A Move to Free the Cuban Five

By Danny Glover and Saul Landau
Counterpunch
Weekend Edition August 24-26, 2012

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/24/a-move-to-free-the-cuban-five/

People stop in Victorville California 85 miles
northeast of Los Angeles because they have to see
someone at one of its several prisons (federal, state,
county and city) or have prison-related business, or
because they're hot and tired coming back from Las
Vegas to Los Angeles and the thought of a swimming
pool and an air conditioned room seem irresistible.

We book rooms so we can get to the prison early and
spend more time with Gerardo Hernandez. We know
the way from Highway 15 west into rolling desert
hills from whence one sees a massive gray concrete
structure - the federal penitentiary complex.

We fill out the forms, pass through the X-ray
machine, get patted down by a guard, get our wrists
stamped with indelible ink that shows up under a
scanner in the next room, and by 8:45 we are seated
in the Visiting room, with black and Latino wives
and kids who are seeing husbands and daddies.

Gerardo emerges; we hug and start talking. He told
us that Martin Garbus, his lawyer, had filed a new
writ (available at www.thecuban5.org) declaring
Gerardo's trial violated basic law and the
Constitution, and should be voided - freeing him
and his comrades from their long sentences.

Documents show, according to the brief, that the
U.S. government paid a host of Miami-based
journalists to file negative stories on Gerardo and
his fellow defendants (The Cuban 5). These U.S.
government paid-for stories appeared in
newspapers, magazines, radio and TV and
influenced public opinion in the community,
including jury members and their families, the writ
argues, and therefore calls into deep question
whether a fair trial in Miami was possible for the five
accused men.

The brief states that the U.S. "government's
successful secret subversion of the Miami print,
radio, and television media to pursue a conviction
was unprecedented," and "violated the integrity of
the trial and the Due Process Clause of the
Constitution."

Garbus further argues that "The Government,
through millions of dollars of illegal payments and
at least a thousand articles published over a six-
year period, interfered with the trial and persuaded
the jury to convict. The Government's Response to
this motion is factually barren and legally incorrect.
The conviction must now be vacated."

In the lengthy brief, Garbus shows how journalists
wrote and spoke for news outlets for the sole
purpose of painting a distorted picture of what the
defendants were doing, which was trying to prevent
Miami-based terrorism in Cuba, and instead, as
Garbus' brief shows, to portray them as military
spies trying to prepare south Florida for a military
invasion from Cuba.

The Miami Herald fired the journalists on the
grounds they had broken a basic code - taking
money from the government to write stories. The
brief states that "Thomas Fiedler, the Executive
Editor and Vice President of The Miami Herald,
when talking about the monies paid to his staff
members and members of other media entities by
the Government, said it was wrongful because it was
"to carry out the mission of the U.S. Government, a
propaganda mission. It was wrong even if it had not
been secret." It was secret because the government
officials knew it wrong and illegal.

Gerardo and four companions have served almost
14 years in federal lock up for trying to stop right
wing Miami thugs from bombing Havana. In 1997, a
series of bombs hit hotels, restaurants, bars and
clubs. One tourist died and many Cuban workers in
these establishments were wounded. The bombings
were orchestrated by Luis Posada Carriles, resident
of Miami today, and financed by right wing exile
money.

As we sat in the visiting room surrounded by mostly
people of color, with four guards watching us and
the other visitors, we nibbled on salted snacks from
the vending machine ("prison gourmet").

Gerardo told us about his time in "the hole," for no
bad behavior on his part, but for his "protection"!
He spoke of deprivation of the routine monotony.
"Look around," he said, "you don't see a lot of
middle class people here. There were none. Most of
the prisoners were black or Latino, plus one who
Gerardo thought was a descendent of poor Okies. All
share a lack of money to hire good lawyers.

"I was transferred here from Lompoc in 2004
because Lompoc was not going to be a maximum
security prison any more," Gerardo told us. As if this
cultured, disciplined man needed maximum
security. We wondered how we would endure the
punishment of imprisonment in a supposedly
correctional and rehabilitative institution, where no
correction or rehabilitation takes place.

We drove from the prison to the Ontario airport and
asked ourselves: What, we asked ourselves, was a
well-educated Cuban man doing in such a place?
The U.S. government knew the Cuban agents had
infiltrated Cuban exile groups that intended to
cause damage to Cuba's tourist economy. The five
were fighting terrorism and sharing information with
the FBI. They should never have been charged and
now, almost 14 years of prison later, they should at
last be freed.

President Obama could and should pardon them
and send them home. Cuba has indicated it would
respond by freeing Alan Gross, who worked for a
company contracted to USAID with a design to
destabilize the Cuban government and was
convicted in Cuba. It's time for President Obama to
put this issue on his agenda.
_______________

Danny Glover is an activist and actor.

Saul Landau's WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE
STAND UP plays in Portland Sept. 12, Clinton
Theater and Toronto Sept. 21.

___________________________________________

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