Cuban Five

The Cuban Five: Antonio Guerrero, René González, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino

The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five (Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González),[1] are five Cuban intelligence officers who were arrested in September 1998 and later convicted in Miami of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and other illegal activities in the United States. The Five were in the United States to observe and infiltrate the Cuban-American groups Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and Brothers to the Rescue.[2][3] They were part of La Red Avispa (the Wasp Network).

In 2001 the Cuban government acknowledged—after denying the fact for nearly 3 years—that the 5 men were intelligence agents. It said they were spying on Miami's Cuban exile community, not the US government.[4] Cuba contends that the men were sent to South Florida in the wake of several terrorist bombings in Havana organized by anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, a former Central Intelligence Agency operative.[4][5]

The Five appealed their convictions, and concerns about the fairness of their trial have received international attention.[6] A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta overturned their convictions in 2005, citing the "prejudices" of Miami’s anti-Castro Cubans, but the full court later reversed the five's bid for a new trial and reinstated the original convictions.[4] In June 2009 the United States Supreme Court declined to review the case.[7] In Cuba, the Five are viewed by the government as national heroes and portrayed as having sacrificed their liberty in the defense of their country.[8]

René González was released on October 7, 2011 following the completion of 13 years of his sentence with a further three years of probation in the US.[9] He was allowed to return to Cuba for his father's funeral on 22 April 2013, and a federal judge allowed him to stay there provided that he renounce his United States citizenship.[10] Fernando González was released on February 27, 2014.[11] The remaining members were released on December 17, 2014, in a prisoner swap with Cuba for an American intelligence officer (identified by a senior American as Rolando Sarraff Trujillo[12]); the release also coincided with the release by Cuba of American contractor Alan Phillip Gross, although the governments characterized the release of Gross as being unrelated to the release of the Cuban Five members. The release was sanctioned by President Obama and was viewed by some observers as a first step in the easing of political relations between the United States and Cuba, known as the Cuban Thaw.[13]

Background

In 1960s and 1970s, there were claims of attacks against Cuba by U.S.-based counterrevolutionary exile groups such as Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), Alpha 66, and Omega 7. In a 2001 report by Cuba's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, the Cuban government cataloged 3,478 deaths as a result of "terrorism", "aggression", "acts of piracy and other actions".[14] The events cited span the course of four decades and pertain to attacks such as the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 by men trained by the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA-supported Bay of Pigs invasion, and the War Against the Bandits between the government and anti-communist rebels in the Escambray Mountains (see also Operation Mongoose). As a result, the Cuban government had long sought to combat these groups. Their efforts include the use of spies sent to operate in the U.S.[15] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other U.S. organizations had been monitoring the activities of Cuban spy suspects for more than 30 years.[16]

Activities

The "Cuban Five" were Cuban intelligence officers who were part of "La Red Avispa", or Wasp Network, which the FBI dismantled with 10 arrests in 1998.[17] According to Gerardo Hernández, the leader of the cell, and as reported by Saul Landau in the political magazine CounterPunch, the network observed and infiltrated a number of Cuban-American groups: Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and Brothers to the Rescue.[2]

The court found that they had infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization that flew small aircraft over the Florida straits in efforts to rescue rafters fleeing Cuba, and had on some flights intentionally violated Cuban airspace and dropped leaflets.[3] On February 24, 1996, two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft were shot down by Cuban military jets in international airspace while flying away from Cuban airspace, killing four U.S. citizens aboard.[3]

The U.S. government also accused the remaining four of lying about their identities and sending 2,000 pages of unclassified information obtained from U.S. military bases to Cuba. The network received clandestine communications from Cuba via the Atención numbers station.

