From a legal point of view, for it to have standing in a United States court, the deed in question had have had to occur in international airspace, outside of Cuban jurisdiction. Otherwise, no court of the United States would have been able to take it up.

That is why in the Miami trial the exact location of the incident was discussed at length, repeating what had taken place before in the Security Council of the United Nations and in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). In those discussions, the contradictions between the Cuban radar and those of the United States arose continuously. There is certainly a great deal to write about the U.S. data, for example, the delay of several months in handing it over, which forced a delay in the work of the ICAO and the suspicious destruction of some records, all of which is stated in the ICAO report.

In order to try to resolve the discrepancy in the radars, the ICAO asked the United States to submit the images from its space satellites, a request that was rejected in 1996. Washington also refused to permit the Miami Court to view them. For a long time now it has been opposing the repeated requests by the Center for Constitutional Law and Human Rights of California and has litigated in the Courts of that State in its effort to keep the images from being seen. Soon it will be 20 years of obstinate censorship.

Only the United States has been able to examine what its satellites filmed, but no one else is permitted to see them. Not the UN Security Council, nor the ICAO, nor the United States courts. Why?

There is only one answer. Washington knows that the incident occurred inside Cuba’s territorial waters, very close to the Havana coast and consequently, it never had legal jurisdiction over it. Since the satellite images are irrefutable proof of the Yankee lie nobody but the United States authorities will ever be able to see them.

But the issue is not whether the satellite images exonerate Gerardo. They were not necessary because to convict him the Prosecution had to prove that he personally participated in the incident, something totally absurd, impossible to sustain regardless of where the shoot-down of the invading planes occurred. That problem was and is for Washington.

A problem, because the images prove that the United States, its authorities and its courts had no right whatsoever to try an incident that took place outside its territorial jurisdiction. It should be pointed out, that according to the U.S. radars, the planes flew together the whole time in a southerly direction and at least one of them, according to the U.S.’s own version, had penetrated Cuban territory. Indeed, if one accepts the United States theory about the planes’ location, they were in the vicinity of the Cuban capital, very close to its most central and populous part. In a few minutes they would have flown over it and would have been able to cross the island to the southern coast.

This did not take place near the United States airspace, rather it was far below the 24th Parallel which demarcates the zones of aerial supervision of both countries. It was there, within the area under Cuban control where a good part of the flight transpired, southward toward Havana and ignoring the indications and warnings issued by the Air Traffic Control Center of our country.

In any case, Gerardo had absolutely nothing to do with the deed, no matter where it occurred. And the United States authorities knew that perfectly well.

According to the Indictment of September 1998, the FBI had identified Gerardo and knew the mission he was carrying out. From 1994 on they were viewing his communications with Cuba, more than two years before that incident which grievously affected the situation between both countries.

The mobs of the Batista-terrorist mafia called then for war in the streets of Miami. Meanwhile, according to what President Clinton wrote in his Memoirs, the White House was discussing a possible bombardment of Cuba. He opted to promote the Helms-Burton law, accompanied by bellicose threats. Can anyone believe that they would not act against Gerardo if he had been involved? They did nothing precisely because his innocence was clear to them.

It is also the reason they did not charge him when he was arrested together with his comrades in September 1998. In the initial indictment not one word is said about the event of February 24, 1996, nor is anything said about the plane shoot-down or related issues. They did not do that because the FBI, which possessed and had read the messages between Gerardo and Havana, knew he was innocent.

Count 3 (“conspiracy to commit murder”) was drawn up only against Gerardo. It was more than seven months after the arrest of the Cuban Five, when they were in solitary confinement — the infamous “Hole” — isolated from the world and where it was impossible to defend themselves. To that end the Prosecution presented a Second Superseding Indictment that — as the Miami press described it — was created in meetings openly carried out by the FBI, the Prosecution and the leaders of the terrorist groups.

It was an arbitrary accusation, fabricated top to bottom, with the sole objective of satisfying the criminals, inflaming the hatred against Gerardo and his comrades and guaranteeing beforehand the worst, most illegal and irrational convictions. Count 3 was the focus of the lawless and vulgar media campaign, promoted and financed by the Federal Government. Like a tsunami of lies, it slammed a defenseless community paralyzed by terror. It was five articles per day in the print newspapers, endless commentaries day and night on radio and local television, creating what the panel of judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2005 characterized as a “perfect storm” of hatred, prejudice and hostility.

