Michael Collins: The Case of the Cuban Five: American Justice as a Political Weapon
[Michael Collins is a research assistant for the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy (www.americaspolicy.org).]
The case of the Cuban Five is inextricably linked to the ongoing standoff between Havana and Washington. In the early 1990s, the Cuban government sent a group of men known as The Wasp Network to the United States to infiltrate anti-Castro organizations, which had been operating from Miami with apparent impunity since the 1960s. After these anti-Castro organizations orchestrated the bombings of Cuban hotels and the shooting down of a Cuban passenger aircraft near Barbados in 1976, the Cuban government decided to take covert actions, believing that the United States was not interested in helping prevent more attacks.
One of the groups targeted by The Wasp Network was Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR). The group was made up of Cuban exiles whose initial goal was rescuing Cuban rafters who were emigrating from the country, but whose focus changed after new U.S. immigration policy mandated that rescued rafters be sent back to Cuba, rather than taken to the United States. The group then began chartering planes to drop anti-Castro leaflets in Cuba, making repeated illegal incursions into Cuban airspace. Cuban authorities made numerous complaints to U.S. aviation authorities, but this failed to put a stop to the flights. On February 24, 1996, two BTTR planes were shot down by the Cuban Air Force, resulting in the death of the four pilots on board. The deaths provoked outrage in the United States, and led directly to the strengthening of the U.S. embargo on Cuba via the controversial Helms-Burton Act.
The ensuing crackdown also led to the arrest in 1998 of Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González. In June 2001, after a seven-month court case in Miami, the men were found guilty of a series of espionage-related crimes. Gerardo Hernández was also convicted of conspiracy to murder for allegedly passing flight information to the Cuban government that led to the attack on the two BTTR planes. The men received a range of sentences, from 15 years for René González, to two consecutive life sentences for Gerardo Hernández...
... The questionable nature of the Cuban Five's convictions is further emphasized by an examination of the prosecution's original claim that the men represented a danger to U.S. national security. The notion that the men posed great risk to the United States permeated the prosecution's case, and undoubtedly played a role in the handing down of harsh sentences. Nevertheless, evidence brought to light this year has shown that the men were never a security threat. In October of this year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Heck Miller admitted that no national security damage assessments existed in relation to the five men. The fact that there are no damage assessments means that the Cuban Five were never deemed a national security risk, and therefore the government cannot justify their lengthy prison sentences.
The case also continues to receive widespread attention because of the human rights issues involved. According to the UN, the men were denied access to a lawyer for the first two days following their arrest, and were held in solitary confinement for 17 months until their trial began. In addition, Amnesty International has accused the U.S. government of acting "contrary to standards for humane treatment" given its constant refusal to grant temporary visas to two of the wives of the Cuban Five so that they could visit their husbands.
The previous administration of George W. Bush found itself at the center of controversy after it emerged that it had been paying journalists from the Miami Herald to write unfavorable stories about the Cuban government. Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a nonprofit law group, is currently suing the U.S. government for information on the contracts the government had with Miami-based journalists. It is believed that many journalists who covered the Cuban Five trial were on the White House's payroll. This would seem to buttress earlier claims that media bias affected the outcome of the case.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration seems to have picked up where Bush and Company left off. During the summer, while the U.S. Supreme Court was considering the case of the Cuban Five for appeal, President Obama's solicitor general, Elena Kagan, requested that the Supreme Court decline to hear the case. In her writ she stated that, with respect to the bringing down of the BTTR planes, "Neither plane had entered Cuban airspace". This affirmation was made despite clear evidence to the contrary from the International Civil Aviation Organization's independent investigation. The Supreme Court subsequently acquiesced to the government's demands. In October, the U.S. government was also accused of resisting a judge's order concerning the disclosure of classified material vital to the case.
For a government that promised a change in attitude toward Cuba, the Obama administration's decision to block the Supreme Court appeal is deeply disheartening. Perhaps the new government has failed to grasp the importance this case has for Cuban citizens and for U.S.-Cuba relations as a whole. If Obama wishes to put daylight between his Cuba policies and those of the Bush administration, then a review of the Cuban Five's case would be a good place to start. These men may not be innocent of the initial charges of espionage, having admitted during the trial that they had infiltrated several anti-Castro organizations with a view to protecting their country from more attacks...