U.S. government organizations, including the FBI, had been monitoring Cuban spy activities for over 30 years, but made only occasional arrests.[16] However, after the two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft were shot down by Cuban MiGs in February 1996 and four U.S. citizens were killed, on the basis of information sent to Cuba by an infiltrator of the group, the Clinton administration launched a crackdown.[16] According to U.S. attorney José Pertierra, who acts for the Venezuelan government in its attempts to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, the crackdown was aided by the cooperation of the Cuban authorities with the FBI in 1997. The Cubans provided 175 pages of documents to FBI agents investigating Posada Carriles's role in the 1997 bombings in Havana, but the FBI failed to use the evidence to follow up on Posada. Instead, they used it to uncover the spy network that included the Cuban Five.[18][19] According to FBI evidence at the trial, the FBI had been monitoring the communications of Hernández, whose information enabled the shootdown, for several years prior to that event.[20] He was not arrested until 1998.

Arrests, convictions and sentences

All five were arrested in Miami, on September 12, 1998 and were indicted by the U.S. government on 25 different counts, including charges of false identification and conspiracy to commit espionage. Seven months later, an additional indictment was added for Gerardo Hernández - conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shoot-down of the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft.[20] The additional charge followed months of public and media debate in Miami, with Cuban exile groups pressing for the charge.[20]

Hernández states they spent the first 17 months of their imprisonment in solitary confinement.[21] The President of the Cuban National Assembly Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada stated that evidence that "belonged to the defendants themselves and included family photographs, personal correspondence and recipes"[22] - was classified as "secret", preventing the defendants and their attorneys from seeing it.[22]

The trial, beginning in November 2000, went on for seven months, although jury deliberations lasted a few hours.[22] In June 2001, the group was convicted of all 26 counts in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, including the charge of first-degree murder against Gerardo Hernández which the prosecution had applied to withdraw.[22] The prosecution had tried to withdraw the case when it became clear that the judge's jury instructions would specify that the murder charge required that the deaths occurred within U.S. jurisdiction, which it had been unable to show. The prosecution also applied for an emergency writ, which was denied, that the instructions should exclude reference to jurisdiction.[23]

In December 2001, the members of the group were sentenced to varying prison terms: two life terms for Hernández, to be served consecutively; life for Guerrero and Labañino; 19 years for Fernando González; and 15 years for René González.[22] In addition, the prosecution sought the post-release deportation of the three Cuban-born members, and for the two U.S.-born members, a post-release sentence of "incapacitation", imposing specific restrictions on them after their release, which would be enforced by the FBI. The restrictions ban them from "associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists, members of organizations advocating violence, and organized crime figures are known to be or frequent."[24]

In 2011, NPR reported some of the people associated with this group were imprisoned in a highly restrictive Communication Management Unit.[25]

Appeals

A billboard for the Cuban Five in Santa Clara. The number 5 with a star and a Cuban flag, shown in the picture, is used as a logo for the cause of the five.
Sign supporting the 'Cuban Five' in Varadero, Cuba

After the arrests, motions by the defense for a change of venue, on the basis that Miami was a venue too associated with exile Cubans, were denied,[22] despite the fact that the trial began just five months after the heated Elian Gonzalez affair.[26] The jury did not include any Cuban-Americans but 16 of the 160 members of the jury pool "knew the victims of the shootdown or knew trial witnesses who had flown with them."[27] According to Ricardo Alarcón, President of Cuba's National Assembly, a year later, an application to change venue for the same reason was granted by the same court in an employment case with a Cuban connection.[22] As a result the Five applied for annulment of the trial and a change of venue for a retrial; the motion was denied.[22] According to Alarcon, the Five's appeal to a higher court was inhibited by further month's solitary confinement in early 2003, and by denial of access to their attorneys.[22] On August 9, 2005, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta unanimously overturned the convictions and sentences of the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial outside Miami, saying that the Cuban exile community and the trial publicity made the trial unfavorable and prejudicial to the defendants.[27] This was the first time a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court's finding with respect to venue.[28] However, on October 31, 2005 the Atlanta court agreed to a U.S. government request to review the decision, and in August 2006 the ruling for a new trial was reversed by a 10-2 vote of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal sitting en banc. Charles R. Wilson wrote the opinion of the majority.