A major part of the trial centered on Count 3. Inside and outside the courtroom, individuals linked to “Brothers to the Rescue” agitated and made strident statements that the local media amplified. They and the U.S.-paid “journalists” persecuted and besieged the members of the jury who complained to the judge. She, for her part, several times also complained to the Government, of course, to no avail.

In the courtroom, despite all this, the baseless lie of the Prosecution was defeated. The accusers, who were so effectively promoting hatred and prejudice against him, were unable to present one single proof to connect Gerardo to the events of February 24. Not a thing.

So overwhelming and obvious was its defeat that the Government did something highly unusual. At the end of the discussions, when the judge was about to issue her instructions to guide the jury in its verdict deliberations, the prosecutors objected, surprisingly, to the text that the Judge had prepared, which reflected the Indictment word for word. They proposed changing it radically. The Judge, for good reason, did not accept the request, asserting that they had spent seven months discussing the prosecution’s indictment and it was much too late to modify it. That same day the Prosecution rushed to do something even more unusual: In an action that it acknowledged was “unprecedented,” the Prosecution appealed to the Court of Appeals with an “emergency writ of prohibition,” seeking to overturn the decision of the trial court as well as postpone the trial.

In the strange document the Prosecution maintained that “In light of the evidence presented in this trial, this [the instruction given by the judge] presents an insurmountable hurdle for the United States in this case, and will likely result in the failure of the prosecution on this count.”

It should be emphasized that, according to the universal principle of Law, a person is innocent unless and until proven otherwise and it is the obligation of the accuser to present the necessary proof or evidence to show the guilt of the accused. The Prosecution certainly faced “an insurmountable obstacle” for the simple reason that it could not show any proof against Gerardo, merely because it does not exist, nor can it exist. They lacked any evidence against him and worse still, they knew — since they possessed all his communiqués of several years with Havana, including the years before the planes’ incident —that he had had no relation whatsoever with that deed. In other words, when the Prosecution issued its Second Superseding Indictment, it was fully aware that it was accusing an innocent man and consequently was perverting justice in an unpardonable and gross manner.

Count 3 was a grave violation of the Constitution and law and also the legal and professional duty of the prosecutors. They worked hand in hand with the FBI of Miami as agents and accomplices of a terrorist mafia whom they should be combating, when in reality they were at their service with a scandalous subservience.

The Court of Appeals did not accept the late petition of the Prosecution and from that point on, developments occurred that would be surprising if we were dealing with a case which from beginning to end, has been and is an enormous mockery of justice.

Very quickly, without expressing any doubts, without asking any questions, in a few hours the Jury declared the Cuban Five guilty of each and every one of the Charges lodged against them, including Count 3. It did not matter to them that regarding Count 3 the Prosecution had admitted its failure and persisted in trying to get it withdrawn.

Upon the trial’s conclusion in the first week of June 2001, the Judge announced that she would impose the sentences in mid-September. The abominable terrorist act on the 11th of that same month and year apparently made her change her mind. Neither she nor the Government would feel comfortable brutally punishing anti-terrorist heroes while W. Bush joyfully and with great fanfare launched his “war on terrorism” throughout the planet. They would wait three months.

Finally, on December 14, 2001, Gerardo was sentenced to two life sentences plus 15 years.

Everyone in the Courtroom knew they were punishing an innocent man.

The campaign will run until October 6, to mobilize international public opinion to achieve the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, and Fernando Gonzalez.

They were detained in 1998 alongside Rene Gonzalez for the crime of miscarrying terrorist actions against their country, organized primarily from the Florida city of Miami.

Only Rene Gonzalez remains in Cuba since this year he renounced his U.S. citizenship after completing 13 years in prison and a period of supervised release.

The International Committee to Free the Five, as they are known among the followers of their cause, announced that many activities will be carried out in the world for their release.

Graciela Ramirez, from the Committee, informed that a vigil will be held in Washington on September 12 at noon. That day will mark 15 years of the imprisonment of the Cuban Five.

An important number of friendly organizations with Cuba to demand that President Barack Obama ends this injustice are expected to participate in the vigil.

Kenia Serrano, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, said that the island’s music bands will perform concerts the same day.

Those music groups will sing in Spanish language the song entitled “Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree.” This song is remembered in the United States when the return of a loved one is expected, she added.

The Cubans throughout the island confirmed yesterday that they will use yellow ribbons to send a message to U.S. people in solidarity with the antiterrorist fighters imprisoned in the northern country.

