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Still fighting to free the Cuban Five

Published Jun 14, 2012 9:07 PM

It is a classic tale of imperialist treachery and repression. Fourteen years ago, U.S. authorities arrested five men: Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Rene González Sehwerert, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Fernando González Llort and threw them in prison. June 8 was the eleventh year of their conviction on trumped-up charges.

The Cuban Five are sons, spouses, brothers, poets, pilots, college graduates and artists, three born in Cuba, two in the United States. Three of them fought in Angola against apartheid South Africa. The struggle for these heroes’ freedom continues.

Since 1959, Cuba has been subjected to threats, sanctions, invasions, sabotage, a blockade and violent attacks on its soil, resulting in 3,478 deaths and another 2,099 wounded. Cubans have developed vigilance against foreign attacks.

In 1976, a bomb exploded aboard a commercial Cuban airliner, destroying the plane in mid-air and killing 73 people. Behind the attack were two men of Cuban-origin, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, former CIA operatives who the U.S. then sheltered.

The Five’s ”crime” was to infiltrate the right-wing organizations that, with CIA backing, carried out many of these attacks and were plotting still more. When the Five discovered a real bomb plot and reported it to the FBI, the FBI arrested the Cuban Five. Despite the FBI’s supposed concern about terrorism, they let the perpetrators off, while the Five spent 17 months in solitary confinement cells. The trial took place in Miami and lasted seven months, the longest trial ever to take place in the U.S. up to that time.

During the trial the U.S. government — through its official propaganda agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors — was covertly paying prominent Miami journalists to saturate the Miami media with reports that were highly inflammatory and prejudicial to the Cuban Five.

The presence of Miami journalists on the U.S. government payroll, who purported to report as “independent” press, goes to the heart of the unjust conviction of the Five. The Five were not only victims of a politically motivated prosecution, but a government-funded propaganda operation as well.

Trial Judge Joan Lenard dutifully denied a change of venue for the prisoners.

In October 2011, Rene Gonzalez was released after serving 13 years in prison, then forced to continue with supervised release in Miami, preventing his return to Cuba. Gonzalez has not seen his spouse Olga Salanueva since his birthday on Aug. 13, 2000, when the FBI arrested and deported her as part of a plan to pressure Rene to “cooperate.” (Rene Gonzalez, Documentary “Esencias”, January 2012, Radiocubana.cu) She and Gerardo Hernández’s spouse, Adriana Perez, are still prevented from entering the U.S. to visit their spouses.

Despite over a decade of incarceration, their case has not been forgotten, and there are new reasons for optimism.

On June 6, 2012, a motion requesting an oral argument and discovery was filed with the U.S. Southern District Court of Florida on behalf of Hernández. The motion aims to uncover and expose the U.S. government’s nefarious role of first keeping the trial in Miami and then poisoning the jury pool by secretly paying journalists to slander the defendants, a violation of U.S. law.

During its 25th convention May 27-30, the Service Employees union made a historic decision to raise the issue of the Cuban Five for the first time. The day before the convention started, people brought the case to the almost 200 delegates of the SEIU Latino Caucus, who gave unanimous informal support to the campaign for the freedom of the Five and the right to family visits.

And on June 8, delegates to the 35th convention of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union received postcards demanding that President Barack Obama release the Cuban 5 and return them to their homeland. At their last convention in 2009, this rank-and-file militant union passed resolutions demanding U.S. entry visas for Perez and Salanueva to visit their imprisoned spouses, ending the U.S. blockade of Cuba and freedom for the Five.

Meanwhile, more traditional support continues. From July 1-31 IFCO/Pastors for Peace will make its 20th caravan challenging the illegal blockade and delivering needed supplies to Cuba. Also in July, the 43rd contingent of the Venceremos Brigade will make its way to Cuba to not only support the Cuban Revolution, but make a living protest against Washington’s hostile policy toward Cuba. Both travel challenges make the case of the Cuban Five central to their organizing.

On June 14, 2011, Carlos Hernandez, the mayor of Hialeah, a city in Miami-Dade County, “honored” the FBI – and CIA-funded terrorist Luis Posada Carriles by giving him the key to the city. There is ample evidence linking Luis Posada Carriles to the 1976 bombing of the Cuban airliner and to involvement in the Hotel Copacabana bombing in Havana that killed Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo in 1997.

Nevertheless, there is reason to hope for supporters of Cuba and people interested in justice around the world. In 2011, for the 20th time, the United Nations General Assembly voted against the U.S. blockade of Cuba.