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December 13, 2001



Cuba News

BBC News

BBC News Online. 14 December, 2001

Cuba denounces US spying sentence

Thursday, 13 December, 2001, 11:27 GMT

The authorities in Cuba have denounced the sentencing to life imprisonment of a man found guilty by a US court of spying for Cuba.

Commentators on Cuba's state-run television called the sentence "despicable" and described the convicted man, Gerardo Hernandez, 36, as a "national hero".

A federal court in Florida on Wednesday sentenced Mr Hernandez for trying to infiltrate US military bases and conspiring to murder four Cuban-Americans whose private planes were shot down by Cuban jet fighters in 1996.

He was one of five men convicted of spying for Cuba in June. They were alleged to have belonged to the biggest ever Cuban spy ring in the United States.

The other four face sentencing in the coming days.

Commentators on a nightly discussion programme on Cuban TV, called "In the entrails of the monster", said Hernandez had been carrying out legitimate acts against the Cuban-American community in the US which was trying to undermine the security of Cuba.

The programme is often used to portray official thinking.

The government in Havana has repeatedly accused the exile community in Florida - which it calls "a terrorist mafia" - of planning and carrying out violent acts against the Cuban state.

New low in relations

The BBC's Daniel Schweimler in Havana says the sentencing of Hernandez is likely to plunge relations between Cuba and the US to a new low just at a time when they had seen a slight improvement after more than forty years of animosity.

Hernandez was the only one charged with murder conspiracy, which related to the deaths of four members of the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue.

Their planes were shot down in international airspace while patrolling the sea for Cuban refugees.

The prosecution said Hernandez knew about the plot to shoot down the planes.

Prosecution lawyers said Hernandez knew a plane would be attacked because he had advised two men who had infiltrated the group not to fly during a four-day period.

Hernandez denied the charge and also denied spying against the US.

He called his trial a "propaganda show" and said he was a victim of the power of Miami's Cuban exile community.

The five men - three Cuban intelligence officers and two US citizens - acknowledged before the trial began that they were acting on orders from the Cuban Government.

The government in Havana had launched a campaign on behalf of the five men, organising huge political rallies around the country to denounce their detention.

Their faces - portrayed on t-shirts and posters - have become familiar to many ordinary Cubans.

Adams to meet Cuban leader

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams is due to meet Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana next week during a three-day visit to south America.

As well as meeting members of the Cuban government, the Sinn Fein delegation will be unveiling a monument in memory of the 1981 republican hunger strike.

Ten men died in the Maze prison H-blocks hunger strike two decades ago as republican prisoners fought to get political status.

Mr Adams will be accompanied on the trip by North Belfast assembly member Gerry Kelly.

The trip comes after Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba Niall Connolly was one of three republicans arrested in Colombia in August.

Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan were charged with training Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC, in explosives and urban terrorism.

Sinn Fein initially denied that Connolly was a party official.

But Mr Adams later confirmed that an internal investigation revealed "one of our senior members asked Niall Connolly to represent the party in Cuba".

"This decision was taken without the knowledge or authorisation of the international department or any other party structure including the party chairperson or myself," he said.

Mr Adams said proper procedures had not been employed in the appointment of Mr Connolly.

He said they had since been reviewed to ensure that this "unfortunate situation" did not arise again.

The arrest of the trio in Bogotá for travelling on false passports led to calls for Sinn Fein to be excluded from the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Mr Adams' trip to Havana is going ahead despite concern in the United States about the merits of the trip.

Earlier this week, Peter King, a Republican congressman, said: "I've told Gerry for some time I think it's a mistake to go.

"It undercuts Sinn Féin's argument for human rights. Castro is a flagrant violator of human rights."

Mr Adams leaves for Cuba on Sunday, and will return next Thursday.

He will also visit the Juan Marquez Hospital and the Latin American School of Medical Sciences.

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