Rene Gonzalez made the call this week so that, as of a symbol in the United States, people learn more about the cause of the Cuban Five.

“It is a symbol that U.S. people will achieve understanding, visitors could see and foreign correspondents here could not ignore it,” he said in a televised speech.

We want this is a different campaign and the last one. It’s time to bring them home and for that reason we have your support, Gonzalez said.

The selected cartoon originally was drawn in 2011 and sent by Gerardo along with a message to the opening of the VIII Congress of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC), an organization to which he is an honorary member. Gerardo began his career as a self-taught cartoonist, publishing his first work in the humorous weekly “Palante” in 1982, when he was only 17 years old. When he learned about the news that this cartoon was being used in a school book, the Cuban anti-terrorist expressed his surprise and satisfaction, and said: “I am pleased because besides being in the book the cartoon will resurface at a time when the Cuban journalists will be back in Congress, and I think that the message is still relevant and retains its validity.”

The editor of the book, Noé Pérez, found the cartoon while searching online for the material that he would need, “The cartoon described eloquently one of the aspects of the chapter of the book where it was included” Perez said. “It deals with the relationships between information and power and the problems associated, like bias or impartiality in the coverage of the facts, or in the transmission of information, as well as different points of view.” The editor adds that “the binary of the image, with the representation of two visions in the form of two screens focused on different aspects of the same reality, outlines the problems and perspectives of the different sources of information. On the other hand, the elegance of the image of the rose and the thorn acts as a metaphor of the good and difficult aspects that coexist in the same reality; that caught our attention. The motto that accompanies the image involves two adverbs “muy” and “tan” that interested us as a point of grammar to work with.”

With regard to why he thinks that the cartoon will be useful to students, Mr. Pérez argues that “the image brings the students culturally into a Latin American reality, specifically Cuban, and at the same time transcends it. The objectivity in the media is a valid question in any of today’s society who share this principle. It is aesthetic and reasonably easy to interpret for the level of maturity of the students.”

When selecting the cartoon Noé Pérez was unaware that its author was one of the Cuban Five, and that Gerardo was serving two life sentences in a prison in the United States for defending his country from terrorism. It was only when he was trying to find out to whom he should request authorization to use it that the editor was able to learn about the difficult conditions in which the cartoon had been created, and the reasons why Gerardo and his 4 comrades are considered political prisoners. According to Mr. Pérez the situation of the cartoon’s author “did not influence in any way the selection of the cartoon; that fact is not mentioned anywhere in the text because it exceeded the limits of the subject and the teaching objectives of the publication.”

This way the original intention of Gerardo, that included a critique of the treatment that Cuba receives from the corporate media, and at the same time a critical exhortation to Cuban journalists at their Congress, transcended towards a more universal concept about the issue of the objectivity of the media, and his work will be subject of the analysis and reflection by French students.

Those men turn today 14 years of lockup, hence we have promoted this campaign of denunciation, Graciela Ramirez, coordinator of the International Committee to Free the Five, told reporters.

According to Ramirez, marches in front of U.S. embassies, exhibitions, concerts, presentations of books, documentaries, and political acts, are included of today’s activities.

Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez are currently serving harsh sentences for gathering information on violent plans against Cuba, forged by terrorist groups operating in U.S. soil.

Solidarity organizations in Spain will stage a rally today in Puerta del Sol Square, while associations and friendship networks with Cuba will march in front of the U.S. embassies in Portugal and Germany.

As part of those expressions of support, activities for the Five, as they are universally known, will be also held in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina , Bahamas, St. Lucia, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

According to Ramirez, solidarity groups in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Guinea Bissau, South Africa, Lebanon, and Ethiopia also join to this campaign of denunciation.

Meanwhile, activists also talked of activities in favor of those antiterrorists in the United States and Canada.

In remarks to Prensa Latina, Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Five, said that many activities will be held in San Francisco, Washington DC and other U.S. cities from today to the coming few days, demanding the return to Cuba of Gerardo, Rene, Ramon, Antonio, and Fernando.

Regarding Canada, solidarity groups held a vigil in front of the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver and a forum in the same city.

Perez, who arrived in the country yesterday and shortly after gave interviews to many media outlets, will visit the Law School of that educational institution, where she will speak about the situation of the Five, as they are universally known.

