CUBANET ... CUBANEWS

August 14, 2002



Cuba News / The Miami Herald

Posted on Wed, Aug. 14, 2002 in The Miami Herald.

Support drive for Cuban spies begins

Associated Press.

Supporters of five Cuban agents convicted in an espionage case are beginning a national campaign aimed at winning them a new trial.

National Lawyers Guild president Bruce Nestor said Tuesday that his group wants to build a groundswell of support for the men in a case that he says was politicized by the U.S. government.

''This is a sad case,'' Nestor said. "They're paying the penalty for U.S. policy.''

Ringleader Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino, who substituted for him, received life terms in December for espionage conspiracy.

Hernández received a concurrent life term for playing a role in a Cuban MiG attack that killed four Miami men flying with Brothers to the Rescue in international airspace in 1996.

Antonio Guerrero is serving a life sentence after working for six years as a manual laborer at the Key West Naval Air Station.

René González received 15 years for infiltrating six exile groups. Fernando González received 19 years for supervising agents assigned to penetrate the U.S. Southern Command.

A group called the National Campaign to Free the Five has begun speaking tours and rallies around the country to bring the case to the public, said Gloria La Riva, who represents the campaign. Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland and Miami are among the cities targeted.

Attorneys have filed notices of appeal with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Accused torturer too ill to surrender

By Larry Lebowitz. Llebowitz@Herald.Com.

Accused Cuban torturer Eriberto Mederos failed to report to jail the day after his historic conviction by a Miami federal jury because he was too ill to surrender.

Mederos, 79, is reportedly being treated for cancer and may not survive until the scheduled sentencing on Oct. 16, sources said.

David Rothman, Mederos' attorney, nor his relatives could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

On Aug. 1, Mederos became the first person convicted on a torture-related criminal charge in a U.S. court.

A jury found he obtained U.S. citizenship illegally by concealing his past from immigration officials: both his membership in the Communist Party in Cuba and his role in administering electroshock treatment to anti-Fidel Castro political prisoners at the Mazorra psychiatric hospital in Havana.

Mederos, who was barely responsive during the trial, faces zero to six months in prison, based on the sentencing guidelines and his lack of a prior criminal history, Rothman said.

After the verdict, Rothman said Mederos had been hospitalized the previous weekend and violated a doctor's orders by leaving the hospital and returning to court to complete the trial.

U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold had ordered Mederos to get his affairs in order and report to jail by noon on Aug. 2.

Records show Gold has thrice extended the surrender deadline: originally to 5 p.m. Aug. 5, then 5 p.m. Aug. 9 and now to 5 p.m. this Friday.

All of the defense motions detailing Mederos' declining condition and asking to extend The surrender deadline have been filed under seal.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Tamen, who prosecuted the case, has not opposed the extensions.

On Tuesday, José Ros, one of Mederos' victims who testified at his trial, said Mederos is jockeying for house arrest.

''I carry no hatred for him in my heart, but I remember that he had no compassion for his victims,'' Ros said. "Mederos was a first-class torturer.''

Herald staff writer Luisa Yanez contributed to this report

[ BACK TO THE NEWS ]

Cuban independent press mailing list

La Tienda - Books, posters, t-shirts, caps

In Association with Amazon.com

Search:


SEARCH NEWS

Advance Search


SECCIONES

NOTICIAS
Prensa Independiente
Prensa Internacional
Prensa Gubernamental

OTHER LANGUAGES
Spanish
German
French

INDEPENDIENTES
Cooperativas Agrícolas
Movimiento Sindical
Bibliotecas
MCL

DEL LECTOR
Letters
Debate
Opinion

BUSQUEDAS
News Archive
News Search
Documents
Links

CULTURA
Painters
Photos of Cuba

CUBANET
Semanario
About Us
Annual report
E-Mail


CubaNet News, Inc.
145 Madeira Ave,
Suite 207
Coral Gables, FL 33134
(305) 774-1887