[Ppnews] Cuban Five - Gerardo Hernandez Speaks - Part 5

[Political Prisoner News]

Cuban Five 5/5: Gerardo Hernandez Speaks

May 18, 2009 By Saul Landau
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21485

Saul Landau: Did you talk to the prosecution?

Gerardo Hernandez: No. Everything goes through our lawyers. Initially 
I talked with the government lawyer [public defender]. He suggested 
the possibility of cooperating with the government. I don't know if 
he was presenting the prosecution's idea or not.  But I told him that 
if he wanted to continue being my attorney we should not touch that 
subject again. And he never mentioned it again. Although later they 
[the government] offered so-called plea bargains, meaning one would 
admit guilt and cooperate. We rejected all such attempts. But we 
never had direct contact with the prosecution.

Saul Landau: Did it occur to you to cooperate, so as to escape the 
nightmare you've described?

Gerardo Hernandez: Look, we've been in prison for over 10 years. 
People who know about this case have said to me: "Cuba must have paid 
you lots of money to do this!" I always laugh and say: "If I had done 
what I did for money, I wouldn't be here." Because when one works for 
money, one works for the highest bidder. And Cuba could never pay 
what this country could pay. I would have accepted their [US] offers 
and saved myself 10 years behind bars without seeing my wife. A lot 
of people don't understand; people brought up to think money means 
everything in life.

No, betrayal never crossed my mind. It's so obvious that it becomes 
difficult to explain.  It would mean not only self betrayal, as a 
revolutionary, but also a whole country, my family.  It would mean 
betraying all the Cubans that in the hundred something years since 
the 1868 revolution, have given their lives so Cuba could be free, 
independent and sovereign. I was clear from the start: what I was 
doing was not wrong. I'm sorry I had to break some [US] laws, but it 
was for a greater good and absolutely necessary. So I have nothing to repent.

Saul Landau: One accusation against you: Conspiring to commit 
espionage. What evidence did the US government have?

Gerardo Hernandez: None. I'm accused of supervising others who were 
involved in that [information gathering operation]. Take Antonio 
[Guerrero, one of the five] for example. Antonio went to an 
[employment] office in Key West, where he lived, to look for a job.

A woman in the office told him about a plumber's job at the Key West 
naval base. And he accepted.  He didn't seek that job. She offered it 
to him. We brought that employment agency woman to the trial [as a 
witness].  She testified she had kept insisting he take that job. 
Once he started working there, we informed Cuba. Cuba said: "We know 
that prior to a US invasion of another country, like Haiti and 
previously, there may be an increase in resources being deployed at 
that base. For example: "On a normal day there might be 12 planes. If 
you see 25 planes let us know because something funny is going on."

It was defensive. Cuba wanted to know about any extraordinary 
movements there. Remember, this is the base closest to Miami, where 
these folks [militant exiles] have so much influence. And they dream 
the US army will eliminate all the revolutionaries from Cuba, so they 
can return. So, Cuba has always had this concern. Occasionally, 
Antonio would say: "There's a bad situation on the base; there are 
this many planes, this many left and this many returned." That is 
obviously military information. But according to US laws, it's not 
espionage. Anyone driving along Route 1[in south Florida] can see how 
many airplanes there are; public information. There are extensive 
legal precedents that it's not espionage.

The prosecution said: "You're right, that's not espionage. It's 
conspiracy to commit espionage." Because some day Antonio would want 
clearance, so he could get another position with access to secret 
information." Throughout all those years [from 1993 to 1998] that 
never happened. But they say it could have happened. So they 
stretched that charge, and convicted him. It's possibly the only case 
in the United States of someone being found guilty of "conspiracy to 
commit espionage" in which the person had absolutely no access to 
secret information.

Saul Landau: About you knowing Brothers to the Rescue would be flying 
on that day?  Did you know the Cuban Air Force planned to attack 
them, and attack them over international waters?

Gerardo Hernandez: That's the other charge. If you had initially 
asked the prosecution, "What involvement did he [Gerardo] have in 
making that happen?" they would say, "He sent them the flight plans." 
Later it was proved that I didn't send the flight plans. The FAA, 
[Federal Aviation Administration] sent the flight plans. But besides 
that, what flight plan? Basulto had given a press conference, 
announcing they would be flying on February 24.

