Cuban 5 still wait for justice
By
Teresa Gutierrez
Published Apr 14, 2005 9:30 PM
March 2005 marked one year since the filing
of the last appeal in the case of the Cuban Five.
The Five are Cubans who
were arrested in 1998 in the U.S. The U.S. government charged the Five with
engaging in espionage against military bases and threatening “nat ional
security.” The Cubans were trying to monitor and prevent terror attacks
from U.S. soil against their island nation.
They were given unprecedented
sentences in correspondence with these charges. Their trial took place in Miami
where the anti-Cuban right wing is so strong that a fair trial is
impossible.
On March 10, 2004, lawyers for the Five submitted an appeal of
the sentences. The lawyers had expected a result by the end of the year, but
2004 came and went with no notice.
The Cuban National Assembly issued a
statement on the anniversary.
It read in part: “A year has gone by
since the March 10 hearing. In the case of the Five ... the presiding judge
should have looked at federal sentencing alternatives. The maximum for their
case was 26 years. Nevertheless the judge increased this limit, using factors
not presented to the jury, condemning them to serve life
terms.”
Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Gerardo
Hernández, René González and Ramón Labañino
continue to wait for justice in five federal prisons throughout the U.S.
The slow movement in the legal channel is one example of the importance
of fighting the case politically. The most important thing for Cuban Five
supporters and progressives to do is to organize on behalf of the Five.
Struggle grows to defend the Five
In the U.S. and around the
world, the movement to defend the Five continues
to grow.
A Cuban
website reports that last month members of the newly formed Rus sian Committee
for the Liberation of the Cuban Five demanded the release from U.S. jails of
these fighters against terrorism.
A statement presented in Moscow
declared, “[T]he Cuban government was forced to take measures to defend
its sovereignty and safeguard the security of its citizens, owing to constant
threats of sabotage and terrorist actions by the U.S.”
In February,
the Irish National vowed to take up the case of the Five.
In the Spanish
province of Andalusia, Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez—wives of two of
the Five—met with parliamentarians and students in the city of Seville.
The Andalusian Parliament presented a motion urging the central government to
demand a retrial.
Prensa Latina reports that the Cuban Five were at the
center of the Venezuela-Cuba Mutual Solidarity Meeting that took place in
Caracas on April 8-10.
Organizers of the committee said that the case of
the Five was a main issue for the 400 national delegates at the event and was
included in three round-table talks.
Organizers told Prensa Latina before
the event, “Defending the cause of the Cuban Five has caused much
enthusiasm among Venezuelans. Videos, explanations and experiences will be
presented, thus providing an action strategy to continue demanding their
liberation.”
Leonard Weinglass, the attorney for Antonio Guerrero,
spoke at the University of New Mexico in March on the case.
He pointed
out that “although no evidence of espionage was introduced at the trial,
the five were convicted on fabricated charges of conspiracy against the national
security of the U.S. Their sentences exceeded those of high profile espionage
cases in the U.S. resulting in the death of U.S. agents and exposure of
life-threatening national security secrets.”
Weinglass points out
that the trial was one of the longest in the United States. The record was
massive, with 118 volumes of testimony and over 800 documents introduced as
exhibits.
A news whiteout occurred during the trial despite the fact that
this was a notable trial. Three U.S. military generals, an admiral and a White
House advisor to the U.S. testified.
One shocking fact of the case is that
the lawyers filing the March appeal were allotted only 15 minutes to argue the
case. Lawyers had three minutes to defend each client.
Weinglass says
that “if you receive a traffic ticket in New York City and appear in court
you will be given at least 15 minutes. My client [Antonio Guerrero] is serving
life; I had to review 20,000 pages of documents, 118 volumes of transcripts to
present my case in three minutes.”
Last year, right after the appeal
was submitted, a Cuban American Republican legislator made a comment that
demonstrates why Cuba is forced to monitor the right wing in
Florida.
Lincoln Diaz Balart, long known for his rabid anti-Cuba views,
proposed on a Miami television program that Cuban President Fidel Castro be
assassinated. He said that U.S. spies should infiltrate foreign tourism in order
to carry that out.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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