I am most troubled by the double standard applied by successive US administrations regarding the ‘war on terror’. Specifically, I am referring to the Cuban Five - Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzáles, and René Gonzáles - who were arrested in Miami, Florida on September 1998. They have been charged and on counts ranging from using false identification to espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. In June 2001, they were convicted of all 26 counts by a U.S. federal court in Miami and in December and sentenced to varying terms in maximum-security prison: two consecutive life terms for Hernández, life for Guerrero and Labañino, 19 years for Fernando Gonzáles, and 15 years for René Gonzáles.
The group was closely monitoring the activities of anti-Castro exile groups CORU, Alpha 66, Omega 7 and Brothers to the Rescue. The anti-CASTRO group were allowed to of operate with complete immunity. The UN catalogued a staggering 3,478 deaths that were directly attributable to these groups. These acts include plane bombing and other acts of terrorism. Amnesty International noted a large number of irregularities during the trial which have yet to be addressed by an appeals court.
Petitions filed by the defense team to move the trial out of Miami were denied. Cuban-Americans were excluded from the jury. The Cuban Five languished in jail for three years pending commencement of the trial. The jury buckled under intense pressure and passed a guilty verdict.
On August 9, 2005, a three-judge appellate panel of the 11th circuit court of appeals in Atlanta reversed a decision of the lower court arguing that pre-trial publicity was prejudicial to the defendants and ordered a new trial. In November 2005 this ruling was reversed by the full panel of 11th circuit court [5] and the original convictions were reinstated. A rehearing is pending in the 11th United States circuit court of appeals. The courts actions generated world-wide outrage. Amnesty International criticized the US treatment of the Cuban Five as human rights violations,
Nobel Prize winners have written and sent a document to the U.S. Attorney General calling for freedom for the Cuban Five, signed by Zhores Alferov (Nobel Prize for Physics, 2000), Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984), Nadine Gordimer (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1991), Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980), Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986), José Saramago (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1996), Günter Grass (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999). [9]
Six British MPs wrote a letter to Tony Blair calling on the government to apply pressure on the US to act against terrorists in Florida and to immediately release the Five.
The incarceration of the Cuban Five is a travesty. I ask that you demand an independent investigation of the circumstances accompanying the arrest and trail of these men, permit family visitation rights, and demand that new trial free from jury tampering. I also ask that the shadowy group suspected of the most heinous crimes - the CORU, Alpha 66, Omega 7 and Brothers to the Rescue be thoroughly investigated.
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