International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
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END THE INJUSTICE, FREEDOM NOW!
This September 12th will mark the thirteenth anniversary of the unjust imprisonment of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez, our five brothers who are political prisoners in the United States for fighting against terrorism. 13 years in which Gerardo, Ramon and Antonio have served over a decade of time in high security prisons. 13 years where Rene and Gerardo were unable to see their wives. 13 years where the Five have been forced into isolation cells for more than 635 days.
13 years of pain for five Cuban families who have seen their children grow up without the presence of their fathers. 13 years of having to say goodbye to their loved ones without the embrace of their children. 13 years of not knowing when they will receive the next "blessed authorization" to see their relatives again.
13 years of shame for the justice of a country that pretends by lecturing the world about human rights!!!!!
On behalf of the memory of all of those who have suffered death and wounds by the actions of terrorist groups based in Miami. And on behalf of all peoples right to live in peace, we raise our voices, along with honest men and women from all over the world to renew our commitment, to multiply our efforts, day by day, step by step, so that together we can achieve the return of the Cuban Five to their families and their homeland.
We demand President Obama to put an end to this injustice and order the freedom of the Five Cuban Patriots Now!
Cuba’s National Assembly agreement on the Five
• Demands that U.S. authorities immediately end unjust and illegal treatment of Gerardo Hernández
FOR many people, the summer period is one of vacations. However, we must intensify, and right now, our systematic and consistent work to put into practice the agreements of the 6th Congress of the Communist Party and the decisions of this Assembly and government to update and improve Cuban socialism.
Similarly, we need to take onto a higher plane the struggle for the liberation of Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González.
Now is the time to redouble our actions to demolish the wall of silence which allows Washington to perpetuate the injustice. We have to demand that it hand over the information it is concealing about its conspiracy with the so-called Miami journalists who slandered our compañeros and, moreover, provoked and threatened jury members despite protests from the judge herself; and to equally insist that it show the satellite images which it has held back for 15 years, doubtless because they would undermine the U.S. lie concerning the location of the incident on February 24, 1996; and we must demand, once again, that the so-called information media eliminate the censorship imposed on the document in which Washington admitted, 10 years ago now, that it was impossible to uphold its principal charge against Gerardo.
The next few weeks are decisive for the conclusion of Gerardo’s habeas corpus proceedings and, as has happened on previous occasions, he is confronting new and serious obstacles in addition to his very difficult prison situation and which constitute a clear violation of his rights and U.S. standards of justice.
During this crucial stage additional difficulties have been placed in the way of Gerardo’s communication with his legal team and Cuban consular officials; his access to correspondence, including that of a legal nature and related to his case, is being restricted or prevented.
The National Assembly of People's Power demands that U.S. authorities immediately end the unjust and illegal treatment being meted out to Gerardo Hernández Nordelo and calls for the broadest solidarity of parliamentarians and honest persons until the freedom of our five Cuban compañeros and their immediate and unconditional return to the homeland are obtained.
We commit ourselves to this struggle without losing a single day. Hasta la victoria siempre.
Havana, August 1, 2011
Case of the Five censored in U.S. media
•WASHINGTON, June 23.— The International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 today gave an example of U.S. media censorship in relation to the case of the Cuban anti-terrorists incarcerated in the United States.
A journalist from the CNN network was interested in covering Gerardo Hernandez's exhibit of cartoons he created in prison, Humor from my Pen and set up an interview, as a communiqué from the group notes, as reported by PL.
The interview took place on June 3 in the SPARC Gallery, a former prison in the city of Venice, with organizers from the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 in both Spanish and English. The CNN journalist also interviewed the Executive Director of SPARC, Debra Padilla.
"We did not know just how much the journalist knew about the case of the Cuban 5 but after more than 3 hours she learned not only about the artistic talents displayed in Gerardo's cartoons but also about the deep injustice that he and his four brothers have been enduring for 13 years for defending their country, Cuba, against terrorism," the communiqué continues.
The journalist did not know how long it would take before the Committee would know if the interview was going to be aired but mentioned that her editor wanted to find someone with a different "point of view" to "balance" the story. Their surprise about the interview was even greater when they were told that the "balanced" segment was complete and going to be aired on a program of CNN called "Encuentro" on Wednesday, June 15 at 2pm PST.
However, it was not broadcast because of "an ’executive decision’ not to air the segment." This reveals the persistent attitude of the U.S. media in concealing the truth about the case of the Five.
The communiqué emphasizes, "So many times we hear about freedom in the United States with a free media that covers all points of views; but in the end it is those at the top of the media chain of command who will determine what is news and what isn't."
Where is this free media when it comes to covering the case of the Cuban 5? •
Cuban Parliament Protests Mistreatment of Gerardo Hernandez
Aug. 1, 2011 HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 1 (acn): The Cuban National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) held the U.S. government responsible for "the health and physical integrity of Gerardo Hernandez," one of the five Cuban antiterrorist unjustly imprisoned in that country.
