Miranda addressed around 80 people who attended the event, held at a church in Harlem. Along with other speakers he described the history of threats and violent actions against supporters of Casa de las Américas in New York.

Miranda reviewed the history of U.S. government support for counterrevolutionary forces based in Florida, whose bombings, invasions, assassination attempts, and other attacks have been part of Washington's war against the Cuban Revolution for more than four decades. These include the 1976 bombing by U.S.-trained counterrevolutionaries of a Cuban airliner over Barbados in which 73 people died and the 1980 murder of Felix García, a member of the Cuban mission to the United Nations.

In response to continued attacks on Cuba by rightist forces in Florida with the full knowledge of Washington, the Cuban government sought to learn about the activities and plans of these organizations. As a June 20 statement by the Cuban government pointed out, the five were in Miami to "discover and report on terrorist plans hatched against our people" in Florida by counterrevolutionary opponents of the Cuban Revolution. Cuban leaders have organized a campaign to win the release of the five, including widespread coverage in the Cuban press.

On June 8, a federal court in Miami convicted three Cuban citizens--Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, and Antonio Guerrero--of "conspiracy to commit espionage," and "conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent." They could face life in prison. Two others, Fernando González and René González, were convicted of "conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent."

Hernández was also convicted on unprecedented charges of "conspiracy to commit murder," in which the prosecution claimed he was responsible for the deaths of four pilots who were members of the rightist Cuban-American group, Brothers to the Rescue. The pilots were shot down by the Cuban air force in 1996, after repeated and provocative violations of Cuban air space, despite warnings. The prosecution justified the charges by claiming Hernández had provided the Cuban government with flight information about the Brothers to the Rescue operation. The sentencing of the five, originally set for early fall, is now scheduled for mid-December.

Maggie Becker, the companion of Guerrero, was the featured speaker at the New York meeting. Becker stressed the harsh terms of the Cubans' 38-month imprisonment, more than half of which they have spent in solitary confinement. The prison authorities have told them that the spells in solitary are "for their own protection" and have offered no further explanation, Becker said after the meeting. The other prisoners have never threatened them, she said; in fact, they applauded the Cubans on their return from the trial.

Each of the five is allowed no more than 300 minutes worth of personal phone calls each month, she said to the meeting. "If it was one person, that might not seem so bad. But there are many family members and friends who need to speak to them." Becker also read several poems by Guerrero.  
 
'Cuba has a right to defend itself'
In a June 17 statement that was available to meeting participants, the five wrote that they have "endured a severe imprisonment in the jails of a nation where hostility by its authorities against our own is obvious. After a long and infamous trial directed by blatantly political objectives, methods and procedures, and overwhelmed by a deluge of maliciously concocted propaganda, we have decided to address the American people to let you know the truth, that we are the victims of a terrible injustice.

"We have been accused of endangering the security of the United States," they wrote, "and indicted of numerous charges, including crimes such as conspiracy to commit murder that could not, and cannot, be proven for they are false but for which we could be sentenced to dozens of years of imprisonment and even to life sentences."

The message pointed out that Cuba "has heroically survived four decades of aggression and threats to its national security, of subversive plans, sabotages and destabilization, has every right to defend itself from its enemies who keep using U.S. territory to plan, organize and finance terrorist actions..."

Jennifer Weger of Pastors for Peace gave further details of the case, and noted the use of sedition and conspiracy laws against W.E.B. Dubois and other fighters against discrimination in the United States.

Martin Koppel, also active in the Free the Five campaign, said the frame-up was not only an attack by Washington on the Cuban revolution but also part of the assault on working people's rights at home.

Koppel noted the FBI's September 21 arrest of Ana Belen Montes, a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency analyst on Cuban matters, on charges of providing classified material to the Cuban government. Montes is being held without bail. As with the Miami five, he said, the cops had gained their alleged evidence by accessing personal computer files and other violations of privacy. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.

The meeting included short videos in which Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the Cuban National Assembly, discussed aspects of the case, and family members of the five spoke in their defense. The event was chaired by Teresa Gutiérrez of the International Action Center.  
 
 
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