CCFA
Monthly Meeting
January 2012
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Summary of the Cuban Five’s
Plight:
In the mid-1990’s five Cuban
patriots emigrated to Miami, Florida, to infiltrate some of the many
counter-revolutionary, anti-Cuban terrorist groups located there. Gerardo
Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene
Gonzalez were all acting out of the utmost compassion and concern for their
compatriots in Cuba: their hope was to be able to
provide advanced warning to Cuban authorities of terrorist attacks by their
enemies living in Florida.
In the past,
these terrorists had been responsible for hundreds of attacks on Cuba,
including the bombing of a Cubana airliner on
October 6, 1976 (which
killed all 73 passengers), the blowing up of tourist facilities, attempted
assassinations, the spreading of pathogens and biological agents among the
populace, and the spraying of poisonous chemicals on crops and
livestock.
It was
the prevention of further debilitating terrorist attacks that brought the Cuban
Five to Miami.
The information
the Five discovered about plans for new attacks by these terrorist groups was
passed to Cuban authorities so Cubans could prepare to repel these assaults; it
was also provided to the FBI by the Cuban government in the hopes that this
terrorism against civilians would be halted by the US government.
Instead,
the Five were, on September 12, 1998, themselves
arrested!
In trials
that international observers deemed biased, legally irregular, excessively
punitive, and even predetermined, the Five were found guilty of conspiracy,
espionage, and attempted murder. None of the charges had any validity
whatsoever. Nevertheless, the Five were sentenced to a total of 77 years plus
four life sentences and placed in five different prisons across the U.S., often
with extended periods of unjustified solitary confinement.
The Five have now been imprisoned
on trumped up charges for almost ten years!
All attempts to free these
Cuban heroes or even to get them new trials on appeal have been foiled by the
political manipulations of the Bush government and the neglect of the Obama
administration. Visits by family members, wives,
and children have – in contravention of UN human rights policies -- been made
almost impossible by the US administration. Both the United Nations and Amnesty International have
declared the Five to be prisoners of conscience and have, along with many other
organizations, requested that they be shown clemency.
Recently the U.S. Supreme
Court refused to hear the final and highest appeal by the Cuban Five for a
review of their original trial and of their excessive sentences; they have
little option now but to rely on worldwide international pressure from
organizations, dignitaries, peace activists, and ordinary people to get the
Obama administration to act in a humanitarian fashion and grant clemency to
these five Cuban patriots.
For further information,
please see the following websites:
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