The ANPP accused the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for the unjustified sending of Hernandez to the "hole" where he has been submitted to temperatures above 35 degrees Centigrade since July 21, despite being ill.
Throughout the long process against the Cuban Five, the US federal authorities have used similar methods to deprive them of their defense and to obstruct justice, the document reads.
At the opening of the ANPP plenary session, its president, Ricardo Alarcón, briefed the deputies on the visit to Hernandez made by his lawyer, Leonard Weinglass, along the president of a major Human Rights Committee in California, to the Victorville prison, where Weinglass saw by himself the inhumane conditions of Hernandez's confinement.
During the 12 years since his arrest the U.S. authorities have banned Hernandez's wife, Adriana Perez Oconor, to visit him in prison, adds the document.
He guessed that the top American authorities might not have full knowledge of the inhumane treatment Gerardo is suffering from, and asked them to flood Obama´s offices with letters and to encourage everybody to write "without offending" on that issue.
Statement from the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 about Gerardo Hernandez' Legal Situation
August 12, 2011
The coming weeks will be critical in the upcoming closure of the Habeas Corpus process for Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, condemned unjustly to two life sentences. The US government continues to deny Gerardo his basic right to be heard by the justice system.
On April 25, U.S. prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller asked the federal court of Miami to reject his extraordinary Habeas Corpus appeal. On that occasion we asked: "What does the prosecution fear by letting Gerardo exercise his right to present his arguments to the court and request alleged evidence against him?"
New evidence has emerged that the Miami journalists who demonized the five in their coverage leading up to and during the trial, thus creating bias and influencing the jury, received a quarter of a million dollars from the U.S. government. This obstruction of justice by the government is one of the arguments Gerardo plans to present at the hearing.
For the past 12 days the Cuban Parliament has denounced the U.S. government's denial of access to legal documents related to his case as arbitrary actions against Gerardo.
Together with 10 Nobel Prize winners, thousands of artists and intellectuals, parliaments and governments (paraphrasing recent statements by Obama) we say: It is time that Gerardo Hernández and his four compañeros are freed. Even if just for humanitarian reasons, after 15 years of unjust imprisonment, it is time that the Five be freed. We do not expect something different from U.S. courts, but we believe that the U.S. government should make the right decision to allow the return of the Five to their families.
Obama can use his executive powers outlined in the U.S. Constitution to liberate the Five. It's time for him to listen to international demands and end this injustice.
Please send telegrams, faxes and e-mail to the White House and all U.S. embassies based in your country demanding an end to the illegal and arbitrary treatment against Gerardo Hernández Nordelo.
The Cuban Five and the US Supreme Court
By Arnold August Talking about Supreme Court, how about a little history. On June 15, 2009 the US Supreme Court announced its decision to reject the request for a revision of the Cuban Five case. This demand for a review was carried out by millions of people from all walks of life around the world, a record number of “Friends of the Court” petitions and thousands of personalities and elected officials from every continent. Many of these pleas also came from within the USA itself.
The US brags about its political systems as being based on the separation of powers between the Executive (President and Vice-President), the Legislature and the Judiciary and a resulting built-in checks and balances system. This is supposedly a superior form of democracy based on checks and balances to avoid abuse of power by one or the other of the three branches forming the US government. In the US Constitution Article II Section 2 states that the US president has “the power to grant reprieves and pardons...” Every indication is that President Obama, far from using his constitutional powers to free the Cuban Five, made it clear to the Supreme Court judges that they should rule against revision.
This has obviously been a political case right from day one. It is even further revealed by the Supreme Court’s decision and the shameless refusal of the judges to publicly explain to the world the basis of their ruling. Of course the judges are not obliged to divulge it according to the American legal system. However, in a case such as this one which the whole world and many governments are watching, a public explanation was necessary. We are perhaps witnessing one of the greatest ironies in the current international political scene. The Cuban Five are cruelly and politically persecuted for their peaceful anti-terrorist motivations and activities. The reason? They are acting on behalf of and supporting the Cuban government.
One of the main charges that Washington levies against Cuba is lack of democracy, that it is does not, amongst other characteristics exhibit a political system similar to the American one which would include checks and balances. The Cuban system is in fact one unified revolutionary peoples’ political power, from the top down and from the bottom up including the judiciary, each enjoying its own respective fields of competence. The relationship and inter-action of all the different Cuban state levels between themselves including the judiciary and all of these institutions in turn with the citizens, is a feature of the Cuban type of democracy. There is no need to get into a debate as to whether the Cuban system is more democratic than the American model. However, if one takes into account this latest Supreme Court episode of US democracy in action on the one hand and my direct experience and study of the Cuban political system on the other hand, Cuba has no “democracy” lessons to take at all from the USA.
