.

In June, 1988, at the request of the White House, Havana handed over to the FBI documentary evidence of the activities of terrorist groups operating out of Miami against Cuba with such impunity that even the U.S. officials who received the information confessed to being astounded. Three months later, in Miami, the FBI detained and prosecuted the members of the Cuban intelligence network that had supplied the information. The history of relations between states, no matter how badly strained, has rarely seen such unethical behavior as that displayed in this case.

What followed was a trial during which U.S. constitutional and legal provisions defining the right to due legal process were grossly violated. The defense’s perfectly legitimate motion for a change of venue, filed on the grounds that Miami is the worst possible place to impartially address any Cuba-related issue, was denied by the court. And the trial proved the point, conducted amid an atmosphere of anti-Cuban hysteria, whipped up in the local press by hacks paid out of federal funds.

The jury was made up of staunch government supporters, all under pressure to vote in favor of the public prosecutor’s petition. The Five were barely allowed to communicate with their lawyers, who did not have access to the bulk of the case file because it was classified. The sentences imposed were out of proportion with the crimes with which the Five were charged, but never proved to be guilty of. Except for the charges of acting as foreign intelligence agents and using false identity documents, minor offenses under United States law that the accused admitted from the start, the prosecution’s case was demolished by evidence and witness testimonies presented by the defense. Among the witnesses were high-ranking U.S. military officers, in active service at the time when the Cuban network was in operation, who recognized a lack of evidence that their activities had posed any risk to U.S. national security.

Throughout the trial and subsequent appeal it was proved that the Cuban network’s activities were limited to infiltrating counter-revolutionary groups and informing the Cuban government about terrorist plots. That such activities may be legitimate where there is a “need to defend” is a principle enshrined in the United States’ own jurisprudence, which affirms the right to break the law in order to avert a greater harm. The Five have stoically resisted offers to sell out, from threats of doubling solitary confinement and the refusal of visas to their wives on grounds of national security.

Obama can put an end to this situation at any time, especially since the charge of espionage against the Five was never proved. Weren’t four members of a recently-captured Russian spy network exchanged in a heartbeat for four people who weren’t even United States citizens last year? Freeing the Five as a humanitarian gesture would provide Obama with a graceful solution to the problem, and Cuba would surely be willing to reciprocate with the release of Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned on the island for 15 years. Caught by Cuban security forces distributing satellite communications equipment designed to circumvent the island’s communications network, Gross states that his intention was to help the Jewish community improve their Internet access. Jewish community leaders, however, have reiterated that they don’t even know who he is. Clearly he was involved in a Washington-backed program for regime change in Cuba, which is not something that the Five can be accused of in the United States. What worries Obama, however, is the possible reaction of the Miami Mafia, as well as their juicy campaign donations.

Securing the release of the Cuban Five therefore calls for plenty of honorable acts like that of the In Defense of Humanity network.