Vol. 78/No. 2      January 20, 2014

Below is a review of the French edition of the Pathfinder Press book The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They Were Framed, Why They Should Be Free that appeared in the December issue of Le Monde diplomatique, a monthly international newspaper published in Paris. The author, Maurice Lemoine, is a former editor-in-chief of the paper and author of Cinq Cubains à Miami: Le roman de la guerre secrète entre Cuba et les États-Unis (Five Cubans in Miami: The Story of the Secret War between Cuba and the United States).

All that drags on too long ends up fading from view as if it no longer exists. So we are grateful to this book for returning to the tragic story of the five Cuban agents — Mr. Gerardo Hernández, Mr. Ramón Labañino, Mr. Antonio Guerrero, Mr. Fernando González, and Mr. René González — who were arrested in September 1998, then tried and convicted in 2001 for having infiltrated the rightist and paramilitary groups carrying out attacks against Cuba from southern Florida.

During their trial held in Miami for “conspiracy to spy on the United States,” which was characterized by numerous basic rights violations, “not a single one of the 1,400 pages presented as evidence showed that the defendants possessed secret information.”

After serving his 15-year sentence, Mr. [René] González was released from prison — he is the only one who has been. Mr. Hernandez was even punished by being sentenced to two life sentences plus 15 years. The articles reprinted here, as well as the photos, were chosen from some 200 articles printed during the last 15 years in the pages of the Militant, a socialist weekly published in New York.

— MAURICE LEMOINE