PRESS RELEASE
Last 1 August the Cuban National Assembly denounced the arbitrary treatment Gerardo Hernandez is being subjected to by hindering or preventing access to legal documents pertaining to his case.
Ten days have elapsed and the situation remains the same. As the US authorities know, a critical deadline in the extraordinary appeals process (Habeas Corpus) will expire early next week.
We must demand once again that the US authorities put an end to this unjust and illegal situation and call for the solidarity of all honest people.
National Assembly of People’s power
Havana, 11 August 2011
Jimmy Carter's Havana Press Conference
Mar. 30, 2011
Before concluding his three-day visit to Cuba, Jimmy Carter gave a press conference about his agenda on the island, this is a synopsis:
In his introductory statement he said that when he was in office he did all possible efforts to improve diplomatic links between the United States and Cuba. He said he lifted all Cuba-travel restrictions for US citizens and along with Fidel Castro he worked on the
setting up of interest sections both in Washington and Havana.
Carter said the US commercial "embargo" on Cuba should be lifted immediately as well as the limitations on US citizens to travel to Cuba and vice versa. He said he wanted to learn about the upcoming Communist Party Congress, to be held in April and that he has been given information on the future plans for Cuba.
He told the reporters that he had met with President Raul Castro and with Fidel Castro, whom he saw enjoying good health; he also met with some groups that criticize the Cuban governme'snt and he added he hoped that some of their complaints will receive a response from the Cuban authorities in the future.
As to the case of the five Cubans incarcerated in the United States since 1998, the former US president said that their imprisonment make no sense since American courts have shared doubts about it, as have human rights organizations around the world. They have been in jail for 12 years now, he said and added he hoped that they can be released in the near future. Carter also met with two of the mothers and three of the wives of those Cubans imprisoned in the U.S.
He explained that on Wednesday morning he was able to meet with Alan Gross, a man he thinks is innocent of posing a serious threat to the Cuban people and government and that Gross was sentenced to a long prison term. He said he hoped he will soon be released too.
Carter stressed that there are many things both countries can do to improve relations and have normal links in all possible ways. And he reiterated his gratitude to Raul Castro and other government officials for having allowed him to visit and talk with them.
During the Q/A Session Carter replied to an AP question about the possibility that he could take Alan Gross back to the U.S. with him and if he considered that an exchange of Gross for the five Cuban was possible. In this regard, Carter said he had not traveled to Cuba to coordinate any kind of exchange and that the cases of Gross and the Five are different and must not be related. He considered that Gross should be released because he is innocent of a serious crime—Carter explained—and that the five Cubans should also be freed because they have already been 12 years in prison and there were many doubts about the whole legal process. In the case of Gross, Carter said an appeal would follow or a possible executive order could be given in the future to release him on humanitarian grounds. His daughter is very sick, while he has lost other family members, said Carter. But he did not expect to take Gross back home with him he said and recalled that Cuban officials had made it clear before he left the United States that Gross would not be released.
Responding to a question by Associated Press Television about a meeting with Obama after this trip to Cuba, Jimmy Carter explained that he will do so to express the opinions he gave to the press and about other confidential issues.
Referring to what each country could do to improve relations, Carter said he wished that US travel restrictions to Cuba be lifted as well as limitations on the transfer of humanitarian funds to Cuba. He recalled some meetings with members of the diplomatic community in Havana who said they have found it quite difficult, over the past two years, to bring humanitarian aid to the Cuban people through normal channels because the United States limits the transfers. This was also corroborated by European Union leaders, and this lifting of restrictions could be done immediately by the President of the United States, Carter noted.
He also said he personally wished to see the complete abolishment of the Helms-Burton Law because in his opinion the approval and signing of it by former President Bill Clinton was a serious mistake.
As to other actions, Carter hopes that Mr. Gross be released and that the five Cubans return home.
Any effort on the part of the United States aimed at improving the life of the Cuban people based on financial assistance or other means is a suspicious act, according to the Helms-Burton law, because the legislation is aimed at putting an end to the "Castro regime". In his opinion that law is counterproductive because when he was president he could do anything he wanted with respect to the travel restrictions and the reestablishment of relations.
As to the congress people of Cuban descent he said they are acting in a very counterproductive manner by trying to blame or punish the Cuban government, when in fact they are punishing the people of Cuba by backing these restrictions.
To the question that if he would agree to be a mediator between the two countries, Carter replied that there is little chance that he would be asked to take part in that kind of service, though he would be happy to help.
Carter also told reporters that he believed Cuba should be taken off of the US list of countries sponsoring terrorism. He said he has learned about a close cooperation between Cuban and US intelligence services to fight threats by Al Qaida and other organizations in the gulf region. The only allegations made by the United States against the Cuban government are related to some groups in Colombia like the FARC, and ETA from Spain. But such allegations about Cuba sponsoring terrorism have no grounds so the US President should take Cuba out of the list.
