The+Five



=Free the Cuban Five!=


 * //“We declare ourselves not guilty and simply take comfort in the fact that we have honored our duty to our people and our homeland.//**


 * //“Our loved ones understand the depth of the ideas that guide us and they will take pride in our sacrifices for Humanity in this struggle against terrorism and for the independence of Cuba.”//**

//By Dominic Tweedie (Secretary, SACP Johannesburg Central Branch) April 23 2005.//
 * The Five**

Since 1959, ultra-right terrorist groups in Miami have conducted bombings, assassinations and other sabotage, killing hundreds of innocent Cuban civilians. Groups like Alpha 66, Omega 7, Brothers to the Rescue, and Cuban American National Foundation have terrorized the Cuban people with impunity. Many of the Miami-based anti-Cuban mafia came from the wealthy class that left Cuba after the popular overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Others of the ultra-right in Miami were police thugs for the Batista regime. On a mission from the Cuban government, and acting in defense of their people, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, René González and Fernando González were living in Miami and monitoring these terrorist groups to prevent future violence.

The Cuban government has in the past also dealt directly with the US government, even though the U.S. government, through the CIA, has played the principal role in funding, training and arming the ultra-right Miami mafia. On June 17 1998 at a historic meeting in Havana, the Cubans requested U.S. law-enforcement officials to act on evidence provided by the Cuban Government to the FBI so as to end the cycle of terror.

Instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI targeted the five anti-terrorist Cubans.

More recently, and in a further affront to justice, the US authorities allowed a convicted anti-Cuban terrorist to enter their country. On April 12 2005 this notorious killer (Luis Posada Carriles) appealed for asylum in the United States through his attorneys in Miami.

So long as it suits their purposes the US imperialist support for terrorism knows no bounds. Campaigners for the anti-terrorist Cuban Five incarcerated in the USA are now also campaigning against asylum for the real terrorist, Posada, who still walks free.

The Five were arrested by the FBI in September 1998 and falsely charged with espionage against the U.S. They were held without bail for 33 months between arrest and trial. For 17 months of this time they were held in solitary confinement cells. The five were completely cut off from their families and young children, and not even able to communicate with each other. They were convicted June 8, 2001 and sentenced December 2001 as follows:

Gerardo Hernández, 2 life sentences; Antonio Guerrero, life; Ramón Labañino, life; René González, 15 years; and Fernando González, 19 years.

What is remarkable is not only the extreme length of these sentences but also the cruelty of the treatment of these political prisoners. Even up to now, family visits to the five have been forbidden. In the case of one of the prisoners his wife who was born and bred in the USA has been deported to Cuba.

Father Michael Lapsley was able to visit one of the five (Gerardo Hernández) in prison in California in 2003 and again in June 2004. Comrade Hernández participated as an internationalist fighter in Angola against the apartheid army in 1989. Fr. Lapsley is the President of the South African Friends of Cuba Society (FOCUS). Below is his report of the first visit.

To join FOCUS (Friends of Cuba Society) write to Clever Banganayi at clever@mail.twr.ac.za

Or to http://www.granma.cu/miami5/ingles/index.html**
 * For more informtaion on the Five, and pictures, go to http://www.freethefive.org/

=ARTICLE WRITTEN BY FATHER MICHAEL LAPSLEY, PRESIDENT OF FRIENDS OF CUBA SOCIETY (FOCUS) ON HIS VISIT TO ONE OF THE CUBAN FIVE, GERARDO HERNANDEZ IN PRISON, MAY 3, 2003)=

On May 3 2003 the President of the Friends of Cuba Society in South Afica, Father Michael Lapsley, spent three and a half hours visiting one of the 5 Cuban political prisoners languishing in United States prisons. Gerardo Hernández is serving two life sentences plus fifteen years and is incarcerated in Lompoc maximum-security federal penitentiary, 3 hours out of Los Angeles. The greatest irony of all is that Hernandez has been jailed for life in the US for his own contribution to the fight against terrorism.

Ever since his detention, Hernández has kept on his wall a small picture, cut from a magazine, of Comrade Fidel embracing Comrade Madiba. He asked me if he could send the photo to me to keep it safe for him. After the invasions of Iraq, the Cuban 5, were, without warning taken from their cells and placed in punishment cells with personal documents and even their clothes were removed from them leaving them in their underwear.

It appears that the ultra-rightists in Miami were frustrated by the mounting international campaign to free the five and their friends in Washington obliged by victimizing and humiliating the five until their was an international outcry.

In 1989, Hernández participated in an internationalist mission in Anglola.

He told me with great pride that it was his greatest privilege as he said, in the minutest way, to have contributed in the fight against apartheid. He mused that some of the most significant dates in his own life life coincided with significant dates in South Africa's recent journey of transformation.

Gerardo Hernández studied international relations in Cuba. A number of his classmates are now senior diplomats and ambassadors. Not long after marrying his wife who is a chemical engineer in Havana, Gerardo was approached by Cuban intelligence for a different kind of diplomacy. Since the triumph of the revolution in 1959, a small group of ultra rightists in Miami have carried out countless terrorist acts against Cuba including hijackings, bombing of Cuban hotels and the more than 600 attempts on the life of Fidel Castro. It was decided to infiltrate the US based terrorist groups to try and prevent further bloodshed.

Gerardo was asked to participate in this highly dangerous project to protect his motherland. Not unaware of the risks Gerardo accepted.

After issuing formal diplomatic notes, the Cuban government indicated that any further violations of Cuban airspace by terrorist groups would bring a swift response from the Cuban airforce. In February 1996 the Cubans acted when their airspace was violated once more and three people died. Gerardo Hernández has been scapegoated for actions taken by the airforce to protect the civilian population of Cuba. He has been found guilty of espionage for supplying information, which was not secret and did not threaten the security of the United States.

The anti-Castro sentiments are so strong in Miami that it was impossible to receive a fair trial in that city. The five are appealing for their sentences to be quashed or at least to have a new trial outside Miami.

Today Gerardo Hernández (along with his four compatriots all kept in different prisons) has become an "ambassador" for his country teaching is jailers by word and deeds the truth and nobility that Cuba has achieved.

Just as Madiba and his co-accused turned Robben Island into a "university” so Gerardo by the way he conducts himself is likely to create a "Cuban solidarity organization in prison”.

When Gerardo's wife tried to visit, not having seen her husband for five years, she was interrogated for many hours and sent back. He expressed deep pain at his separation from his wife, family and motherland. At the same time Gerardo asked me to say how much strength he experiences because of the support of the worldwide solidarity movement and from all that has been achieved by the people of South Africa. He expressed particular appreciation of a recent letter of support from Nadine Gordimer and many postcards from the Friends of Cuba Society in South Africa.

Any regrets, I asked. "No, none... as I said in my trial, quoting Nathan Hale "My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country."

We promised each other to meet again, hopefully in Havana and not in a US prison. After embracing I turned to leave. As I looked back Gerardo stood at attention smiling at me with a clenched fist salute. I felt privileged to have spent time with one of Cuba's finest sons.

President: Fr. Michael Lapsley, SSM**
 * Friends of Cuba Society,