Vol. 78/No. 26      July 21, 2014

Below is a review by the Iran Book News Agency of The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They Were Framed, Why They Should Be Free. The book was published in Iran by Talaye Porsoo, which translated the Pathfinder Press book of the same title into Farsi from the original English. The semiofficial news agency published the review June 19 under the headline “The Story of the Five Cubans Arrested in Clinton Times.” Translation of the review is by the Militant.

The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They Were Framed, Why They Should Be Free is the title of a book whose content has been gathered from the pages of the Militant newspaper, a socialist weekly in the United States.

The Militant proudly declares on its masthead to be “a socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people.” The newspaper, published in New York in both English and Spanish, is distributed and read in the United States, Canada, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and other parts of the world.

The selection is from among nearly 200 news reports and feature articles about the Cuban Five published in the paper over a span of 15 years.

Mary-Alice Waters and Martín Koppel, editors of the book, write in the introduction that the Cuban Five are “five Cubans who were living and working in southern Florida in 1998 when each of them was arrested in coordinated predawn raids by the U.S. government. At that time William Clinton was president.

“They were framed up on charges that included conspiracy to commit espionage. … More than two years later, the Five — who proudly acknowledged they were working for the Cuban government — were brought to trial and convicted in federal court in Miami on all counts. The judge imposed maximum sentences. …

“What were the alleged criminal activities of the Five?

“They organized to infiltrate paramilitary and other counterrevolutionary Cuban American groups that have a 50-year record of planning and carrying out bombings, assassinations, and other assaults on Cubans as well as other supporters of the Cuban Revolution — on the island, in the United States (yes, inside the U.S.), in Puerto Rico and elsewhere. Their assignment was to keep the Cuban government informed of those deadly operations in order to prevent as many as possible from coming to fruition.”

The book recounts the story of the Cuban Five in some detail and includes dozens of photos and illustrations. It consists of an introduction and four sections: “Why and How Washington Framed the Cuban Five,” “We Will Continue Until Victory,” “Angola: Fighting for Africa’s Freedom and Our Own” and “Who Are the Cuban Five?”

In a preface written by Talaye Porsoo we read, “It can be said that this book shows the opposing social relations of two countries, Cuba and the United States, through the case of the five Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. Reading this book we learn about the Cuban Revolution and about the Cuban Five, who are the fruit of that social revolution. On the other hand we read the record of the U.S. government’s hostility toward Cuba.”

Another part of the publisher’s preface states, “As we read the book we learn about the U.S. government’s harsh treatment of the Five in prison and how this reflects the U.S. government’s hatred of the Cuban Revolution. … In addition, the book’s descriptions of developments in relation to working people in the United States show that what the government has imposed on the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Five is not an exception, but rather the extension of the government’s domestic policy beyond its borders.”

The book is published by Talaye Porsoo in 125 pages with a run of 1,000, and sells for 12,000 tomans ($3.75).
 
 
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Who are the Cuban Five?
Exhibits of paintings by Antonio Guerrero
UN Committee backs freedom for Puerto Rico, Oscar López
 
 
 
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