And responding to BBC if he tackled issues like the freedom of expression, the freedom to travel, the economic changes to be analyzed by the upcoming Communist Party Congress, during his meetings with Raul Castro and leader Fidel Castro, Jimmy Carter recalled that when he visited Cuba nine years ago he addressed the people on TV and on the radio and that the Granma newspaper published his statements just as he made them, which expressed his wish about those topics and carried his recommendations.
He said that although he was not very familiar with the details or aspects of the text to be analyzed by the Communist Party Congress, he was informed that some 8 million Cubans gave their opinions on the document. Carter added that the Cuban foreign minister told him that thousands of amendments were proposed to the text and that over 65 percent of the paragraphs had been modified on the basis of such proposals.
Finally, Carter said that the members of "dissident groups" he met in the morning told him that many of them had abstained from expressing any requests on personal liberties, because they did not want to be linked to the procedure, since they are in disagreement with its integrity.
| Danny Glover and Saul Landau Visit Gerardo Again  by Saul Landau and Danny Glover
July 15, 2011
6:50 a.m. Plane leaves Oakland California airport. 8:05 a.m. Plane lands in Ontario, California, wait for the rent-a-car bus, pick up the rental and drive northeast toward Las Vegas (how else to explain heavy traffic on Saturday morning?). 9:30 a.m.We step from the air-conditioned rent-a-car into the burning sun of the Mojave Desert, the landscape for the US Correction Complex in Victorville, California. The guard at the desk gives us forms. We fill out forms and wait with several women in the waiting room. There’s a sign missing in the gray metal room: “Unfriendly.” 10:30.a.m. Saul asks the desk guard how much longer we’ll have to wait. “They’re counting the prisoners,” he replies. 11:30 a.m. A guard calls our numbers. We pass metal detector and pat-down tests. A guard stamps our forearms. We are only permitted to carry quarters in our pockets; nothing else – the coin accepted by the venomous food machines in the visiting room. A handle-less door opens. Danny, Saul and five women enter another chamber. An unseen prison guard inside a heavily sealed, thick glass office electronically closes the heavy metal door; another guard passes an ultra violet light machine over the invisible stamp on our arms. We wait. Moments later the invisible guard electronically opens another solid metal door. The visitors stand outside in a naked passageway between grey concrete bunkers and enough barbed wire to seal some national borders. The scorching desert sun alerts us to the surroundings and the contrast between what the prison architect has done and the landscape on which the immense concrete bunkers got built: brooding mountains, desert, cactus, and unseen bones of dead pioneers and Indians. One electronically sealed chamber later, we enter the visiting room – and wait. Noon: We sit on miniature plastic chairs even Kmart wouldn’t sell. A door opens; Gerardo Hernandez emerges. In the 1990s, Cuban intelligence sent him to run an infiltration group in south Florida. Bombs in hotels and restaurants don’t exactly draw vacationers and Cuba’s economy depended on expanding its tourist sector. In 1997, in order to stop the wave of Havana hotel and restaurant bombings, Gerardo’s group penetrated violent exile groups. Gerardo’s predecessors began infiltrating such groups before he was born. In 1959, former Batista officials and other anti-revolutionary exiles started their Florida-based air attacks against Cuba. Cuba complained to Washington. President Eisenhower quipped: “Why don’t the Cubans just shoot the planes down?” asked Ike. But Washington didn’t stop the over flights. Three plus decades later, Jose Basulto formed Brothers to the Rescue to spot rafters miles between Cuba and the Florida Keys. After the 1994-5 Migration Accords eliminated the need for such an operation, Basulto changed his mission. He convinced wealthy right wing exiles to fund the Brothers to enter Cuban air space and drop provocative leaflets. The Cuban infiltrators also discovered that Basulto had developed some weapons he planned to drop. Gerardo, Havana’s control agent, helped one agent, Juan Pablo Roque, slip out of Miami. Back in Cuba Roque held a press conference revealed he had also doubled as an FBI informer. He offered eye-witness details of Basulto’s plans for violence against Cuba. This dashing young pilot had fooled the Brothers to the Rescue and the Bureau. He also became the darling of ultra right Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtenin (a photo shows her slightly more than casual interest in Roque). Shortly after Roque’s press conference, Basulto announced his intention to fly over Cuban territory. A White House official and the FAA knew of the plans, but the government eventually charged Gerardo as Havana’s source of the Brothers’ flight plans – three planes -- that allowed Cuban MiGs to shoot down two of them on February 24, 1996. Basulto’s plane returned to Miami. After Roque had revealed his true identity, Miami’s right wing radio commentators began claiming Castro had taken over the FBI. In 1998, partly to undo that image, Gerardo thinks, the FBI busted him and other Cuban agents (The Cuban Five), despite the fact they had provided the Bureau with details of hidden explosive and arms caches and other relevant information to stop terrorism. The US case relied on the supposition that the MiGs fired missiles over international airspace. Cuban vectors indicated the action occurred over Cuban airspace. The US government has not released its satellite images on “national security” grounds. Gerardo’s trial lawyer did not demand them as