On June 4, 2008, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of the "Five" but vacated and remanded for resentencing in district court the sentences of Guerrero, Labañino, and Fernando González. The court affirmed the sentences of Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez.[3][15] The court held that the sentencing judge had made six serious errors and remanded the case back to the same court. The decision was drawn up by William Pryor.[29] In January 2009, the Five appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.[30] Twelve amicus curiae briefs were filed.[31]

In May 2009, in response to the request for Supreme Court of the United States review of the panel decision by Judge Pryor, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, on behalf of President Barack Obama, filed a brief asking that the petition for a writ of certiorari be denied.[32] On June 15, 2009, the Supreme Court denied review.[7]

On October 13, 2009, Antonio Guerrero's sentence was reduced to 21 years and 10 months. On December 8, 2009, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González's sentence were reduced to 30 years and 17 years and 9 months, respectively.[33]

Plans for a 2010 appeal

In June 2010 Cuban Five defense lawyer Leonard Weinglass was preparing to file a new round of appeals that would include evidence of U.S. government payments to journalists who later authored negative articles before and during the original trial of the Cuban Five.[34] Weinglass died on March 23, 2011. Following the death of Leonard Weinglass, civil rights lawyer Martin Garbus took over the case.[35] On June 13, 2012, Martin Garbus held a press conference where he revealed a new strategy based upon proof that the United States government had paid numerous reporters and press outlets to create media pressure on the jurors to convict.[36]

Proposed "spy swap"

In May 2012, it was reported that the U.S. had declined a "spy swap" proposed by the Cuban government, wherein the Cuban Five would be returned to Cuba in exchange for USAID contractor Alan Phillip Gross, imprisoned in Cuba for illegally providing equipment allowing Cuban Jews to have internet access.[37]

The prisoner swap eventually took place in December 2014 as part of a broader agreement to thaw Cuba–United States relations.[38] In addition to Gross, the swap included Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, a Cuban who had worked as an agent for American intelligence and had been in a Cuban prison for nearly 20 years.[39][40]

International criticism of the convictions, and U.S. response

“ Holding a trial for five Cuban intelligence agents in Miami is about as fair as a trial for an Israeli intelligence agent in Tehran. You'd need a lot more than a good lawyer to be taken seriously. ”
—  Robert Pastor, President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser for Latin America[41]

Since their conviction, there has been an international campaign for the case to be appealed. In the United States, the campaign is most conspicuously represented by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five[42][43][44] which is represented in twenty U.S. cities and over thirty countries.

On 27 May 2005, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted a report by its Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stating its opinions on the facts and circumstances of the case and calling upon the U.S. government to remedy the situation.[45] Among the report's criticisms of the trial and sentences, section 29 states:

29. The Working Group notes that it arises from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a fair trial as defined in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States of America is a party.

Amnesty International has criticized the U.S. treatment of the Cuban Five as "unnecessarily punitive and contrary both to standards for the humane treatment of prisoners and to states’ obligation to protect family life", as the wives of René Gonzáles and Gerardo Hernández have not been allowed visas to visit their imprisoned husbands.[46] Amnesty said in early 2006 that it was "following closely the status of the ongoing appeals of the five men of numerous issues challenging the fairness of the trial which have not yet been addressed by the appeal courts."[47]

The U.S. Government has responded to these claims,[48] stating that the prisoners have received over a hundred visits from family members granted visas. The government contends that the wives of González and Hernández are members of the Cuban Intelligence Directorate, and thus pose a risk to the national security of the United States:

Consistent with the right of the United States to protect itself from covert spies, the U.S. government has not granted visas to the wives of two prisoners. Evidence presented at their husbands’ trial revealed that one of these women was a member of the Wasp Network who was deported for engaging in activity related to espionage and is ineligible to return to the United States. The other was a candidate for training as a Directorate of Intelligence U.S.-based spy when U.S. authorities broke up the network.
Sign on a street in Varadero, Cuba

Eight international Nobel Prize winners have written and sent a document to the U.S. Attorney General calling for freedom for the Cuban Five, signed by Zhores Alferov (Nobel Prize for Physics, 2000), Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984), Nadine Gordimer (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1991), Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980), Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986), José Saramago (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1996), Günter Grass (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999).[49][50]

