Vol. 73/No. 38      October 5, 2009

Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González—known internationally as the Cuban Five—were arrested in 1998 and convicted in 2001 on frame-up charges ranging from “conspiracy to commit espionage” to, in the case of Hernández, “conspiracy to commit murder.” The five were in Florida monitoring rightist Cuban exile groups that have carried out armed attacks against Cuba with Washington’s complicity.

Gómez referred to the importance of the Miami meeting since three of the five were moved to a jail here at the end of August in preparation for a resentencing hearing October 13. In 2008 a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of all five but also ruled that the sentences for Labañino, Guerrero, and Fernando González were excessive.

Labañino and Guerrero were each given life sentences for “conspiracy to commit espionage.” Fernando González was sentenced to 19 years for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent, and charges related to possession of false documents.

A brief letter was read to the meeting from Fernando González. He wrote that the three had been released from solitary confinement as of September 1. González said they were very happy to hear about the Miami meeting in their defense.

Max Lesnik, director of Radio Miami and a leader of Alianza Martiana, a coalition favoring normalization of relations with Cuba, described how the judge during their 2001 trial refused defense attorney requests to move the trial out of Miami, “the one place where the five could definitely not get a fair trial.” U.S. government officials and the Miami media whipped up a sensationalist campaign about a “spy network” that “threatens national security.” Right-wing Cuban groups orchestrated a campaign of protests aimed at intimidating jurors during the trial.

“We need to be in the streets in Miami with our signs and caravans,” stated Lesnik, referring to recent car caravans here protesting U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba. “We can’t get health care here but 90 miles away health care is guaranteed for all the Cuban people. They don’t want people to see the difference between what’s in Cuba and here.”

Gómez noted recent changes in U.S. Treasury Department regulations that allow Cuban Americans to more freely travel to Cuba and called for a stepped-up campaign to get rid of all travel restrictions on U.S. residents going to Cuba.

Gómez made special mention of the several Haitian activists who attended the meeting and that there was translation of the talks to Creole. The meeting ended with many crowding the front of the room to hear greetings from Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba’s National Assembly, via phone hook-up.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. embargo against Cuba: What do they fear?
Havana concert highlights decline of Miami rightists  
 
 
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