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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/alarcon09032009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/alarcon09032009.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">September 3,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>The Untold Story
of the Cuban Five <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Indicment À La Carte
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By RICARDO
ALARCÓN de QUESADA <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">M</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>ore than seven months after the Cuban Five
were arrested and indicted a new charge was presented by the US
Government. Again, the charge was one of “conspiracy”, but this time to
commit murder in the first degree and was brought specifically against
one of the Five, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo.<br><br>
The new indictment came after a public campaign in Miami actively
promoted by “journalists” on the US Government payroll, including reports
about meetings in public places attended by well-known Cuban exile
leaders, US prosecutors and FBI officials, in which the accusation
against Gerardo was openly discussed. It became a clear demand by the
most violent groups in town and was a central focus of the local
media.<br><br>
The Government acquiesced to the demand and introduced the Second
Superseding indictment whose essential new feature was adding this
“crime” to Gerardo's list of charges. <br><br>
This was a political concession to anti-Cuban terrorists, who were
seeking revenge for the downing by Cuba’s Air Force, in February 24, 1996
of two airplanes (Model O2 used by the US Air Force first in Vietnam and
later in El Salvador wars, as was concretely the case with these two
planes) piloted by members of a violent anti-Cuban group, an event that
had taken place two years before the Cuban Five were detained, when those
airplanes were within Cuban airspace.<br><br>
The timing was very suspicious, indeed. According to information provided
by the Government at trial, the FBI had found the real nature of
Gerardo’s revolutionary mission in Miami and was monitoring him and
controlling his communications with Havana at least a couple of years
before the downing of the planes. If that incident was a result of
a “conspiracy,” in which Gerardo was a key participant, why wasn’t he
arrested in 1996? Why was this issue not even mentioned in September 1998
when he was first detained and indicted?<br><br>
The planes belonged to a group led by José Basulto, a veteran CIA agent
involved in many paramilitary actions since 1959, included the Bay of
Pigs invasion and a number of assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. In
the 20 months preceding the incident, this group had penetrated Cuban
airspace 25 times, each one denounced by the Cuban government.<br><br>
After so many diplomatic démarches the US Government wanted to appear
responsive. It initiated an investigation about those flights, asked for
Cuba’s help in providing details of previous provocations, acknowledged
their receipt and thanked for them. On February 24, 1996 such
administrative proceedings had not been completed, but later Mr. Basulto
was deprived by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of his pilot
license and he doesn’t fly anymore (at least legally).<br><br>
The provocateurs had blatantly announced that they will continue making
illegal flights into Cuba’s airspace and even proclaimed that the island,
which was at the time suffering its worst crisis ever – worse in economic
terms, that the Big Depression, according to a UN report – was not able
to respond to their illegal incursions. In January, Mr. Basulto brought
with him an NBC TV crew from Miami who filmed and broadcast how they
overflew downtown Havana throwing out propaganda and other materials.
Cuba made it public that such provocations will not be tolerated anymore,
made the proper notifications to all that may be concerned, including the
US Government, the State Department and the FAA, which in turn warned
Basulto and his group that they should refrain from such flights.
<br><br>
The alleged “conspiracy” was in itself a monumental stupidity,
incomprehensible to any rational mind. It supposed that the Cuban
government had decided provoke an all-out war with the United States, a
military confrontation that obviously would have resulted in a terrible
blow not only for the Cuban government, but for the entire nation and its
people. In any crime motivation is always a key factor, a decisive cue.
What could have been Cuba’s motivation to provoke such an event precisely
at that moment, the most risky for the survival of our country without
allies or friends in a world and a hemisphere under the full control of
the United States in 1996?<br><br>
Cuba did exactly the opposite. It denounced one by one, each provocation
to the FAA and to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO,
the UN family institution dealing with these matters) and sent dozens of
diplomatic notes to the State Department. But Cuba went farther. It did
his best to reach out to the highest level of the US Administration, the
White House, trying to prevent more incidents.<br><br>
The New Yorker issue of January 1998 dedicated to Cuba on the occasion of
the Pope’s visit included a serious article in which a fairly objective
account of those efforts by Cuba can be found. (Carl Naguin, Annals of
Diplomacy Backfire, The New Yorker, January 26, 1998,
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1998">
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1998</a> )<br><br>
Yes, there was a conspiracy to provoke the tragedy of February 24, 1996.
But it was the entire and exclusive work of the same Miami groups that
have launched a half-century terrorist campaign against Cuba, the same
gang that will afterwards kidnap Elian Gonzalez, a six-year-old boy.
Events from which they always came out with impunity. <br><br>
<b>Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada</b> is president of the Cuban National
Assembly.<br><br>
<br><br>
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