The singular story of the Cuban Five

The Five had come to the US from Cuba following years of violence perpetrated by a network of terrorists made up of armed mercenaries drawn from the Cuban exile community in Florida. For more than 40 years these groups have been tolerated, and even hosted by successive US Governments.

Cuba suffered significant casualties and property destruction at their hands. Cuban protests to the US Government and the United Nations fell on deaf ears. Following the demise of the socialist states in the early 90`s, the violence escalated as Cuba struggled to establish a tourism industry. The Miami mercenaries responded with a violent campaign to dissuade foreigners from visiting. A bomb was found in the airport terminal in Havana, tourist bases were bombed, as were hotels. Boats from Miami traveled to Cuba and shelled hotels and tourists facilities.

The mission of the Cuban Five was not to obtain US military secrets, as was charged, but rather to monitor the terrorist activities of those mercenaries and report their planned threats back to Cuba. The arrest and prosecution of these men for their courageous attempt to stop the terror was not only unjust, it exposed the hypocrisy of America`s claim to oppose terrorism wherever it surfaces.

Nothing reveals this more than the contrast between the US Government`s handling of the Five’s case with that of the two main self-confessed terrorists, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, both leaders of the Miami based terror network, who have not been trialed for their crimes.

Contrast the treatment of these terrorists with that of the Five who were arrested without a struggle and immediately cast into solitary confinement cells reserved for the most dangerous prisoners, while Posada Carriles, who is still alive, was housed in a special residence within the jail in Miami. The Five were kept in solitary confinement cells for 17 months until the start of their trial. When their trial ended seven months later, they were sentenced, months after 9/11, to maximum prison terms, with Gerardo Hernández receiving a double life sentence.

They were separated into maximum security prisons (some of the worst in the US), each several hundred miles away from the other, and remain incarcerated until today. René, who was sentenced to 15 years, is now in supervised probation, and cannot return to his country.
The Five have appealed their convictions and sentences before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta, Georgia, out of Miami, and after a thorough review of the proceedings, on 9 August 2005, a distinguished three judge panel of the Court released their opinión, reversing the convictions and sentences on the ground that the Five did not receive a fair trial in Miami. A new trial was ordered, but this was reversed by US Government pressure.

For the first time in the history of US jurisprudence, a case was presented before the United Nations Group on Arbitrary Detentions, which also declared the trial and the sentences to the Five excessive and unfair, putting pressure on the US Government to reverse this situation. No action was taken by the US Government, and silence was its response. This was done before the 9 August decision of the 11th Circuit panel.

The record of the Miami trial was mammoth. The process took over seven months to complete, making it the longest criminal trial in the United States at the time it occurred.
This trial was a political one, rather than a legal one. The Miami trial had many violations in the proceedings and during the appeal process. The Habeas Corpus presented for Gerardo Hernández is the last legal procedure in the US legal system.

There is a new and additional punishment to René González, as he is not allowed to return home. The punishment also extends to his family, because his wife cannot visit him frequently. The only just and fair decision of the US Government is to let René go home.
The Cuban people thank the international solidarity awareness, which is decisive for the return of the Five to Cuba. Dignitaries from all over the world as well as 10 Nobel Prize winners have joined in the international awareness campaign to free the Five.
The Government of Cuba has reiterated its willingness to talk with the US Government on a fair and reciprocal basis.

The Cuban Five have now been incarcerated for 14 years in US jails for looking for information related to terrorism by the Miami-based terrorist network that always has been supported by the US Government. This information helped save the lives of people of both countries.

The Five were prosecuted not because they violated American law, but because their work exposed those who were. By infiltrating the terror network that is allowed to exist in Florida, they demonstrated the hypocrisy of America`s claimed opposition to terrorism.

On 6 July, the District Attorney’s Office for the state of Florida informed the Miami Court of its opposition to the petition presented by Martin Garbus, the lawyer representing Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, asking for a rehearing of the case and the release by the government of additional evidence in order to investigate the issue of journalists paid with federal money to create, before and after the trial of the Cuban Five, what the 2005 Court of Appeal panel described as a perfect storm of prejudice and hostility.

In a clearly evasive maneuver, the government is arguing that the facts presented by the defense are unfounded and it is thus not necessary to procure more information in order to clarify them. In other words, Judge Joan Lenard has been told that the defense exposé of certain journalists’ conduct which, as she herself acknowledged during the trial, amounted to intimidating and harassing the jury, is nothing more than a conspiracy theory and generalized speculation.

In a brief final paragraph the District Attorney’s Office also stated its opposition to the hearing requested by Gerardo.

President Obama has the power to grant freedom for the Cuban Five to return to Cuba where they belong. He has the power to make sure their families have the right to see and hug their loved ones.

President Obama has the power to make sure that justice prevails, and he has the right bestowed by the US Constitution, because YES, President Obama CAN exercise that power.

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