evidence for the defense. “Why,” asked Gerardo, “would the US government not use these images available if they validated the prosecutor’s argument?” If the shoot downs occurred over Cuban air space, he emphasizes, there would have been no crime. An impending appeal – a motion to set aside the conviction -- will make this point. During the trial extremist exiles had photographed Miami jury members’ license plates. An acquittal, the jurors had reason to believe, might have resulted in their homes getting torched, or worse. The jury thus paid little attention to facts like Gerardo didn’t know the Brothers’ flight schedule, nor have access to Fidel’s decision to shoot down intruding aircraft. “An American Dreyfus case,” one lawyer called the judgment against the Cuban Five. 2:54 p.m. The loudspeaker declares visiting hours have ended. For three hours, guards had observed the visiting process. One inmate with his back to Danny had complimented him on his acting. Danny turned his head to thank him. A guard appeared. “Sorry, sir, you’re not allowed to turn around and talk to other inmates.” Gerardo shrugged. A sign in one sealed chamber called the Victorville Prison a “humane, correctional” institution. At least the sign didn’t claim pigs could fly. Gerardo wanted to see Saul’s new film, “Will The Real Terrorist Please Stand Up.” His voice, recorded during a phone conversation, appears in the documentary, as does Danny. The prison does not permit him to receive dvds; he can see dvds from the prison library, which is unlikely to acquire it. Each day the guards go home. Gerardo stays. The sun sets over desert mountains, and over the mountains of concrete, steel and barbed wire. Danny and Saul sigh. Gerardo, smiling, holds his fist high in a triumphal salute. Danny Glover is an activist and actor. Saul Landau’s WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP premieres at the Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica, July 26, 7 p.m. and at Washington DC’s West End Cinema (23rd and “M” NW) at 7:30. |
European Deputies Ask Obama to Release the Cuban Five
July 12, 2011
Havana, Cuba, Jul 12.- Nearly 30 deputies of the European parliament signed in Belgium a letter for U.S. President Barack Obama asking him to use his power to release the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in his country.
Twenty seven deputies from different nations, most of them with the friendship-with-Cuba group of the European chamber, signed the letter, among them Miguel Angel Martínez, president of the group and Willy Meyer, vice president.
This is not the first time members of the European Parliament take action in the fight for the freedom of the five Cuban men, as stated in the letter sent to Obama, according to a report at www.cubaminrex.cu, the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s website.
Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero –known as the Cuban Five- were arrested in 1998 in Miami and sentenced three years later to outrageous terms ranging from 15 years to two life sentences plus 15 years.
The European deputies make reference to the international campaign in favor of the case, which has been joined by prestigious legal, religious and human right organizations, as well as 10 Nobel Prize winners.
The signatories of the letter said even former American president James Carter stated publicly in March that the imprisonment of the Cuban Five has no sense and he expected Obama to pardon them.
The European deputies asked Obama to make use of his power granted by the U.S. constitution as president of his country to pardon the Cuban Five and set them free.
Truth Held Hostage
by Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
July 20, 2011
“There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.” (Luke 12:2)
To start out, from a juridical standpoint the case of the Cuban Five has run its course. We’re now turning to an extraordinary proceeding called Habeas Corpus, which is an opportunity that is available only once to convicted persons after they have exhausted all appeals. Here we have to take into account that historically the chances of our compañeros being freed this way are extremely remote.
However, we’re taking this step for two basic reasons. First of all, it’s a matter of principles: We have to wage this battle on every front that we can, because these are five innocent men who are suffering cruel and unfair imprisonment. Second, because only in the case of judicial decisions has it become possible, even partially and in a limited manner, to break through the iron-clad censorship that the mass media have imposed on this case.
I could have also begun this talk by saying that the present situation of the Five is identical to that which they faced thirteen years ago. There’s no news about them. They are suffering a double imprisonment: That imposed by their jailers, and that imposed by journalists.
The first thing we have to ask is why the media silence? Is it that Cuba, its Revolution, its problems, have been of little or no media interest? As you well know, it is very much to the contrary. Our country has received and keeps receiving attention incomparably greater than that given to other countries of this continent. They analyze us day and night under powerful spotlights and magnifying glass, almost always distorting the most diverse aspects of our reality. So, why do they hardly ever say anything about this case? If the Five had committed a crime, if any one of them had done, or tried to do, something against the American people, does anyone have the slightest doubt that they would have been a constant topic in the anti-Cuban propaganda?
The truth is that the Five are completely innocent and are literally, without exaggeration, heroes who have sacrificed their lives to save ours, showing an unsurpassed altruism. This is not an exercise in rhetoric.
