The Miami 5:Thirteen Years On

Tony Woodley with Gerardo Hernandez

The following article was written by Tony Woodley, former Unite General Secretary, for the Morning Star.

The international media has been full of stories marking the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks against the US this week, but you would need to search hard to find mention of the anniversary of the arrest of five Cuban counter-terrorists in Miami 13 years ago today or the fact that two of their wives have been denied visitation rights for 12 years.
 

On September 12 1998 the FBI arrested Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez who were trying to stop right-wing groups carrying out terrorist attacks against the Cuban people. Regular readers of this paper will know these names and the story of the Miami Five.

They travelled to Miami to infiltrate and monitor violent right-wing groups opposed to the Cuban government and responsible for the deaths of almost 3,500 Cubans over the last 50 years.

At the request of the US government they passed their findings to the FBI in 1998 but instead of arresting the terrorists the information was used to identify and arrest the five.

Held in solitary confinement, denied proper access to legal teams and tried in a hostile atmosphere which made it impossible to receive a fair trial, they received unprecedentedly harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to double life.

The arrest, trial and sentencing of the Miami Five has enraged legal opinion, NGOs and human rights campaigners from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to Amnesty International. On top of this their wives and families are denied regular family visitation rights. Furthermore, recent evidence revealed that the US government directly funded Miami-based journalists to the tune of $125,000 to broadcast prejudicial articles before and during the trial.

Although the Miami Five enjoy a great deal of support within the British union and international solidarity movement, due to a virtual media boycott their case is almost unknown within the US trade union movement.

Last month I was honoured to be involved in a historic meeting to help break this silence when I travelled to Los Angeles to visit one of the five, Gerardo Hernandez, who is serving two life sentences in Victorville Penitentiary.

On August 13, 200 workers, union leaders and activists came together at the invitation of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Los Angeles - the first time since the five's incarceration that a US union has organised a public meeting to inform their members and ask them to join the fight for justice.

It was great to be able to report this meeting to Gerardo the following day when I visited him at his maximum security prison in Victorville.

Despite 13 years held in this truly inhumane place, the man's spirit - like that of all the five and their families - is inspirational. Gerardo is well aware of the work of the British trade union movement and solidarity campaign for his cause, and sends his gratitude to everyone who fights for justice for the five. He also knows that despite waiting on the outcome of a final legal appeal, ultimately his freedom and that of his four comrades lies in the hands of the US government. This is why I have been working closely with US unions to lobby key stakeholders in the Obama administration.

Aside from the meeting in Los Angeles, British unions working together with the Cuba Solidarity Campaign have made notable breakthroughs in this case over the years, such as ours being the first country in the world to win MPs and unions to the cause.

Earlier this year WikiLeaks released cables that show our own PM raised the case with Hillary Clinton as a direct result of union pressure.

Amnesty International is now supporting the case because family members were given the possibility to explain the injustice to Amnesty face-to-face during numerous visits to Britain since 2005 at the invitation of CSC and British unions.

But increasing international solidarity is vital, and as the president of the Cuban parliament Ricardo Alarcon says: "The struggle must be multiplied until the US government is forced to put an end to this monstrous injustice and restore freedom to Gerardo, Ramon, Antonio, Fernando and Rene."

Supporters of the five do not want to have to mark the September 12 arrest anniversary every year. We would rather be celebrating the anniversary of their freedom. Everyone can play a role in achieving this, whether as individuals or within our unions and the solidarity movement, and there are many upcoming opportunities to do so.

The mothers of the five will be at Unite sectoral conferences in November, joining the annual Cuba Solidarity vigil outside the US embassy on December 1 and at the Latin America 2011 conference on December 3.

In Spring 2012 a prestigious exhibition featuring Cuban and British artists will include work by Gerardo and Antonio, and later next year all four Miami Five wives will visit Liverpool for a major public meeting.

For more information on these and other events, actions and how to get involved see CSC’s Miami Five website

The Miami Five - 13 Years of Unjust Imprisonment

On this day 13 years ago, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González were arrested by the FBI in Miami while trying to stop right-wing groups carrying out terrorist attacks against the Cuban people. The five counter-terrorists – commonly known as the Miami Five – remain unfairly incarcerated within the US; their wives and family members are denied family visitation rights and they are often held in solitary confinement.

For over 50 years, right-wing exile groups within Miami have targeted Cuba killing nearly 3,500 people in terrorist attacks against the island. This has been done with the complicit support of the US government and the CIA.

To saves lives, Cuba sent five men to infiltrate and monitor these violent dissident groups. At the request of the American government, this information was passed to the FBI in 1998 but – instead of arresting the terrorists – the Bureau used the information to identify and arrest the Miami Five on 12 September 1998.

The Miami Five were sentenced to a total of 75 years imprisonment and remain interned within the US. Compare this to the terrorist and former CIA-operative Luis Posada Carriles who – although responsible for the blowing up of a Cuban airliner in 1973 which killed 73 people – remains at liberty in America.

The arrest, trial and sentencing of the Miami Five has enraged legal opinion, NGOs and human rights campaigners from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to Amnesty International.

In October 2010, Amnesty International released a report condemning the trial of the Miami Five and calling for a review of the case. Central to their criticism was the “underlying concern related to the fairness of holding the trial in Miami, given the pervasive hostility to the Cuban government in that area and media and other events before and during the trial . . . there was evidence to suggest that these factors made it impossible to ensure a wholly impartial jury”.

Amnesty raised serious concerns about the circumstances of the pre-trial detention of the five men which involved sporadic solitary confinement and limited access to attorneys and evidence. As the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared in May 2005, this “undermined the equal balance between the prosecution and the defence”.