Our own lawyers even made this mistake saying: "When you sent them 
information regarding the flight plans" No, I didn't even do that. I 
sent absolutely no information concerning that flight. They said that 
out of carelessness; and even if it had happened, it would have 
nothing to do with anything, but it didn't even happen. The crazy 
idea the prosecution invented is that not only did I know they [Cuba] 
were going to shoot the planes down -- I did not know that -- but I 
knew would do so over international waters; that Cuba was conspiring, 
not just to shoot down these planes invading Cuban air space, but 
over international waters. That's the most absurd idea that anyone 
could ever invent.  But the trial was held in Miami, and therefore I 
would be found guilty of any charge at all.

Saul Landau: Who in Cuba controls that kind of attack, MIG pilots or 
people on the ground?

Gerardo Hernandez: I assume it'd be Cuban Anti-Air Defense and the 
Armed Forces Ministry --including ground radar and the Air Force. My 
understanding is Fidel Castro and I believe Raul explained in detail 
on Cuban TV how the orders were given. I don't have details about 
that because it happened while I was here. I assume the radar system, 
the Air Force and the high command worked together like a well-oiled machine.

Saul Landau: With Obama's election, do you anticipate positive steps 
toward Cuba and your case?

Gerardo Hernandez: Yes. Obama, in his campaign, had the courage to 
say he'd be willing to talk with Cuba without preconditions. 
Previously in Miami, that was practically political suicide. Anyone 
doing that would know he'd lose the Florida Cuban vote. But he said 
it and I think everything US politicians say is calculated. So he 
knew the risk. He won without getting a majority of the Cuban vote. 
So he owes them nothing. He's intelligent, and knows that 50 years of 
erroneous politics towards Cuba has not produced any result. So I 
wait, and without much hope or false expectations, for him to take 
more reasonable, rational measures towards Cuba. This country is 
moving towards a more respectful relationship with Cuba -- in the 
interests of both countries.

In my case, I don't expect anything to happen. My policy has always 
been: expect the worst; if something good happens, I'll be grateful. 
In our situation -- the 5 -- one can't live on false hopes and 
illusions. I'm facing life sentences and I'm prepared. If something 
should change, I'd welcome it, but I can't think in ifs. 
Psychologically, you must be prepared for what will happen, not live 
on illusions.

Saul Landau: How do you survive each day?

Gerardo Hernandez: I spend most of the day reading and writing. I 
have an enormous and pleasant tragedy with correspondence. Some days 
I get 60, 80 letters. The record is 119. So imagine, just reading 
those letters is difficult. The days pass by incredibly fast.  They 
help keep my mind distracted.  I try to read what is published about 
Cuba, to keep myself current on my area of expertise, international 
relations. Sometimes people here ask me: "How can you read all the 
time?" I enjoy it. Unfortunately, I cannot answer all the letters. 
Some people even get mad. But it's impossible because there are so 
many letters and not enough time.

Saul Landau: Do you have a message for Washington?

Gerardo Hernandez: Yes.  If I could, I'd say: "if we are guilty of 
anything it is only of doing the same thing that many Americans 
patriots are doing right now, those in the mountains of Tora Bora 
searching for information about Al Qaeda, so that the acts committed 
on 9/11 are never repeated."

I'm sure those people are seen here as patriots. That's exactly what 
we were doing here: collecting information in Florida to impede 
terrorist acts in Cuba. Terrorism against Cuba is not an abstraction. 
Those who have died because of those acts have first and last names; 
acts planned with impunity here in US territory. Our only crime is 
the one committed by young Americans who today receive medals for it. 
So it's paradoxical: a country waging a war against terrorism houses 
terrorists [in Florida], protects those who put bombs on planes that 
killed dozens of people [Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch]; and they are 
glorified for doing so.

I'd also like the United States to understand: Cuba is a free and 
sovereign country. It has the right to choose its own path, to build 
its own destiny, its own system. Like it or not, we Cubans are the 
ones to decide what we will fix, what we must change, what to do 
differently, and how to build our society. If we had the necessary 
peace to build our social system the way we have always dreamt, 
things would be different today. We would have advanced much more. 
Unfortunately, we haven't had the peace to be able to do that. I hope 
the day will come when the United States will understand that the 
island, small 90 miles away, has the right to choose its own destiny. 
I think that day will come as will the day in which American and 
Cuban peoples will feel more closely connected, based on mutual respect.

Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow and author of A BUSH 
AND BOTOX WORLD (Counterpunch A/K). His films are available on dvd 
through roundworldproductions at gmail.com




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