Read entire article at Americas Program
The case of the Cuban Five is inextricably linked to the ongoing standoff between Havana and Washington. In the early 1990s, the Cuban government sent a group of men known as The Wasp Network to the United States to infiltrate anti-Castro organizations, which had been operating from Miami with apparent impunity since the 1960s. After these anti-Castro organizations orchestrated the bombings of Cuban hotels and the shooting down of a Cuban passenger aircraft near Barbados in 1976, the Cuban government decided to take covert actions, believing that the United States was not interested in helping prevent more attacks.
One of the groups targeted by The Wasp Network was Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR). The group was made up of Cuban exiles whose initial goal was rescuing Cuban rafters who were emigrating from the country, but whose focus changed after new U.S. immigration policy mandated that rescued rafters be sent back to Cuba, rather than taken to the United States. The group then began chartering planes to drop anti-Castro leaflets in Cuba, making repeated illegal incursions into Cuban airspace. Cuban authorities made numerous complaints to U.S. aviation authorities, but this failed to put a stop to the flights. On February 24, 1996, two BTTR planes were shot down by the Cuban Air Force, resulting in the death of the four pilots on board. The deaths provoked outrage in the United States, and led directly to the strengthening of the U.S. embargo on Cuba via the controversial Helms-Burton Act.
The ensuing crackdown also led to the arrest in 1998 of Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González. In June 2001, after a seven-month court case in Miami, the men were found guilty of a series of espionage-related crimes. Gerardo Hernández was also convicted of conspiracy to murder for allegedly passing flight information to the Cuban government that led to the attack on the two BTTR planes. The men received a range of sentences, from 15 years for René González, to two consecutive life sentences for Gerardo Hernández...
... The questionable nature of the Cuban Five's convictions is further emphasized by an examination of the prosecution's original claim that the men represented a danger to U.S. national security. The notion that the men posed great risk to the United States permeated the prosecution's case, and undoubtedly played a role in the handing down of harsh sentences. Nevertheless, evidence brought to light this year has shown that the men were never a security threat. In October of this year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Heck Miller admitted that no national security damage assessments existed in relation to the five men. The fact that there are no damage assessments means that the Cuban Five were never deemed a national security risk, and therefore the government cannot justify their lengthy prison sentences.
The case also continues to receive widespread attention because of the human rights issues involved. According to the UN, the men were denied access to a lawyer for the first two days following their arrest, and were held in solitary confinement for 17 months until their trial began. In addition, Amnesty International has accused the U.S. government of acting "contrary to standards for humane treatment" given its constant refusal to grant temporary visas to two of the wives of the Cuban Five so that they could visit their husbands.
The previous administration of George W. Bush found itself at the center of controversy after it emerged that it had been paying journalists from the Miami Herald to write unfavorable stories about the Cuban government. Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a nonprofit law group, is currently suing the U.S. government for information on the contracts the government had with Miami-based journalists. It is believed that many journalists who covered the Cuban Five trial were on the White House's payroll. This would seem to buttress earlier claims that media bias affected the outcome of the case.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration seems to have picked up where Bush and Company left off. During the summer, while the U.S. Supreme Court was considering the case of the Cuban Five for appeal, President Obama's solicitor general, Elena Kagan, requested that the Supreme Court decline to hear the case. In her writ she stated that, with respect to the bringing down of the BTTR planes, "Neither plane had entered Cuban airspace". This affirmation was made despite clear evidence to the contrary from the International Civil Aviation Organization's independent investigation. The Supreme Court subsequently acquiesced to the government's demands. In October, the U.S. government was also accused of resisting a judge's order concerning the disclosure of classified material vital to the case.
For a government that promised a change in attitude toward Cuba, the Obama administration's decision to block the Supreme Court appeal is deeply disheartening. Perhaps the new government has failed to grasp the importance this case has for Cuban citizens and for U.S.-Cuba relations as a whole. If Obama wishes to put daylight between his Cuba policies and those of the Bush administration, then a review of the Cuban Five's case would be a good place to start. These men may not be innocent of the initial charges of espionage, having admitted during the trial that they had infiltrated several anti-Castro organizations with a view to protecting their country from more attacks...