Amnesty’s report followed a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals which, in August 2005, unanimously overturned the convictions of the Miami Five on the ground that “pervasive community prejudice in Miami against the Castro government merged with other factors to prejudice their right to a fair trial”. The decision was promptly quashed by the US government.

Furthermore, recent evidence obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act demonstrates that the American government directly funded Miami-based journalists to write and broadcast prejudicial articles and commentary before and during the trial. Despite overwhelming evidence, the Supreme Court has consistently refused to consider appeals on these grounds – even though similar cases have been granted a retrial.

Legal avenues in defence of the Miami Five have virtually been exhausted and only humanitarian intervention from President Barack Obama or the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can give justice to the five and their families. Public pressure to break the silence around this case is vital.

UK-based NGO the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the British trade union movement have been crucial in building the broadest possible alliance in support of family visitation rights and, ultimately, the release of the Miami Five.

Any potential solution lies with the American government and the British movement in support of the Miami Five has been working closely with US unions – including the United Service Workers, the United Steel Workers and the Teamsters – to lobby key stakeholders in the Obama administration.

In a recent meeting in support of the Miami Five in Los Angeles, former Unite the Union General Secretary Tony Woodley declared, “the Miami Five enjoy a great deal of support on the international level, but that is not the case inside the United States. Solidarity is absolutely crucial in this case and the political struggle will be decisive for the return of the Miami Five to Cuba”.

America’s duplicity with regard the Miami Five is laid bare by Cuba’s ongoing inclusion on the US State Department terror blacklist alongside Iran, Sudan and Syria. As the Cuban Foreign Ministry said recently, the US government “has absolutely no moral right to judge Cuba, which has an unblemished history in the fight against terrorism and has been consistently the victim of this scourge”. This allegation is vindicated by the grotesque treatment of the Miami Five and the inexplicable harbouring of Posada Carriles.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry accused the US of the “political manipulation” of the sensitive issue of terrorism and, similarly, the handling of the Miami Five must be seen as distinctly political.

The unjust treatment of the Miami Five typifies US foreign policy towards Cuba and – when contrasted to the United States’ promotion and funding of dissident groups in Cuba – highlights American hypocrisy. The freedom of the Miami Five will only be secured through collective political action across the broadest possible campaign. Until their release, the campaign will continue.

Historic Labour Event in Support of the Miami 5 in Los Angeles



Mike Gracia, Cristina Vazquez, Ernesto Medrano and Tony Woodley

On August 13 more than 200 workers, labour leaders and community activists came together at the United Service Workers West (SEIU) Hall to participate in an event in solidarity with the Cuban 5. Coincidently that same day Rene Gonzalez one of the five spent another birthday in prison far away from his love ones.

As part of the event those attending were able see the travelling exhibit of Gerardo Hernandez's political cartoons entitled Humour from my Pen. During the event the participants watched a short video of Danny Glover and another video of the campaign of the British unions in support of the Cuban 5.

The significance of this meeting was that it marked the first that a union from the US organized an event solely to inform their rank and file and the leadership about the colossal and ongoing injustice being committed against the Cuban 5. The purpose of the event was to expand the exposure of the case that is boycotted by the media, to the US labour movement and to ask them to join the struggle.

Tony Woodley addressing crowd

Tony Woodley, former president of UNITE, the largest union in England, who travelled all the way to Los Angeles to participate in the event  spoke about the importance of solidarity. "Make no mistake about it this is an historical event," Woodley told the crowd. "The Cuban 5 enjoy a great deal of support on the international level but that is not the case inside the United States. The solidarity is absolutely crucial in this case and the political struggle will be decisive for the return of the Five to Cuba." Woodley shared with the audience an emotional meeting he had with the families of the Five on his last visit to Cuba."The Five and their families are all people with great pride and nothing will break their spirit."

Workers and union leaders present at the meeting represented a number of unions from Southern California including service workers, transportation workers, teachers, musicians, healthcare workers, electricians and others. Mike Garcia president SEIU-USWW welcomed the audience and reminded them that the struggle is the only tool that the workers have in their fight for justice. "The struggle for the freedom of the Cuban 5 should be part of the struggle of US workers because it is part of the same fight."

Cristina Vazquez from Workers United briefly explained who the Cuban 5 were and went on to say, "Many of you are learning about the Cuban 5 for the first time at this meeting because this story has been kept out of the news media. Every day we fight against injustice and one of our biggest struggles has been the reunification of families and immigration reform. This fight is no different than that; here we have wives, children and parents who have been separated for 13 years. We need to be the voice of the families of the Cuban 5, we need to be the voice here for the people of Cuba who want their 5 heroes back home." Vazquez encouraged the audience to pick up postcards designed by the union she represents to be sent to President Obama asking for the release of the Five.

Alicia Jrapko from the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 spoke about the different campaigns in the US to spread the word about the case.  Jrapko explained to the audience that this is a case of human rights and basic justice. "These men came to the US unarmed simply to defend their country from terrorist attacks coming from US soil. With a stroke of a pen Obama can free them. Join us in demanding that."

In recognition of the support from labour, members of the International Committee presented wooden plaques with the symbolic logo on behalf of the Cuban 5 to Tony Woodley, Mike Garcia and Cristina Vazquez.  Another plaque was awarded to Natasha Hickman editor of CubaSi!, a publication in solidarity with Cuba produced by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK.

An informational table with a display explaining the case of the Cuban 5 received a lot of attention with most people signing up to receive updates of the case and took with them hundreds of post cards to send to Obama.  Many copies of the new documentary Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up were also purchased at the table.

Mike Garcia, referring to the case of the Cuban 5, loudly closed the meeting by asking the audience several times Se Puede? And they responded each time louder; Si Se Puede!

This report was originally produced by the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5