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Vol. 77/No. 47      December 30, 2013

 
Who are the Cuban Five?
 
Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino and René González are Cuban revolutionaries who during the 1990s accepted assignments from the Cuban government to gather information on the operations and plans of Cuban-American paramilitary groups based in southern Florida. These rightist outfits, organizing on U.S. soil with virtual impunity, have a long record of carrying out bombings, assassinations and other deadly attacks, both against targets in Cuba and supporters of the Cuban Revolution in the United States, Puerto Rico and elsewhere.

On Sept. 12, 1998, the five were arrested by the FBI. They were framed up and convicted on a variety of charges, which included acting as unregistered agents of the Cuban government and possession of false identity documents. Without a shred of evidence, three were charged with “conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense information.”

The frame-up and long sentences meted out to the Five is part of Washington’s decades-long campaign to overturn the political power held by the working class of Cuba and to punish the toilers of that nation for making and defending a socialist revolution 90 miles from U.S. shores.

All but René González, who returned to Cuba in May 2013, remain in prison.
 
 
Related articles:
Women trade unionists back fight to free the Cuban Five
Gerardo Hernández salutes Nelson Mandela, South African revolution
 
 
 
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