Cuban Five
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The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzáles, and René Gonzáles. After being arrested in Miami in September 1998, they were indicted on 26 different counts ranging from using false identification to espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. In June 2001, they were convicted of all 26 counts, and in December 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 arrest and conviction incited an uproar from leftist groups. The five convicted men claim that they were in Miami to stop anti-Castro groups engaged in activities which the Cuban government claims have killed over 3500 and wounded 2000 Cuban civilians since 1959. The men’s contention, that Cuba is threatened by U.S based anti-Castro groups, is questionable at best, says Holly Ackerman, Amnesty International's country specialist on Cuba.
However, defenders of the Cuban Five claim that terrorism against Cuba has been carried out by exile groups such as CORU, Alpha 66, Omega 7 and Brothers to the Rescue with apparent immunity from prosecution. In April, 2004, Luis Posada Carriles and three associates were convicted in a Panamanian court in conjunction with an attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000; only four months later, they were pardoned by the outgoing Panamanian President under the presumed influence of the United States government. Three of them immediately boarded planes for Miami, where they were welcomed. The fourth, Posada, snuck into the United States in April, 2005, where he remains under US custody.
Brothers to the Rescue has sent planes into Cuban airspace to assist rafters escaping Cuba as well as drop leaflets over the country. Basulto's organisation has violated Cuban airspace twenty five times. In 1996 two Brothers to the Rescue single-engine Cessna planes were shot down by the Cuban Air Force killing all four people onboard. Basulto, who was flying another plane, survived this incident.
Cuba claims it sent the Cuban Five to the United States in order to monitor the organizations that perpetrated these "attacks". Two close associates of Basulto, Santiago Alvarez Magrina and Osvaldo Mitat, are currently on trial in Miami for the possession of "machine guns, grenades, grenade launcher, detonation devices and thousands of rounds of ammunition."
The U.S. arrested the Cuban Five as part of a group of alleged spies known as the "Wasp Network." One member of the five, Gerardo Hernandez, was accused of infiltrating Brothers to the Rescue and sending information back to Cuba that led to the downing of the plane. The remaining four were charged with lying about their identities and sending 2,000 pages of unclassified information obtained from U.S. military bases to Cuba.
After the arrests, petitions by the defense to move the trial out of Miami were refused. They spent almost three years in jail between their arrest and the beginning of their trial. The trial went on for seven months, but jury deliberations lasted four days. And between their conviction and sentencing, new post-Sept-11th legislation was passed allowing heavier penalties for their charges, and they were sentenced under these new statutes.
Since their conviction, there has been an active campaign for the case to be appealed.
In July, 2005 the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions declared the trial of the Five to have had grave deficiencies and to be in violation of international law.
On August 9, 2005, a three-judge appellate panel of the 11th circuit court of appeals in Atlanta overturned the convictions and sentences of the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial saying that the Cuban exile community in Miami and the trial publicity made the trial unfavorable and prejudicial to the defendants.
Early November 2005 this ruling for a new trial was reversed by the full panel of 11th circuit court [1]. As of now the original convictions are reinstated. A rehearing is pending in the 11th United States circuit court of appeals.
Paintings of the five are proudly displayed throughout Cuba, and there are state sponsored posters expalining the Cuban position hanging in most (if not all) resorts.