RHC Analysis: 2007 - The Case of the Cuban 5 in US Prisons

As the 10th year of incarceration in US prisons approaches for the
Cuban Five, it would be easy to feel disheartened about the progress
towards freeing the Five Cuban Heroes. Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio
Guerrero, Ramon Labaino, Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez are still
locked up and the family members are still being treated in a hostile
manner when they apply for visas to enter the US to visit their loved
ones in US penitentiaries.

However the hope and spirit of those fighting for their release has
increased. The Five imprisoned Cubans themselves are as strong in their
convictions as ever and remain an inspiration for all of us struggling
for their liberation.

The three most significant events during the year were:

1. The oral hearing at the 11th Circuit Court of Atlanta on August 20th

2. Fernando Gonzalez's move from Oxford FCI in Wisconsin to Terre Haute

3. The development of the two-pronged approach to the campaign:

(a) the release of the Five

(b) the granting of the visas to Olga and Adriana to visit the US to
see their husbands in prison on humanitarian grounds

1. The oral hearing at the 11th Circuit Court of Atlanta on August 20th

We are still waiting for the decision of the three-judge panel of the
11th Circuit Court of Appeals after the August 20 court hearing. The
main issues put forward by the Five's legal team were the length of
sentences passed down on the Five without admissible evidence and the
conviction of Gerardo Hernandez on a count of conspiracy to commit
murder in the first degree, again on the evidence of a received
telephone message on his answering machine. There were a number of high
profile international observers from the human right and civil rights
world including the Chilean Judge, Juan Guzman who was responsible for
convicting the late Dictator Pinochet.

2. Fernando Gonzalez's move from Oxford FCI in Wisconsin to Terre Haute

Without any prior warning or obvious reason, Fernando Gonzalez, a model
prisoner serving his 19 year sentence in Oxford FCI in Wisconsin was
moved in September to FCI Terre Haute in Indiana. Although Fernando
accepts the move without protest, it is a big blow to the loyal group
of followers in Wisconsin who made Fernando a cause celebre calling him
"Wisconsin's very own political prisoner". It also means that the
sup****t that his mother, Magaly and wife, Rosa Aurora had in Wisconsin
has to be built up again in Indiana.

3. The development of the two-pronged approach to the campaign:

(a) the release of the Five

2007 was a year of increased solidarity and perhaps even more
im****tantly, increased media coverage. This was due in no small part to
the work of the US Free the Five Campaigns.

There were several very im****tant tours in the US to publicize the case
with a view to gaining sup****t for the campaign to free the five. It is
generally accepted that the main thrust of the information campaign is
aimed at the ordinary citizen of the US as the US government to date
has not shown any interest in correcting the blatant miscarriages of
justice that have been carried out at all levels against the Five.

In recent months there has been a significant rise in news coverage of
the Cuban Five case by major media. CNN's The Situation Room aired a
13-minute segment. BBC and Reuters conducted radio interviews with
Gerardo Hern!ndez. An im****tant article appeared in The New York Times,
National Public Radio broadcast a recent segment, and the Associated
Press story on the Aug. 20 oral argument hearing was picked up by
almost 100 U.S. daily newspapers. All of this coverage is easily
accessible on the website: freethefive.org.

It was also a year of travel for the indefatigable family members of
the Five. As well as trips to Europe, this year Fernando's mother
Magaly went as far as the African continent to bring the story of the
Five's plight to garner solidarity from all corners of the world.

Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, whose office's
role is to coordinate the campaign on the Five here in Cuba, used every
national or international forum in 2007 to bring up the case of the
five Cubans held as prisoners in US jails since September 12, 1998.

For more than nine years he has dedicated considerable effort to
explain the details of the case and build sup****t for the struggle to
free Fernando, Antonio, Ramon, Rene, and Gerardo.

His highlighting of the contradictions apparent in the treatment by the
US courts in the case of the Five illustrates the on-going travesty of
justice perpetrated against the Five. According to an interview with
Alarcon published in Granma, the most recent example took place in June
of this year: the case of a Mr. Aragoncillo, a Philippine born man. He
was an FBI officer assigned to the offices of Vice President Richard
Cheney. He worked in the White House. He was also tied to the executive
mansion back when Al Gore was the vice president. The court record
states that from that office he obtained 733 secret do***ents. When he
left the White House, he went to work with the FBI in New Jersey. It
was then that they discovered the fact and they brought Aragoncillo to
trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison.

As Alarcon points out, he received ten years in prison for real,
substantive espionage. Meanwhile, the Cuban Five, who never obtained
even one piece of paper, were accused of conspiracy to commit espionage
without being accused of espionage itself. A long list of high level US
authorities paraded before the court in Miami testifying that "there
was absolutely nothing pointing to espionage." However, the prosecution
managed to convince a Miami jury and they were harshly sentenced to
terms including four life sentences and 75 years in prison.

(b) Campaign for the granting of visas on humanitarian grounds to Olga
and Adriana to visit the US to see their husbands in prison

For the eighth time, the US authorities have denied a visa to Olga
Salanueva and Adriana Perez, the wives of Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo
Hernandez, to visit their imprisoned husbands.

The denial of visas for family members to visit the Cuban Five is
totally arbitrary. And not only arbitrary, but also in violation of
international and United States norms.