The meeting, organized by the Movement of Solidarity with Cuba and the Communist Party of Bolivia, will serve as a prelude to the creation of the Committee of the Five in the Andean country.

Perez will participate in the afternoon in an activity at the Legislative Assembly headquarter, in the presence of senators and representatives, and later will meet with representatives of the Cuban medical and educational brigades based in this country.

Perez will hold talks tomorrow with intellectuals and media directors at the headquarters of the Plurinational State vice presidency, and then will travel to La Higuera, where she will pay tribute on his name and that of her husband to Argentine-Cuban guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara, murdered in October 1967.

Yesterday, Gerardo’s wife honored the Five at the theater of the Bolivian Telecommunication Company, where she thanked the Bolivians’ support to the cause of Cuban prisoners.

Gerardo Hernandez was convicted in 2001 by a Florida court to double life sentences plus 15 years in prison and he is still in prison, as his three comrades-in- arms: Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez, despite strong international pressure so the U.S. government frees them.

Another antiterrorist fighter, Rene Gonzalez, has already completed his prison term, but must remain in the United States to comply with his probation.

The Five were detained in September 1998 while monitoring plans by terrorist organizations financed by the United States and based in South Florida, with the intention of reporting them to Cuban authorities.

The video includes interviews with renowned international artists such as Danny Glover and Peter Coyote speaking about the injustice committed against the Cuban patriots, detained in Miami in September 1998.

Thousands of people in the United States and the world have seen the videos, and important websites such as Facebook and Twitter, where many supporters of the Cuban cause have joined the struggle, have re-posted those videos.

The International Committee stated in a press release that the organization continues to work in a series of community activities in Washington DC, New York and San Francisco, to denounce the 14 years of unjust prison of the Cuban antiterrorists.

Cuban emigrant organizations in Miami called yesterday for a conference to analyze the special appeal currently underway for four of the Cuban five sentenced in 2001 in the United States.

The meeting was suggested by the Marti Alliance, Antonio Maceo Brigade, Jose Marti Association, the Bolivarian Circle of Miami, and the Association of Christian Women in Defense of the Family, among other nongovernmental groups in solidarity with Cuba.

Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, internationally known as the Cuban Five, were detained in 1998 in this country for monitoring anti-Cuban terrorist organizations located in Florida.

Rene was released from prison on October 7, after having completed his prison term. He was forced to remain in U.S. territory for three more years under supervised release.

In a biased trial in the city of Miami in 2001, the Five were condemned to long sentences in prison ranging from 15 years to double life imprisonment plus 15 additional years.

PROGRESO WEEKLY

I sit on a gray plastic chair, facing a tiny, gray, plastic table and another empty, gray, plastic chair, waiting for Gerardo Hernandez in the visiting room of the maximum-security federal pen in Victorville, California. Next to me, in similar seating arrangements, a middle-aged black man speaks to a woman, presumably his wife; other black men talk to their spouses. Two kids run from the “children’s room” to their Dad to get a caress.

Four guards chatter and observe the visitors and inmates. No contraband must be exchanged and no “excess touching.”

Gerardo emerges, reports to the guards. We hug. Gerardo talks about ideas to force the National Security Agency to release its vectored map of the Feb 24, 1996, shoot down of two Brothers to he Rescue planes by Cuban MIGs. The government charged Gerardo with conspiring to commit murder because he allegedly – the government offered no evidence – passed the flight information to Cuban authorities knowing they would shoot the planes down (how would a Miami-based agent know of high level decisions in Havana?).

The Cubans maintain the MIGs fired their rockets at the intruding planes over Cuban air space. U.S. authorities insist it happened over international airspace. If the NSA map sustains Cuba’s claim then Gerardo, who purportedly delivered the date and time of the fatal flights to Cuban authorities, committed no crime. The prosecutors offered no proof that Gerardo delivered this information. Hollywood would portray the Miami courtroom scene with the prosecutor telling the jury: “I don’t got to show you no stinkin’ proof.”

Indeed, Gerardo’s defense lawyer showed that Basulto, the head of Brothers to the Rescue, had already announced the date of the flights, and several U.S. officials also knew of his plan. The FAA had even advised Cuban authorities of the impending flights. Facts don’t matter when a jury and judge understand that a “wrong” decision could result in their houses getting burned down.

The NSA refused defense attorneys’ subpoenas to deliver their vectored maps during the trial and appeals: “National Security,” the two deadly words not found in the Constitution or the Bible, constituted their reason (excuse) for not delivering the documents. What could force the NSA to comply? We had no answers, but the question will linger.