This truth is proven in official U.S. government documents and in its courts. Their mission to try and discover terrorist plans against Cuba is plainly stated in numerous official documents ranging from the initial indictment brought against them and the prosecution's various motions at the commencement of the trial and throughout its development, to the sentences that were imposed on them upon conclusion. That the U.S. government's aim was to protect the terrorists was also acknowledged in those documents and in the prosecution's repeated statements, all of which is recorded in the court transcripts.
The big problem that we face is that the Empire has managed to keep this information from reaching the people. Its success has been remarkable. They have been able to hijack the truth with impunity. I’m not talking about secret texts or confidential documents. I’m talking about documents which have been and are available to anyone who goes to the official website of the Federal District Court for south Florida and looks up the case of “United States vs. Gerardo Hernandez et al.” But this is only done by some specialists or particularly interested individuals.
The general public finds out about what happens in the court system through whatever versions the so-called “news media” want to give. And about this trial, the longest Federal trial in the history of a nation that has, among other things, several TV channels dedicated exclusively to the courts, nothing was said outside the city of Miami. …
As I said, right now we’re engaged in the Habeas Corpus petition. The most difficult case is that of Gerardo, to which I’ll refer later.
But there is a common element in all their appeals, regarding the conduct of the press. While in the rest of the world it was completely ignored, in Miami the trial received overwhelming and strident coverage from the local media that promoted a climate of hatred against the defendants. There were even threats and provocations against jurors, attorneys and witnesses. The judge herself repeatedly complained and asked the government to put an end to a situation that clearly violated due process norms. This was one of the factors behind the unanimous decision in 2005 by the Appeals Court panel to toss out the whole farce and order a new trial, a just decision that was later reversed under pressure from the Bush Administration.
The following year, in 2006, it came out that these Miami “journalists” were in fact being paid by the government to carry out this sleazy job. For five years now, American private groups have been demanding that the authorities reveal everything that they are still concealing about the scale of this million-dollar operation—how much was paid, to whom, and for that—in a cover-up that would be more than sufficient to declare the whole legal process against our comrades null and void.
Against Gerardo there was an additional charge, an infamous slander for which he was sentenced to die twice in prison: They accused him of “conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.”
However, here I have a document dated May 30, 2001 from the U.S. Attorney’s office. Here they state that the charge could not be proven, and therefore they requested to withdraw it at the last minute. In spite of this, Gerardo was found guilty of a non-existent crime that was impossible to prove, and moreover, for which he was no longer accused.
But, what does it matter that this document exists if nobody talks about it?
Gerardo was falsely accused of having participated in something that he had absolutely nothing to do with: The Feb. 1996 downing of 2 aircraft over Cuban waters, belonging to a terrorist group which systematically dedicated itself to violating Cuban territory, announcing each violation and shamelessly bragging about it in the Miami media. Independent of the fact that this document is irrefutable proof the accusations were unsustainable, there is another very important fact that illustrates the transgression of the American authorities.
In order to claim legal jurisdiction over the incident, the United States had to prove that it had occurred outside of Cuban airspace. Cuban radars recorded the incident inside our territorial waters very close to the city of Havana. The U.S. radars offered confusing and contradictory data. An International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) investigative mission requested images taken by U.S. satellites, but Washington refused to release them. During the Miami trial the defense reiterated this request and the government once again refused. Now, Gerardo is again requesting this information for his Habeas Corpus, and Washington is again refusing to allow anyone to see these images. It's now more than 15 years of cover-up, which clearly proves the fraudulent nature of the U.S. government charges. But Washington has succeeded in not being denounced by anyone, allowing it to continue deceiving many.
Information is key to freeing Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, Fernando González Llort and René González Sehweret. In order to win this battle we need to mobilize many people, millions of people, and deploy a truly broad-based and effective solidarity movement
Yet any even minimally objective approach to this problem must recognize that we are still very far from this goal.
It is a proven fact that the giant media corporations have imposed an absolute silence around this case, that is especially rigorous within the United States itself, where the vast majority of the population knows absolutely nothing about the case. The complete lack of reporting on this theme does not reflect any professional incompetence on the part of journalists, but rather obeys precise instructions, a political decision to silence it, made at the highest levels in Washington.
To hope that these censors will change their attitude is senseless illusion and would be an exercise in self-deception. To denounce them over and over is right but it is not enough, because our repeated denunciations have barely had any effect at all.
But there is much, much more that we can and must do.
First of all, we have to objectively take into account the reach that it has today - what we should call by its proper name: the global media tyranny.
We’re not only talking about what leading newspapers say or cover up, the big TV networks or the news agencies that decide what news will be broadcast around the world. All of them, united in enormous monopolies, control and manipulate information and their influence even extends to would-be alternatives to this global dictatorship, including media that defines itself as revolutionary.
