Published Thursday, December 13, 2001in
The Miami Herald
Cuban spy gets life for 1996 shoot-down
By Gail Epstein Nieves. gepstein@herald.com
In front of his mother and his Cuban compatriots, spymaster Gerardo Hernández
-- a convicted murderer in the United States but a patriot in his homeland --
was sentenced Wednesday to two life terms, the maximum possible punishment and
the outcome sought by tearful relatives of four men killed in the 1996 Brothers
to the Rescue shoot-down.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard meted out the sentence after hearing
gruelingly emotional pleas from the Brothers relatives and a 40-minute diatribe
from Hernández, 36, a career Cuban intelligence agent who supervised
other South Florida-based spies.
Hernández's speech defiantly condemned his prosecutors, jurors,
Brothers' founder José Basulto, U.S. foreign policy and -- most of all --
the Cuban exile community, but acknowledged no guilt for himself.
Lenard disagreed, finding that despite several "wrongful and
provocative'' violations of Cuban airspace by Brothers, a search-and-rescue
group, Cuba's act of blasting two Cessnas from the sky was not a reasonable
response and deserved to be fully punished.
Hernández conspired with his bosses in Havana to murder the fliers,
the jury found.
JUDGE'S COMMENT
"What more could they have done?'' Lenard said, repeating a question
that Hernández's lawyer, Paul McKenna, posed about the Cuban response. "They
could have brought the planes down and taken those persons into custody.
"The actions of the planes in February 1996 were much less extreme than
the actions taken by this defendant and others in executing a conspiracy to
commit murder,'' she said.
Fliers Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña and Pablo
Morales perished in the shoot-down over international waters. Their bodies were
never recovered -- "pulverized up in the air,'' Morales' frail mother, Eva
Barba, cried to the judge, prompting sniffles around the courtroom.
NOT A MARTYR
Michael Méndez, Costa's nephew, told the judge that while some people
call his uncle a martyr, he disagrees. The dictionary, he said, defines the word
as someone who chooses to die. "He never chose to die. Mr. Hernández
made that choice for him,'' Méndez said.
Outside the courtroom, relatives of the dead men said they were happy with
the sentence and the trial but they hope the government will continue to pursue
Cuban President Fidel Castro and others who gave orders or fired missiles in the
attack.
"We have a life sentence of our own,'' said Maggie Khuly, Alejandre's
sister. "We will never stop our fight for justice until every person
responsible for the murders'' is held accountable.
U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, as is his policy, wouldn't say whether an
indictment against Castro is contemplated. But he said Hernández's life
sentences send a message to other spies that they will be punished if they're
caught. The case was prosecuted by Caroline Heck Miller, John Kastrenakes and
David Buckner.
'FAIR TRIAL'
Two jurors who watched the sentencing also applauded the sentence. Eugene
Yagle and David G. Buker said that despite Hernández's assertions to the
contrary, he received a fair trial.
Hernández, the most culpable of five spies convicted after a
six-month trial that ended in June, was also sentenced to life for espionage
conspiracy. Evidence showed that he supervised other spies in their efforts to
infiltrate U.S. military bases, to obtain national security secrets and to
discredit Cuban exile groups.
The spies disputed the charges. While they acknowledged they were Cuban
intelligence agents, they claimed they were sent to South Florida to protect
Cuba from a U.S. attack and from "extremist'' Cuban exiles believed
responsible for hotel bombings in Havana.
Lenard said Hernández's two life sentences would run concurrently.
There is no early release provision under federal rules, meaning Hernández
could die behind bars.
McKenna, Hernández's lawyer, said the life sentence was not
unexpected.
"With big-league cases you get big-league sentences,'' he said,
promising an appeal based on what he called insufficient evidence.
The chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, Dagoberto Rodríguez,
said the sentence was "the result of the thirst for vengeance among the
anti-Cuban circles in the United States,'' the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina
reported Wednesday night.
Rodríguez made the comment during an on-the-air telephone
conversation with panelists in the Information Round Table, broadcast regularly
on Cuban radio and television. The spies are a cause celebre on the island.
CUBAN PRESS
The Cuban press spent the previous several days preparing the nation for the
worst.
"Judging by what happened [Tuesday] at the sentencing hearing against
Gerardo Hernández, one cannot expect the least sign of benevolence from
American justice,'' the Communist Party daily Granma said Wednesday in an
article titled "Mercilessness won't break the morale of Gerardo and his
companions.''
