By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com Published September
22, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Ernestino Abreu Horta and Vicente Martínez Rodríguez are aging
exiles, fighting poor health, Fidel Castro and 26-year prison sentences.
The two Miami-Dade men went on trial in Cuba Thursday, accused of fomenting
a revolution. Cuban prosecutors began the closed-door trial by requesting
26-year prison sentences for two men -- ages 75 and 66 -- who they say entered
the country illegally with a cache of arms.
The pair decided two years ago to spend their autumn years in Cuba to
proselytize about democracy and free elections. Members of a quasi-commando
group known as the Movement of Revolutionary Recovery, they boarded a boat and
headed for Pinar del Río, ready for a revolt.
"I knew it wasn't a good idea, but a good cause,'' said Secundino
Blanco Martínez, Vicente's brother. "Causes can either be taken on
or dropped. He took it on.''
The landing was planned for about a year, after the FBI seized two MRR boats
carrying weapons and ammunition a few miles off Marathon. Their presence in Cuba
was detected immediately. The two men and Martínez's nephews who met up
with them in Cuba took to the hills to avoid the manhunt.
Abreu, a 75-year-old South Dade engineer, and Martínez, a 66-year-old
Sweetwater truck driver, were caught nine days later. They've been in jail ever
since.
POOR CONDITIONS
Supporters say the two have been imprisoned in a variety of sick wards and
in roach-infested cells for violent criminals.
"They went there without arms to spread the word that Cuba had to be
democratic, that Cuba needed elections,'' said Roberto Rodriguez de Aragon, of
the Cuban Patriotic Junta. "Fidel Castro believes in nothing and nobody.
The day he needs something he can buy with their freedom, he'll release them.
"In the meantime, they put them in sick wards so they can die of
contagious diseases and the government can say they didn't kill them.''
Abreu is an agronomist and developer who headed the Cuban Patriotic Junta,
an influential exile organization. He was one eight exile leaders who met with
President Clinton at the White House in 1996 after the shooting down of the
Brothers to the Rescue planes.
Martínez is a former member of the revolutionary army who was jailed
a year after turning his back on Castro.
'TAKING ACTION'
"There are many people who talk a lot about changing the politics in
Cuba,'' Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz of the Cuban Commission for Human
Rights said from Havana. "There is a right to only talk. What's notable is
that these men were talking and at the same time taking action. They should be
respected for that.''
Sánchez said the Cuban government denied his group's plea to hire
lawyers for the men. Instead, they were assigned designated lawyers to be paid
with U.S. dollars, Sánchez said.
"It doesn't offer a lot of guarantees,'' he said.
Observers hope the men will be released because of their age and health
concerns. A State Department official said because the Cuban government does not
recognize dual citizenship, the prisoners have been denied access to the U.S.
consulate.
Thousands of signatures were collected in Miami demanding their release.
Petitions were presented to Abreu's wife and daughter, who flew to Cuba for the
trial.
"Castro laughs at these gestures,'' Rodríguez said. | 