There are many people in this world who strive to speak out and to be heard with very limited resources, and who have occasionally penetrated the wall of disinformation and deception. Our resources are much greater, those of the Cuban universities, the professors and students.
Let’s do as the children of “La Colmenita” (“The Little Beehive,” a Cuban fairy-tale) and ask “What more can we do?”
A talk delivered at the Cuban University of Information Sciences (UCI), Havana, July 20, 2011.
More than 2,200 pages of documents obtained through FOIA
Government-funded propaganda operation in Miami exposed
by Gloria La Riva and Benjamin Becker
More than 2,000 pages of contracts obtained by Liberation newspaper — between U.S. propaganda stations Radio and TV Martí and Miami journalists posing as independent press — reveal a close partnership between the U.S. government and extreme rightwing Cuban-exile reporters in Miami.
The Cuban Five are Cuban nationals who were on a mission in Miami to stop U.S.-based terrorism aimed at Cuba. They were arrested by the FBI in 1998 and imprisoned for trying to expose a new wave of violent acts against Cuba emanating from Miami. In seeking a trial outside that city, the Five cited the pervasive anti-Cuba prejudice in Miami. But the judge refused their numerous requests.
With the discovery — after the trial — of the U.S.-paid Miami journalists, the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, Liberation newspaper, and the legal civil-rights organization Partnership for Civil Justice Fund began an investigation into how the anti-Cuba climate in Miami is financed and fostered by the U.S. government, even though it is barred by law from engaging in domestic propaganda.
The organizations have documented extensive media coverage by the government-paid reporters.
MIAMI JOURNALISTS WITH A TERRORIST RECORD
Some of the Miami journalists on the government payroll have a history of supporting armed attacks against Cuba. Others gave highly favorable coverage to Miami terrorist organizations that advocate violent overthrow of the Cuban government.
Miami has the unique distinction within the United States of harboring terrorist organizations and individuals with the full knowledge, and often support, of Washington. These groups have carried out numerous violent attacks against the Cuban people with complete impunity. More than 3,400 Cubans have been murdered by terrorist attacks.
Washington, through several government agencies, has a long history of arming and training anti-Cuba terrorists in Miami. It also, as it turns out, has a developed pattern of putting on the payroll of Radio and TV Martí individuals who have advocated and supported violent actions against Cuba.. The stations’ headquarters are in Miami, under the influence and direction of the Cuban extreme right living in Miami.
ENRIQUE ENCINOSA
Enrique Encinosa, who advocates the bombing of Cuban hotels, was employed by the U.S. government while he was working as an “independent” news director on the powerful right-wing Spanish-language radio station in Miami.
During the Cuban Five prosecution, Encinosa broadcast news regularly on Miami’s 50,000-watt WAQI Radio (“Radio Mambí”), and was a frequent commentator on their arrest and prosecution. He received $5,200 to host a weekly Radio Martí show from Oct.1, 2000, to Sept. 30, 2001, for a total of $10,400. The Cuban Five's trial was within that time span, running from Nov. 27, 2000, to June 8, 2001.
Encinosa boasted in an Internet radio interview: “I arrived in the United States in 1961. I became involved in the anti-Castro paramilitary organizations when I was 16. I participated in a number of military and covert operations into Cuba as a very young man. I worked cloak and dagger in covert operations …” The interview was in 2010.
Earlier, in 2005, in an interview for the documentary, “638 Ways to Kill Castro,” Encinosa openly supported the bombings that shook Havana hotels in 1997, one of which killed Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo. In the film, Encinosa says: “I personally think it’s an acceptable method. It’s a way of damaging the tourist economy. The message that you, one, tries to get across is that Cuba is not a healthy place for tourists. So, if Cuba is not a healthy place for tourists because there’s a few windows being blown out of hotels, that’s fine.”
While the Five were monitoring the Miami terrorists’ plots in the late 1990s, Encinosa was co-hosting a clandestine shortwave radio station in Miami called “La Voz de la Resistencia.” It was beamed into Cuba on a weekly basis, and Encinosa would call for listeners to wage violent attacks on economic targets, as well as advocating assassinations of Cuban individuals.
The Five were engaged in an anti-terrorist mission and never possessed a weapon in Miami. But they were often falsely portrayed as supporting terrorism by the Miami journalists.
In an interview several days after the Cuban Five’s arrest, published Sept. 21, 1998, in El Nuevo Herald, Encinosa, who was cited as an intelligence expert, stated that the arrests occurred because U.S. intelligence “has detected or has indications that the information [supposedly gathered by the Five] is passing through terrorist organizations outside the United States.”
JULIO ESTORINO
Julio Estorino’s history includes membership in Junta Patriótica Cubana, which was formed in the early 1980s. It advocated the violent overthrow of the Cuban government.
Estorino’s resumé — from the BBG documents obtained by Liberation newspaper — shows his U.S. government employment by the BBG goes back to at least March 1998, several months before the Cuban Five’s arrest.