Spy Ramón Labañino is scheduled to be sentenced today and the
other three spies in coming days and weeks.
QUOTING NATHAN HALE
Hernández, a short, balding man with a goatee, stood erect with his
hands clasped behind his back as Lenard pronounced sentence. Minutes earlier,
Hernández, a captain in the Cuban military, finished his speech by
quoting American patriot Nathan Hale: "I regret I have but one life to give
for my country.''
Roberto González, brother of spy René González, called
Hernández's speech "a marvelous one'' and said "anyone with
intelligence understands the meaning of what he was saying.''
Hernández's mother, Carmen Nordelo, was flown in from Havana along
with the mothers of four other spies to attend the sentencing. They sat on the
opposite side of the courtroom from the Brothers' relatives. All declined
comment under the careful watch of escorts from the Cuban Interests Section.
Lenard said she was struck by the tense distance apparent between both
sides.
"There are many sad ironies in this case,'' Lenard said, reflecting on
the loving comments made by relatives of both the shoot-down victims and of Hernández.
While considering their remarks, she said, "I thought how much all of these
persons come from the same fold, from the same culture, and how far apart they
are.''
Lenard added: "The distance between Cuba and the United States seems
much farther today than the 90 miles that separate the Florida Keys and Havana.
Whatever the distance, I'm sure the Florida Straits are filled with the tears of
mothers from both the United States and Cuba.''
FALSE IDENTITY
Before his arrest in Miami in September 1998, Hernández passed
himself off to neighbors in Northeast Miami-Dade as Puerto Rican Manuel
Viramontes, a single man with an ex-wife in Mexico. But Hernández
actually has been married for 13 years to a woman in Cuba, Adriana Perez.
Neighbors thought Viramontes was a freelance graphic designer for
advertising agencies. His building manager said he saw him working on an "old
lousy computer.''
It was that computer -- and hundreds of computer diskettes created on it --
that unlocked the key to the spy ring, codenamed La Red Avispa, or the Wasp
Network. For unknown reasons, Hernández and some of the other spies kept
years worth of coded communications between themselves and their Havana
intelligence bosses on computer disks.
FBI agents secretly copied those disks.
After the four-year investigation broke, experts were able to break the
codes, providing them with thousands of pages of secret intelligence
communications -- the road map followed by prosecutors in the case.
Herald staff writer Tere Figueras and translator Renato Pérez
contributed to this report.
Cuba's Castro signs, then denounces proposed Free Trade Area of the
Americas
PORLAMAR, Venezuela -- (AP) -- After signing a summit declaration that
supports a U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas, Cuban President Fidel
Castro warned that the proposed treaty could lead to U.S. domination of Latin
America.
"There is a plot to impose by economic force ... not only an economic,
but a global political order,'' Castro said after Wednesday's conclusion of the
Association of Caribbean States summit.
"One day, all of our countries -- excepting Cuba because (Washington),
luckily, doesn't want it -- could be involved in a large deal in which everyone
is compromised'' by developed nations' might, Castro said.
Cuba, which has faced four decades of U.S. economic sanctions imposed
because of its communist rule, is excluded from negotiations to establish the
free trade zone from Alaska to Argentina in 2005.
An ACS declaration signed by Castro expresses support for the FTAA -- as
long as developed nations' barriers to products such as agricultural and textile
imports from developing nations are eliminated. That would provide impoverished
Latin nations a better chance to compete.
But Castro later said millions of Latin Americans are heading for "a
destination they know nothing about.'' Accusing leaders of keeping details on
treaty negotiations secret, he urged the region's governments to educate their
citizens about the deal.
U.S. workers know more about FTAA than their Latin counterparts because
thousands of them lost jobs to cheaper Mexican labor when the North American
Free Trade Agreement was enacted, Castro said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez supported Castro's criticism. He suggested
that the region consider an alternative. And he pledged to put any FTAA to a
popular vote in Venezuela.
Another dissenting voice was Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo, who said his
government wouldn't sign a deal without "preferential and distinguishing
treatment'' for Latin and Caribbean economies.
"If these conditions don't meet with our satisfaction ... we simply
will be ignored,'' Jagdeo said.
During the two-day summit on Margarita Island, Caribbean leaders called for
FTAA negotiations to end by January 2005 and the free trade zone be opened by
December 2005.
They denounced the U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba, but pledged their
continuing support for the fight against terrorism. They also vowed to jointly
promote Caribbean tourism, a vital industry that has suffered since the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks in the United States.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