All people in prison have the right to receive visits from family and
even other persons. The case of the Five is a special situation because
the prisoners are in one country and their relatives in another.
Normally when the United States has dealt with this type of situation a
resolution has been found even in more problematic cases.

However the treatment given to the relatives of the Five is obviously
outside of the norm. The process to request a visa lasts months: The US
Interests Section grants an appointment, you go there, they give you
forms to fill out, and these are submitted to the US consul. Then you
have to waits, sometimes several months wait until they call you and
say yes or no. In practice this has meant that for those who have been
able to travel it has been at most once a year. However in the case of
Olga Salanueva and Adriana P(c)rez respectively, they have not been
allowed to visit their husbands for 7 and 9 years. This past September
12th marked the 9th anniversary of the arrests of the Cuban Five and on
that day the U.S. Government once again denied visas for Olga and
Adriana to visit their husbands in prison. On 8 separate occasions they
have applied for a visa and each time they have been denied for a
different reason without real justification.

On one occasion Adriana was given a visa, but the treatment was even
crueler because when she arrived in Houston they wouldn't let her stay
in the US and she was returned to Cuba. Olga was also given a visa once
that was later revoked. Since then it has been all negative replies.
They have said "No" to eight consecutive requests.

On the 7th of December this year, the International Committee for the
Freedom of the Cuban Five launched an International Commission for the
Right of Family Visits on Behalf of Family Members of the Cuban Five
Held in U.S. Prisons

The Commission will base its demand on the humanitarian right for
families to visit their loved ones in prison based on The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention against Torture. This
Commission will take into consideration the opinion of the United
Nation Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions of May 27, 2005,
statements on behalf of Olga and Adriana from Amnesty International, as
well as sup****ting statements from the European Parliament.

Personalities from around the world include Adolfo Perez Esquivel,
Nobel Peace Prize from Argentina, Rigoberta Mench, Nobel Peace Prize
from Guatemala, Danielle Mitterand, former First Lady of France, and
many others. Here in the United States a number of personalities have
agreed to be part of the International Commission including Bishop of
Detroit, Thomas Gumbleton, Angela Davis, UC Santa Cruz Professor, Dr.
Joan Brown Campbell, Former General Secretary of the National Council
of Churches, actor Danny Glover, writer Alice Walker, linguist Noam
Chomsky, historian Howard Zinn, former US Congressman Esteban Torres,
Wayne Smith former Chief of the US Interests Section in Havana Cuba,
and Michael Parenti, author and scholar.

The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five is launching an exciting
new campaign for the next stage of the struggle, with two components:

1. A Billboard Campaign to raise public awareness and sup****t for the
Five in Wa****ngton DC, Los Angeles and other cities, with Billboards
and Transit Shelter ads. The Billboard Campaign has the potential to
bring the case to the attention of hundreds of thousands or millions of
people. The scope of the campaign will depend on the funding.

2. An International and US "Day After" mobilization and Week of Action
immediately upon the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision. Regardless
of the outcome of the court decision, it will be vital for all
sup****ters of the Five, organizations and individuals, to respond the
day after. We are calling for press conferences, emergency rallies in
front of government offices in the U.S. or U.S. embassies and
consulates abroad, and a massive letter-writing campaign to the
President and Attorney General.

Another significant and successful event at the end of 2007 was the
premiere of film "The Trial" in Hollywood Los Angeles organized by the
US Committee to Free the Five.

With a sold-out theater at 7:30 pm and a second 9:30 pm show added the
Hollywood premiere of "The Trial: The Untold Story of the Cuban Five" in
December was a great success.

Film star Danny Glover took time from his busy filming schedule to open
the premiere at the Laemmle's Sunset 5 Theater complex. There was great
excitement among the theater-goers by his presence, and for his sup****t
for the Five.

In his talk, Glover said, "Who are the Five? Not only were they saving
Cuban lives by opposing terrorism in Miami, they were in the service of
all humanity. Three of the Cuban Five served in Angola against South
Africa's invasion. If you know the role that the Cubans played against
apartheid, you can appreciate how truly heroic the Five are. Cuba,
through its history and internationalism, sup****ted African and Latin
American countries, and countries all over the world, to enable the
people in those countries to free themselves and decide their own
destinies."

The defense team for the Five had a full year of legal work putting
together their papers and files to present at the oral hearing I
Atlanta on 20th August. They also have to wait for the decision of the
court to see what the next steps will be in the legal battle. Leonard
Weinglass, the well-known civil rights attorney and member of the
defense team, traveled around the US and Europe to explain the
intricacies of the case against the five and especially the legal
irregularities they encountered and are still suffering.

As 2008 approaches it behoves us all to put even more time and effort
into this worldwide campaign to free the Cuban Five. Let's give it the
final push to get these men out of prison. It is of enormous benefit to
them to know that we are remembering and sup****ting them through all
these years.

                                 *
=================================================================
 NY Transfer News Collective     *    A Service of Blythe Systems
           Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
            Our main website:   http://www.blythe.org
   List Archives:       http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
   Subscribe:     http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFHcaLuiz2i76ou9wQRAquZAKCx7fjYEqIvwqIWACzRs8g6MF6pvwCfZwPk
qfgz24+KRGaJQkdUIT0Ob8w=
=oPUR
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----