In the United Kingdom, among other actions, 110 Members of Parliament wrote an open letter to the U.S. Attorney General in support of the Five.[51][52][53]

In April 2009, a Brazilian human rights group, Torture Never Again, awarded the Five its Chico Mendes Medal, alleging that their rights had been violated, declaring that "their mail is censored and their visiting rights are very restricted."[54]

In 2011, Brazilian writer Fernando Morais wrote The Last Soldiers of the Cold War, about the Cuban Five. The book is based on over 40 interviews and documents of the governments of United States and Cuba.

Current location and release

René González was put on parole for three years starting 2011. He was allowed to return to Cuba for his father's funeral on April 22, 2013. Originally he was required to return to Florida to carry out his three years of probation, but on May 3 a federal judge ruled that he can stay in Cuba provided that he voluntarily renounces his United States citizenship.[10]

Fernando González was released on February 27, 2014. He returned to Cuba and campaigned for the release of the remaining three.

In December 2014, the last three prisoners were released as part of a prisoner swap for an unnamed American intelligence agent held by Cuba. American Alan Phillip Gross was released by Cuba at the same time.[38]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Miami Five wives again denied visas to visit their husbands". Amnesty International. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  2. 1 2 Saul Landau, CounterPunch, 17 April 2009, Infiltrating Alpha 66.
  3. 1 2 3 4 4 June 2008, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, D. C. Docket No. 98-00721-CR-JAL.
  4. 1 2 3 Havana Complains About Conditions for Cuban Spy in U.S. Jail by the International Herald Tribune, August 4, 2010.
  5. ↑ Duncan Campbell (2008) 'Society has become more punitive', section The history of the Cuban Five.
  6. ↑ Pat Denny, Green Left Online, UNITED STATES: Cuban Five ruling a "travesty of justice", #680, 2006.
  7. 1 2 Reuters, 15 June 2009, Top court won't review case of five Cuban spies.
  8. ↑ The Washington Post, 3 June 2006, Cubans Jailed in US as Spies Are Hailed at Home as Heroes.
  9. ↑ "Cuban spy free from Florida jail but must stay in U.S". Reuters. 7 October 2011.
  10. 1 2 Cave, Damien (3 May 2013). "Judge Says Cuban Who Spied on U.S. Can Stay in Cuba". New York Times. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  11. ↑ ABC News. "U.S. News - National News". ABC News.
  12. ↑ "Journey to Reconciliation Visited Worlds of Presidents, Popes and Spies", New York Times, December 17, 2014
  13. ↑ Elise Labott, "Cuba releases American Alan Gross, paves way for historic easing of American sanctions", CNN (December 17, 2014).
  14. ↑ Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations (2001), (Spanish) Informe de Cuba al Comité Antiterrorismo del Consejo de Seguridad en virtud de la Resolución 1373(2001).
  15. 1 2 Reuters, 4 June 2008, U.S. court upholds conviction of Cuban spies.
  16. 1 2 3 The Miami Herald, September 2, 2001, "Couple accused of reporting to two Cuban spies".
  17. ↑ The Miami Herald, September 14, 2001, "Lawyer: Accused spy to plead guilty".
  18. ↑ CounterPunch, 10 July 2009, President Obama, It's Up to You to Rectify This Injustice - The Cuban Five: a Cold War Case in a Post-Cold War World.
  19. ↑ AFP, 3 May 2007, FBI probes Cuban's possible links to 1997 Havana bombing: report.
  20. 1 2 3 Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, CounterPunch, 3 September 2009, Indictment À La Carte.
  21. ↑ Saul Landau, CounterPunch, 24 April 2009, An Interview with Gerardo Hernandez, Leader of the Cuban Five: Seventeen Months in "the Hole".