His resumé states clearly: “Employer: U.S. Government, Office of Cuba Broadcasting … Miami Florida.” It is not possible yet to know the total amount that Estorino received from the BBG because the agency has not yet produced documents from before November 1999. But the material obtained by Liberation newspaper shows he was paid $14,950 from Oct. 16, 2002 to Jan. 31, 2004.
During the same period that Estorino was employed by the U.S. government he was also 1) Executive director of the morning news show of a right-wing Miami radio station WACC; 2) Host of that station’s daily evening drive-time interview show, “El Portal,” and 3) Co-host of “Al Día,” a daily news and opinion show.
Since 1997, he has been a regular columnist for the Miami newspaper Diario las Américas. Within days of the Cuban Five’s arrest, Estorino wrote several articles for Diario las Américas on their case.
In an article on Sept. 18, 1998, headlined, “The spies of Havana and Washington’s intentions,” Estorino writes:
Throughout [Fidel Castro’s] lengthy reign of terror, many have known and almost all have assumed that certainly in this country and in Miami, amongst us, there are Castro agents moving about and performing different missions, none of which we can say are any good.”
When the Cuban Five were arrested on Sept. 12, 1998, a clamor began immediately by several of the most prominent U.S.-paid journalists for the Five to be indicted for the deaths of four pilots of Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR), who were shot down by Cuba when they invaded Cuban airspace. Cuba had warned the Clinton administration that further BTTR invasions into Cuban territory would no longer be tolerated.
From the time of the Feb. 24, 1996, shoot-down until the indictment of one of the Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernández, on May 8, 1999, on false charges of “conspiracy to commit murder,” the Miami coverage was virulent, beyond any semblance of objective reporting.
Some of the reporting also cast a guilty net over all the Cuban Five.
Estorino wrote in an article published in the Diario Las Américas on May 14, 1999, titled “With Malice Aforethought”:
The United States government has formally indicted a number of agents from Castro's dictatorship who were operating in South Florida, with conspiracy to commit murder, in relation to the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes and their tragic toll of four deaths on February 24, 1996.
All this should be proven and it shouldn’t be very hard to do it. …
The Cuban exiles have waited forty years for the beginning of a recognition, even an implicit one, that their denunciations about the vile and wicked nature of Fidel Castro and the system of government he has imposed on our people, have not been exaggerations, mistakes, or lies. This vileness and wickedness has already reached U.S. territory and its citizens and it's time for the consequent actions to be taken: that Fidel Castro be indicted as well, along with everyone who participated in this infamous crime.
It's time for justice to be done.
ALBERTO MÜLLER
Alberto Müller left Cuba for the United States in 1960 and formed a group called Revolutionary Students Directorate (DRE), which carried out terrorist attacks inside Cuba, including bombings in Havana. With training by the CIA, he infiltrated Cuba in 1961 to try to organize paramilitary actions in the Escambray mountains, just before the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Müller was caught and convicted of terrorist attacks. After serving 20 years in prison and being exiled to the United States, Müller became a Miami reporter.
The BBG contracts obtained by Liberation newspaper show government payments to Müller of $38,571 from Oct. 1, 2004, to March 31, 2010. Earlier, during the Five’s trial, he wrote incendiary articles about the Cuban Five and the BTTR plane shoot-down.
The BBG has so far failed to release information relating to its employment of Miami reporters before Nov. 1999.
On Feb. 20, 2001, Müller wrote a particularly venomous article titled “Assassins” in Diario Las Américas:
The last minutes in the life of four pilots downed in international waters by Castro's MiG planes were filmed and recorded for posterity.
What we needed to hear ... live ... shamelessly uninhibited, accented with bloody premeditated calculation ... the subordinates asking the commander in chief for the go-ahead to pulverize the defenseless airplanes of Brothers to the Rescue with a Soviet missile ... Five years have passed since the horrendous crime committed over international waters. That's why the matter should be put to the legal and humanitarian powers of every organization of human justice, from the International Criminal Court at the Hague to the Human Rights Commission at the United Nations.
The Criminal Confession ... in the very voice of the underling executioner ... we have finally heard it with absolute clarity ... during the trial of Castro's spies who infiltrated Miami. What more is needed now to make the decision to try Fidel Castro? What more is needed now to make the decision to seat Fidel Castro in the dock at an international legal trial? Well, nothing. All the elements of the inquiry are at hand.
No crime should remain unpunished ... but one that is executed in the open skies ... against defenseless human beings who were flying over international waters in search of Cuban rafters on the high seas deserves the strictest and unmistakable repudiation by all of humanity ... due to its filthy genocidal character. [Editor's note: Ellipses included in the original]
...
The act is so despicable by its nature as a crime against humanity that it suggests the accused should be in the dock, whether they are subordinate executioners or executioners am