Other questions still bothered me. What had motivated the FBI to arrest him and his fellow Cuban agents? After all the Cuban agents had fed the Bureau juicy morsels related to terrorist activities, including the location of a boat on the Miami River loaded with explosives. The FBI commandeered the boat before it sailed for Cuba – or blew up in Miami.

“Hector Pesquera,” replied Gerardo. He became the Agent in Charge of the Miami Bureau and immediately focused his attention away from the terrorists and onto the anti-terrorists. After the jury handed down guilty verdicts at the trial of the Cuban Five, Pesquera proudly boasted to a Miami radio station that “he was the one who switched his agents’ focus from spying on the spies to filing charges against them.” (See, Stephen Kimber, “What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five”, an e-book from Amazon)

Indeed, Pesquera persuaded Justice officials to refocus attention from exile terrorists in South Florida and onto the Cuban intelligence agents who had penetrated the terrorist groups. The case ‘never would have made it to court’ if he hadn’t lobbied FBI Director Louis Freeh directly.” (Kimber, p. 286)

Ann Bardach reinforced the view of Pesquera’s key role in turning the FBI from investigating terrorists to investigating anti-terrorists. Bardach and Larry Rohter wrote two stories in the New York Times in July 1998, in which Posada Carriles, a notorious Cuban-American terrorist admits his mastermind role in a series of bombings in Cuba to discourage foreign tourism. One of these bombing killed a young Italian tourist whose father is suing the United States for sponsoring terrorism.

Bardach told me about her surprise when Pesquera answered her question on Posada by saying “lots of folks around here think Posada is a freedom fighter.” Pesquera, friendly with ultra right exiles, terminated the investigation of Posada, and shredded his file. Even as Pesquera focused the FBI on destroying the Cuban agents web, thus reducing the Bureau’s information supply on terrorism, 14 of the 19 participants in the 9/11 attacks trained in the area without FBI scrutiny. Pesquera seemingly escaped scrutiny for his apparent lapse. (“Trabajadores,” May 22, 2005)

Gerardo and I switched subjects to Alan Gross’ interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. Gross, convicted in Cuba of activities designed to undermine the government, which AP reporter Desmond Butler documented, whined about his life in prison, the food, his window had bars on it and he had only been able to receive visits from U.S. Senators, Members of the House, Foreign Presidents, religious groups and a day with his wife. He complained conditions in the Havana military hospital were downright prison-like.

Worse, ignoring Desmond Butler’s reporting and former National Security Council official Fulton Armstrong’s devastating op ed in the Miami Herald (Dec. 25, 2011), he proclaimed his innocence, insisting he only wanted to help the Jewish community get better internet access. For this he smuggled in equipment (documented by Butler) and got paid almost $600,000 from a company contracted by USAID. And Blitzer, who should win the journalism award for best stenographer, didn’t ask him about any of the facts Butler and Armstrong had raised.

We hugged goodbye. Gerardo raised a triumphant fist before returning to his cell. I walked into the dry desert wind, to the car and the road, down 5,000 feet and 40 miles to the Ontario, California airport with a chance to think about justice and injustice, again.

Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow. His WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP and FIDEL are available from cinemalibrestudio.com

Adriana Pérez O'Connor. Photo: Along the Malecon

Adriana Perez O’Connor has spent 14 years without seeing her husband, Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cuban Five imprisoned in the United States for conspiracy to commit espionage, and hope that the international pressure forces U.S. President Barack Obama to adopt a measure that enables them to meet again.

“The solution is now in Obama’s hands,” the EFE news agency reported a statement spoken by Pérez O’Connor, who is in Geneva to talk with officials from different UN agencies in order to increase pressures on Washington, which according to the Cuban government and their relatives is viewed as a politically biased case.

Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Rene Gonzalez were convicted to different sentences by a court in Florida in 2001 for conspiracy and operating as foreign agents without notifying the U.S. government.

They integrated the “Avispa” (Wasp) spy ring, which was dismantled three years ago in South Florida, and acknowledged at the trial that they were agents of the Cuban government, but they were not spying on U.S., but on “exile terrorist groups” plotting against Cuba.

Only one of them is now on the streets. This is Rene Gonzalez, who was released from prison in October after serving 13 years, but may not return to Cuba until 2014, after finishing a three-year probation.

