In a trial held in Florida last year, the five were each convicted on the frame-up charge of conspiring to "act as an unregistered foreign agent." Three were found guilty of conspiracy to "commit espionage" and one of conspiracy to "commit murder," under claims he supplied the Cuban government with information about the Brothers to the Rescue flights. Four pilots of the rightist outfit were killed when their planes were shot down by the Cuban air force after they entered Cuban airspace in 1996.

The five--Gerardo Hernández, René González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, and Fernando González--received sentences ranging from 15 years to life. They have been divided up and sent to separate prisons across the United States (see addresses below).

In their trials each of the Cubans explained they were in the United States to collect information on the activities of counterrevolutionary anti-Cuban groups operating in Florida in order to defend their country against attacks and aggression from U.S. soil.

The ceremony that Castro addressed was held at the Karl Marx Theater on March 8. The Cuban government has proclaimed 2002 the Year of the Heroes Imprisoned by the U.S. Empire. The translation of Castro's talk was provided by the Cuban Council of State. Footnotes and subheadings are by the Militant.
 

Here today on International Women's Day to receive the Mariana Grajales and Ana Betancourt Orders in a moving and solemn ceremony that will surely never fade from our memories are Carmen, Magali, Irma, and Mirta; and Adriana, Rosa Aurora, Olga and Elizabeth: the mothers and wives of Gerardo, Fernando, René, Antonio, and Ramón.

Absolutely innocent of the charges--after 16 months of isolation and seven months of a rigged trial where the lies, hypocrisy, and cynicism of the accusers were shattered--three have been sentenced to life imprisonment and two to long stretches in jail. In yet another manifestation of rage and hate, they continue to receive heartless and brutal treatment. Thinking that their morale and strength can be destroyed, the courts have put them in five top-security prisons, with a minimum of 1,400 kilometers [870 miles] between each jail, after a hazardous and cruel journey! They were always held in punishment cells, and then thrown into the general population of prisons where control, impartiality, and moral leadership are conspicuous by their absence.  
 
U.S. arrogance
This is a harsh test of our he-roes' unshakable strength and valor. And this is being done to men who, seeking information about terrorism, were defending their people to the death. Alleging the same objective, the United States has launched all its forces to invade nations, using its most sophisticated and destructive weapons, declaring a long, indefinite and imprecise world war against terrorism.

With the height of superiority and arrogance, it has threatened more than 80 countries and taken the liberty to indicate which are, or are not, terrorists. It also has the gall to mention Cuba among those terrorist nations, when in reality thousands of Cubans have died as a result of terrorism from the United States, and not one single U.S. citizen has suffered the slightest scratch or harm from any act of this type by Cuba.

It goes without saying that our country cannot be intimidated. By using such stupid threats, they are banging their heads against a brick wall. The U.S. government must ask Cuba's forgiveness for the thousands of acts of aggression, sabotage, and terrorism committed against our country for the last 43 years. The U.S. government must ask Cuba's forgiveness for over three decades of economic war and the total blockade of food and medicine; these are genocidal acts which even in times of war are sanctioned [prohibited] by 1948 and 1949 international treaties signed by both nations.

The U.S. government must compensate our country for crimes that have caused enormous suffering and the loss of tens of thousands of lives. The U.S. government must break with the Miami terrorist Mafia, which organized and financed brutal acts of terror such as the explosion of a Cuban airplane in full flight with 73 passengers on board, all of whom perished, and the innumerable bomb attacks on Cuban buildings and hotels, hundreds of assassination attempts on leaders of the Cuban Revolution, biological warfare against people, animals, and plants.¹

The U.S. government must arrest and try Orlando Bosch, the well-known terrorist who, along with others, freely walks the streets of Miami. The U.S. government must stop protecting Posada Carriles and demand that justice be done for him and the other criminals who brought scores of kilograms of extremely powerful explosives to Panama, planning to kill hundreds of young university students with the aim of assassinating the Cuban delegation to the Ibero-American Summit, in Panama City.²  
 
End the blockade against Cuba
The U.S. government must eliminate the Torricelli Act, the Helms-Burton Act, and numerous amendments aimed at tightening up the blockade against our country. The U.S. government must eliminate the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act, which has cost the lives of so many women, children, elderly, and other citizens, and continues to take the lives of the people of Cuba.

The U.S. government must discuss with Cuba the illegal and arbitrary occupation of a piece of our territory [at Guantánamo], to come to an agreement about when it will be returned to our country. The U.S. government must respect the Cuban people's right to self-determination, as well as the economic and political system it has decided to follow.³

The U.S. government will never have the moral authority to fight terrorism as long as it continues to use such practices against countries like Cuba, and continues to support massive, repugnant and brutal massacres such as those being perpetrated by its ally, the state of Israel, against the Palestinian people. It must renounce its policy of world domination, stop intervening in other countries, respect the authority of the United Nations, and honor the treaties it has signed.

These are indispensable requisites for achieving a climate of peace in the world and eradicating that odious scourge of terrorism.

Our heroes must be freed. The whole world will learn of the enormous injustice committed against them. Millions of books will tell the truth and send out Cuba's message. Sooner rather than later, our comrades will come home! No matter what it costs or where they are, their relatives will exercise their right to visit them every month, and bring them the encouragement and affection of all their people. (Applause)

Eternal glory to the heroic sons of Cuba! (Shouts of glory!)

To the mothers who bore them and raised them! (Shouts of glory!)

To the wives and children who contributed lovingly to creating their will of iron and invincible spirit! (Shouts of glory!)

Hasta la victoria siempre! [Ever onward to victory!]

Patria o Muerte! [Homeland or Death!]

Venceremos! [We will win!]
 

1.In 1976 counterrevolutionary groups organized the hijacking and bombing of a Cubana Airlines flight off the coast of Barbados. The perpetrators and masterminds of the attack, which resulted in the deaths of all 73 people on board, worked for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. One of them, Orlando Bosch, who is widely credited with planning the attack, walks free in the streets of Miami to this day.

2.CIA-trained terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was imprisoned in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing, but escaped and later worked for Washington to further its contra war against the Nicaraguan revolution. Prior to the start of the November 2000 Ibero-American Summit in Panama, Cuban officials gave Panamanian security forces the addresses, phone numbers, and aliases of right-wing terrorists positioned to take part in an attack on Cuban president Fidel Castro. Panamanian officials were forced to act and arrested Posada Carriles. The government of Panama later said it would not respect Havana's requests that Posada Carriles be extradited to Cuba to face trial.

3.The U.S. government continues to illegally occupy the Guantánamo base at the eastern end of Cuba under a lease signed with a U.S.-installed regime in 1903. Since 1959 the Cuban government has called for the removal of the military facility. However, Washington has refused to give up this military toehold against the Cuban Revolution.
 

René González, #58738-004, FCI Loretto, P.O. Box 1000, Loretto, Pennsylvania 15940;
Antonio Guerrero, #58741-004, U.S.P. Florence, P.O. Box 7500, Florence, Colorado 81226;
Gerardo Hernández, #58739-004, U.S. Penitentiary-Lompoc, 3901 Klein Blvd., Lompoc, California 93436;
(for Fernando González) write to: Ruben Campa, #58733-004, F.C.I. Oxford, P.O. Box 1000, Oxford, Wisconsin 53952-0505;
(for Ramón Labañino), write to: Luis Medina, #58734-004, U.S.P. Beaumont, P.O. Box 26035, Beaumont, Texas 77720-6035.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. press blackout at Guantánamo pierced, brutal treatment exposed
Release Guantánamo prisoners
 
 
 
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