[Ppnews] A Move to Free the Cuban Five

[Political Prisoner News]

August 24-26, 2012
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/24/a-move-to-free-the-cuban-five/


  A Move to Free the Cuban Five

by DANNY GLOVER and SAUL LANDAU

People stop in Victorville California 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles 
because they have to see someone at one of its several prisons (federal, 
state, county and city) or have prison-related business, or because 
they're hot and tired coming back from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and the 
thought of a swimming pool and an air conditioned room seem irresistible.

We book rooms so we can get to the prison early and spend more time with 
Gerardo Hernandez. We know the way from Highway 15 west into rolling 
desert hills from whence one sees a massive gray concrete structure -- 
the federal penitentiary complex.

We fill out the forms, pass through the X-ray machine, get patted down 
by a guard, get our wrists stamped with indelible ink that shows up 
under a scanner in the next room, and by 8:45 we are seated in the 
Visiting room, with black and Latino wives and kids who are seeing 
husbands and daddies.

Gerardo emerges; we hug and start talking. He told us that Martin 
Garbus, his lawyer, had filed a new writ (available at www.thecuban5.org 
<http://www.thecuban5.org/>) declaring Gerardo's trial violated basic 
law and the Constitution, and should be voided -- freeing him and his 
comrades from their long sentences.

Documents show, according to the brief, that the U.S. government paid a 
host of Miami-based journalists to file negative stories on Gerardo and 
his fellow defendants (The Cuban 5). These U.S. government paid-for 
stories appeared in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV and influenced 
public opinion in the community, including jury members and their 
families, the writ argues, and therefore calls into deep question 
whether a fair trial in Miami was possible for the five accused men.

The brief states that the U.S. "government's successful secret 
subversion of the Miami print, radio, and television media to pursue a 
conviction was unprecedented," and "violated the integrity of the trial 
and the Due Process Clause of the Constitution."

Garbus further argues that "The Government, through millions of dollars 
of illegal payments and at least a thousand articles published over a 
six-year period, interfered with the trial and persuaded the jury to 
convict. The Government's Response to this motion is factually barren 
and legally incorrect. The conviction must now be vacated."

In the lengthy brief, Garbus shows how journalists wrote and spoke for 
news outlets for the sole purpose of painting a distorted picture of 
what the defendants were doing, which was trying to prevent Miami-based 
terrorism in Cuba, and instead, as Garbus' brief shows, to portray them 
as military spies trying to prepare south Florida for a military 
invasion from Cuba.

The /Miami Herald/ fired the journalists on the grounds they had broken 
a basic code -- taking money from the government to write stories. The 
brief states that "Thomas Fiedler, the Executive Editor and Vice 
President of /The Miami Herald/, when talking about the monies paid to 
his staff members and members of other media entities by the Government, 
said it was wrongful because it was "to carry out the mission of the 
U.S. Government, a propaganda mission. It was wrong even if it had not 
been secret." It was secret because the government officials knew it 
wrong and illegal.

Gerardo and four companions have served almost 14 years in federal lock 
up for trying to stop right wing Miami thugs from bombing Havana. In 
1997, a series of bombs hit hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs. One 
tourist died and many Cuban workers in these establishments were 
wounded. The bombings were orchestrated by Luis Posada Carriles, 
resident of Miami today, and financed by right wing exile money.

As we sat in the visiting room surrounded by mostly people of color, 
with four guards watching us and the other visitors, we nibbled on 
salted snacks from the vending machine ("prison gourmet").

Gerardo told us about his time in "the hole," for no bad behavior on his 
part, but for his "protection"! He spoke of deprivation of the routine 
monotony. "Look around," he said, "you don't see a lot of middle class 
people here. There were none. Most of the prisoners were black or 
Latino, plus one who Gerardo thought was a descendent of poor Okies. All 
share a lack of money to hire good lawyers.

"I was transferred here from Lompoc in 2004 because Lompoc was not going 
to be a maximum security prison any more," Gerardo told us. As if this 
cultured, disciplined man needed maximum security. We wondered how we 
would endure the punishment of imprisonment in a supposedly correctional 
and rehabilitative institution, where no correction or rehabilitation 
takes place.

We drove from the prison to the Ontario airport and asked ourselves: 
What, we asked ourselves, was a well-educated Cuban man doing in such a 
place? The U.S. government knew the Cuban agents had infiltrated Cuban 
exile groups that intended to cause damage to Cuba's tourist economy. 
The five were fighting terrorism and sharing information with the FBI. 
They should never have been charged and now, almost 14 years of prison 
later, they should at last be freed.

President Obama could and should pardon them and send them home. Cuba 
has indicated it would respond by freeing Alan Gross, who worked for a 
company contracted to USAID with a design to destabilize the Cuban 
government and was convicted in Cuba. It's time for President Obama to 
put this issue on his agenda.

*/Danny Glover /*/is an activist and actor.// /

*/Saul Landau's/*/ WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLASE STAND UP plays in 
Portland Sept. 12, Clinton Theater and Toronto Sept. 21./

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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