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Ricardo Alarcón, Counterpunch, 27 August 2005, A Long March Towards Justice:The Cuban Five in Atlanta.
  23. ↑ Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, CounterPunch, 4 September 2009, It Happened in Miami.
  24. ↑ Ricardo Alarcon, CounterPunch, 27 August 2009, In Their Own Words: Incapacitating the Cuban Five.
  25. ↑ DATA & GRAPHICS: Population Of The Communications Management Units, Margot Williams and Alyson Hurt, NPR, 3-3-11, retrieved 2011 03 04 from npr.org.
  26. ↑ Christian Science Monitor, 15 June 2009, Convicted 'Cuban Five' spies lose bid for new trial.
  27. 1 2 Reuters, 9 August 2005, U.S. court reverses Cubans' spying convictions.
  28. ↑ GreenLeftOnline, 24 August 2005, UNITED STATES: Cuban Five convictions reversed in landmark decision.
  29. ↑ Leonard Weinglass, Links, 23 September 2008, Chronicle of an injustice: Summary of the case of the Cuban Five.
  30. ↑ Havana Times, 31 January 2009, Cuban 5 Case at US Supreme Court.
  31. ↑ Scoop, 6 April 2009, US Embassy Refuses Letter From MPs. Crs. Unionists.
  32. ↑ Elena Kagan, Lanny A. Breuer, Joseph F. Palmer, U.S. Department of Justice, No. 08-987: Ruben Campa, et al., Petitioners, v United States of America, May 2009.
  33. ↑
  34. ↑ Linn Washington, Jr (June 4–6, 2010). "The Federal Government Paid Journalists to Sabotage Trial". CounterPunch. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  35. ↑ "Martin Garbus on the Cuban Five". Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  36. ↑ "Martin Garbus speaks on new motion for the Five". Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  37. ↑ Circles Robinson, US Says NO to Alan Gross-Cuban 5 Swap, Havana Times (May 11, 2012).
  38. 1 2 "Cuba libera a Alan Gross y EE UU a los 3 espías" (in Spanish). CubaNet. December 17, 2014.
  39. ↑ Mark Mazzetti, Michael S. Schmidt, Frances Robles (2014-12-18). "Crucial Spy in Cuba Paid a Heavy Cold War Price". New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved 2014-12-19. He was, in many ways, a perfect spy — a man so important to Cuba’s intelligence apparatus that the information he gave to the Central Intelligence Agency paid dividends long after Cuban authorities arrested him and threw him in prison for nearly two decades.
  40. ↑ "U.S. spy freed by Cuba was longtime asset". Washington Post.
  41. ↑ Obama and Castro: Sparring Over Human Rights by Martha Burk, The Huffington Post, April 7, 2010.
  42. ↑ National Committee to Free the Cuban Five.
  43. ↑ Colorado Springs Independent, 10 April 2003, Stinging Back.
  44. ↑ Fox News, 4 June 2008, Court rules on sentences of 'Cuban 5'.
  45. ↑ Opinions adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, OPINION No. 19/2005, pp. 60-65.
  46. ↑ Amnesty International, 26 January 2006,
  47. ↑ Susan Lee, CounterPunch, 26 January 2006, An Open Letter to the State Department: The U.S. is Violating the Rights of the Cuban Five.
  48. ↑ "The "Cuban Five"". IIP Digital. United States Department of State. 12 July 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  49. ↑ CNN, 30 January 2009, 'Cuban Five' file appeal with Supreme Court.
  50. ↑ Amicus brief of Nobel Prize winners Jose Ramoshorta, Wole Soyinka, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Nadine Gordimer, Rigoberta Menchu, Jose Saramago, Zhores Alferov, Dario Fo, Gunter Grass, and Mairead Corrigan Maguire.
  51. ↑ Znet, 8 December 2007, Leonard Weinglass Interview.
  52. ↑ Cuba Solidarity Campaign, Hilton Hotels and discrimination against Cuban Nationals, CSC Briefing Paper, March 2007.
  53. ↑ Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations, 9 February 2006, Nobel prize winner and 110 British demand the Cuban Five's liberation.
  54. ↑ Associated Press, April 5, 2009, 'Cuban Five' Receive Brazilian Human Rights Medal.

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