!!FREE THE FIVE CUBAN HEROES!!
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Who are the Cuban Five? Why are they imprisoned in the United States?
The Cuban Five are five men who came to the
United States in the early 1990s in response to the wave of violence
directed at Cuba by mercenary groups from the Cuban exile community in
southern Florida. Their names are Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero,
Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzáles and René González. The Five were sent by the Cuban government unarmed and without any
plan to inflict harm on the U.S. Their sole purpose was to infiltrate
the network of terrorist groups that had been attacking Cuba since the
triumph of the Revolution. They came at a particular time in the history of the Cuban
Revolution. Cuba's number one trading partner, the Soviet Union, had
recently collapsed, and the economy of Cuba had gone into freefall. The
Cuban government decided that one of the ways to restore economic
health in Cuba was to engage in the tourist industry. The tourist
industry was built up in 1992-93 and was an ongoing concern through
1994-95. In response, the mercenary wing of the Cuban exile community
in South Florida decided to begin a violent terror campaign against the
tourist industry as a way of undercutting the Cuban economy. Bombs were placed in various hotels by anti-Cuban terrorists, in one
instance killing an Italian tourist. A bomb was placed in the Havana
airport. Bombs were placed in buses to and from the airport. The Cuban
government protested these terrorist activities to the U.S., but to no
avail. They protested to the United Nations, also without a response.
As a result, beginning in the 1994-95 period, the Cuban Five came
forward to protect their country. The Five quickly succeeded in infiltrating the groups and reporting
warnings to Cuba of the plans being developed to attack Cuba. In
1996-97, the U.S. government became aware of their presence in this
country, and the FBI rounded them up in 1998. They were prosecuted on a
variety of charges, including failure to register as foreign agents.
Three were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage; one was charged
with conspiracy to commit murder. A Miami jury convicted them on all counts after a seven-month trial.
The trial of the Five was the longest trial in the history of the U.S.
at the time. During the trial, the attorneys for the Five requested a
change of venue from Miami to another city five times. The judge denied
each request. In December 2001, two of the Five were sentenced to life in prison,
one to 19 years, and one to 15 years. Gerardo Hernández received two
life terms. For more information click on: