Vol. 76/No. 13      April 2, 2012

Hernández is one of five Cuban revolutionaries imprisoned in the United States since 1998 on frame-up charges, including “conspiracy to commit espionage.”

The Cuban Five, as they are known, which includes Antonio Guerrero, René González, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González, were carrying out assignments from the Cuban government to monitor Florida-based counterrevolutionary groups that operate with Washington’s complicity and have a long history of violent attacks against Cuba and supporters of the Cuban Revolution.

Three of them were given life sentences. Hernández was also framed up on the charge of “conspiracy to commit murder” and received the stiffest sentence, double life plus 15 years.

The work the five carried out played an important role in helping to end dangerous provocations by these groups, including Brothers to the Rescue, which had repeatedly violated Cuban airspace between mid-1994 and February 1996, despite numerous protests by the Cuban government to Washington.

On Feb. 24, 1996, Cuban pilots shot down two Brothers to the Rescue planes that had entered Cuban airspace heading toward Havana, after they refused warnings by Cuban air traffic controllers to turn back.

Washington falsely charged that Hernández was responsible for the shootdown, a sovereign act of the Cuban government.

Hernández, 46, joined the Union of Young Communists when he was in high school in Cuba. Like René González and Fernando González, he was one of more than 375,000 Cuban volunteers who served as internationalist combatants in Angola, helping the Angolan people defeat invasions by the white supremacist South African apartheid regime between 1975 and 1991.

“I am learning about the Cuban Five for the first time,” said Isabel Valenzuela, a worker at a Mexican community center. “I can see that Cuba is not what the U.S. government says it is.”

“It’s wrong to put someone in prison for life on unfounded charges,” said Gabrielle Goldstein, a DePaul University student. “This exhibit will help their cause.”

The exhibit, which continues through April 28, includes a series of programs and film showings. Both “Humor From My Pen” and an exhibition of artwork by Antonio Guerrero, “From My Altitude” have toured several U.S. cities.

“Humor From My Pen” at Calles y Sueños 1900 S Carpenter is free. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For information on events, call the Chicago Cuba Coalition at (773) 208-0553 or (312) 952-2618 or visit www.ChicagoCubaCoalition.org.
 
 
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1962: Mobilization of Cuban toilers prevented US invasion  
 
 
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