<html>
<body>
<h1><b>Cuban Five 5/5: Gerardo Hernandez Speaks</b></h1><font size=3>May
18, 2009 By <b>Saul Landau</b> <br>
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21485" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21485<br><br>
</a>Saul Landau: Did you talk to the prosecution?<br><br>
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. <br><br>
Saul Landau: Did it occur to you to cooperate, so as to escape the
nightmare you've described?<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Saul Landau: One accusation against you: Conspiring to commit espionage.
What evidence did the US government have?<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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."
<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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?<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Saul Landau: Who in Cuba controls that kind of attack, MIG pilots or
people on the ground?<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Saul Landau: With Obama's election, do you anticipate positive steps
toward Cuba and your case?<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
Saul Landau: How do you survive each day?<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Saul Landau: Do you have a message for Washington?<br><br>
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."<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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@gmail.com<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>