With two judges dissenting, on Wednesday,
August 9, the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia
rejected the call for a new trial for the Cuban Five outside of Miami. One year ago to the
day, the same court with three
judges presiding had unanimously ruled that the Cuban Five were denied their
constitutional right to an unbiased jury trial, and overturned the convictions
of the Five: Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino,
Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez. This victory was
short-lived, however. In its efforts to quash that decision, the U.S. government
prosecutors demanded a hearing before the full court of 12 judges and that was
granted last October. Oral arguments of both sides were heard again in February
2006, with the judges’ decision coming down last week.
Denying well-known facts and logic, the
court overturned last year’s decision that a fair trial had not been conducted
in Miami, the heartland of the anti-Cuba mafia that has carried
out terrorist attacks against Cuba for decades, resulting in loss of life
and injuries in the thousands. The decision also flies in the face of last
year's conclusion by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention that the original trial in 2001 violated all accepted norms of
justice and that a new trial was necessary.
One can draw no other conclusion about
this decision other than that it was a political one which fulfills a need
of the U.S. government to continue its more than 45 year campaign against
a sovereign Cuba. The Cuban Communist Party daily newspaper, Granma,
denounced the decision as one demonstrating Washington’s
“hate and vengeance” against Cuba.
Granma pointed out that this decision comes at a time when the anti-Cuba
forces in Miami are calling for an end to Cuba’s
sovereignty in the wake of Fidel’s surgery and his temporary handing over of
power to Raoul Castro and other state leaders.
Three weeks ago, Leonard Weinglass, the U.S.
lawyer for one of the Five, released a document which outlines new incidents of
terrorist plots against Cuba
in the last five months. These include the arrest in April in California of a
man representing a "militant group planning the overthrow of the
government in Cuba" who was holding 1,500 weapons, including machine guns,
silencers, rocket launchers and 89,000 rounds of ammunition. In July, a similar
arrest was made in Florida.
Also, in June, TheMiamiHerald published an
extensive interview with a Miami Cuban ex-patriot who detailed attacks against Cuba in the
1994-97 period. The information provided included the
names of the people who donated $1.4 million towards this particular campaign
of terror. The plans included the blowing up via remote-controlled explosives
of the Plaza de la Revolucion during a speech given
by Fidel Castro. Weinglass’ report included other
incidents as well, all of which prove that what the Cuban Five were doing in
the first place – infiltrating terrorist groups to monitor their plans and
prevent more deaths and injuries -- was entirely justified. It also proves
their argument that a fair trial is impossible in Miami, a city where these terrorists not only
walk free, but openly brag about their exploits.
The Cuban Five will soon begin their
ninth year of incarceration in different prisons across the U.S. From
beginning to end, their arrests, trial and sentences have been a
well-documented travesty of justice, denounced by millions of people around the
world.