Posted at 12:47 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 20, 2001 in the
Miami Herald
HAVANA -- (AP) -- Reacting for the first time to the conviction of five
Cubans on espionage charges, Fidel Castro's government Wednesday called the men
heroes who risked their lives to protect their nation from terrorism.
"Heroic Conduct in the Entrails of the Monster,'' read the headline
over a front page editorial praising the men in the Communist Party daily,
Granma.
The five "risked their lives daily to discover and inform on the
terrorist plans hatched against our people by the Cuban-American Mafiosi,'' read
the official English language translation of the Granma story, posted on the
newspaper's website.
The editorial said that later Wednesday the "real story'' of the
Cubans' work in the United States would be told, presumably on the government's
regular weeknight "round-table'' program on national television.
Also published in Granma was a letter to the American people from the five
Cubans, who said they their small country "has every right to defend itself
from its enemies who keep using the U.S. territory to plan, organize and finance
terrorist actions.''
"We are just Cuban patriots and it was never our intent to cause any
harm to neither the values nor the integrity of the American people,'' said the
front page letter that carried their signatures.
After a six month trial, a Miami jury found the five defendants guilty on
June 8 of operating as foreign agents without notifying the U.S. government and
conspiring to do so.
Three were convicted of espionage conspiracy for efforts to penetrate U.S.
military bases even though they received no U.S. secrets.
One, Gerardo Hernandez, was also found guilty of murder conspiracy in the
deaths of four Miami-based pilots whose small, private planes were shot down
Feb. 24, 1996, by Cuban MiGs in international waters off Cuba's northern coast.
He faces up to life in prison. Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero, who were
assigned to study U.S. military bases, also face life sentences on the espionage
conspiracy charge.
Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, who are not related, face up to 10
years in prison on charges of failing to register as foreign agents and
conspiracy.
All are to be sentenced between Sept. 24 and Oct. 2.
"A rigged, prejudiced and misinformed jury, working under tremendous
pressure brought on them by the authorities, the media and the poisoned and
stinking atmosphere of Miami, have declared them guilty of grossly manipulated
and deceitful charges,'' Granma said.
The charges, said the newspaper, "were never proved'' and now the five "could
be sentenced to remain for the rest of their lives in hostile, ruthless and
subhuman jails in the United States of America.''
The defense argued that Gerardo Hernandez was prosecuted as a scapegoat for
Cuba's government, which had warned U.S. authorities that intruders risked being
shot down after nearly two years of airspace violations.
Previous flights by Jose Basulto, founder of the exile fliers group Brothers
to the Rescue, had included a low-level pass over Havana and a mission to drop
500,000 political leaflets. His plane flew briefly into Cuban airspace on the
day of the attack. He was the lone survivor.
The defense also relied on the decades-long history of animosity between the
United States and Cuba, saying the agents' primary mission was to thwart
extremist exiles who supported terrorism against Cuba. 7.
To win conviction on the espionage conspiracy count, prosecutors had to
prove the defendants agreed to get nonpublic national defense information, even
if they did not succeed.
Both sides agreed the agents never obtained classified information, but the
defense argued they were never instructed to get U.S. secrets.
Prosecutors presented a case based largely on 2,000 pages of decrypted
communications peppered with communist jargon seized when the agents were
indicted in 1998 as part of the 14-member Wasp Network.
On the Net:
Granma: http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 