The penalty was strongest for Hernandez, sentenced to two life sentences and 15 years of imprisonment after a trial, which according to various international bodies and NGOs did not contain basic guarantees.

The demands of the Cuban government and their families reached the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which urged Washington in 2005 to provide a solution to the Cuban Five case, whose situation have been supported, among others, by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and 10 Nobel Peace laureates.

According to Pérez O’Connor, thanks to the international pressure in the recent 14 years, the perception on the case has been successfully changed, after remembering that at first no one would listen because it was globally accepted the fact that they had been surprised while spying on the U.S., thus the sentences were fair.

In this regard, “the battle of truth” has been won, but not the struggle through legal means, the only way to release their relatives or at least allow U.S. authorities to ease regulations related to the visits, she said.

The U.S. authorities has repeatedly denied Perez O’Connor a visa to travel to this country and visit her husband in jail, and she has no hope that the situation would change.

“We have exhausted all legal resources. We could neither managed to get our visa nor systematize regular visits by relatives, which is a right for prisoners,” said Hernandez’s wife, who maintains contact with her husband through “reviewed and censored” letters, and phone talks “that can not last more than fifteen minutes,” she added.

The “Five” families assume that there is no going back in the U.S. courts and have chosen to “influence Obama, who is also a Nobel Peace laureate, to put an end to this injustice.”

“We know that the U.S. administration is not going to make a spontaneous and voluntary decision. It has to be under international scrutiny, under the requirement of all the people able to transmit to this government an interest on such case, which damages the U.S. image, “she said.

“It has been nearly 14 years since they were imprisoned -continued Perez O’Connor- so it is time enough to make a gesture.”

Adriana Pérez O’Connor, 42, has not seen her husband face to face since she was 28, a time that she is aware that they would not recover, but on which she does not think because what matters is “fighting with conviction that we are going to have them back.”

She met Gerardo Hernandez at the university and said that, despite the distance, still maintains the same complicity with him and share the same plans for the future, a word she rarely uses.

She thought many times about the reunion with her husband, but would rather not talk about it and let the moment take shape by itself when it comes, “what I think of it I keep it to myself.”

Taken from www.cubadebate.cu
Translated by Osmany Gonzalez Tocabens

http://en.cubadebate.cu/?p=2410 By Danny Glover and Saul Landau

(Progreso Weekly)

2:30 PM – Departure time, the most excruciating part of visiting Gerardo Hernandez. A prison guard announced: “Visiting hours are over.” Gerardo lined up against the wall with the other inmates. We stood with wives, children and mothers. Finally, the electronically controlled, heavy metal door opened. Gerardo held up a triumphant fist. We did the same. He stayed in Hell (13 years now). We left.

We drove from the Victorville Penitentiary to the Ontario California airport, discussing the absurdity of five Cubans (one on precarious parole) who helped the United States fight terrorism but remain locked in federal penitentiaries while Luis Posada Carriles, who orchestrated the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane (73 died), dines in Miami’s finest restaurants? In between visits to his proctologist Posada and fellow geezers continue plotting anti-Cuba violence.

Miami Federal Court judges will decide on Gerardo’s appeal, which presents new facts and evidence: Gerardo’s trial lawyer now admits he inadequately represented him; new documents show payment by the U.S. government to Miami-based “journalists” who offered negative stories about the accused Cubans, thus tainting the trial atmosphere. Finally, the U.S. government has still refused to deliver its “secret” map showing the exact point where on February 24, 1996, Cuban MIGs shot down two Brothers to the Rescue airplanes. The Cubans claim the incidents occurred over Cuban airspace, i.e., no crime took place. Washington insisted the planes got hit in international air space, but the NSA said they could not release their crucial diagram: “national security.” Gerardo played no part in the drama – no matter where the shoot down occurred.

We agreed U.S. Cuba policy bordered on the absurd. For example, the State Department placed Cuba on its terrorist list although the U.S. has made Cuba a victim of terrorist attacks; Cuba has not reciprocated. But Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued: “The United States should not negotiate with a state sponsor of terrorism.”

This related to her objection to any U.S. humanitarian approach to get Alan Gross released. Convicted in Cuba for activities related to a USAID regime change policy, Gross must either serve his fifteen year sentence or wait until the U.S. military “liberates” the island. Ros-Lehtinen called on people to assassinate Fidel Castro (see Landau’s WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP).

This rhetoric hardly serves Gross’ interests. Thanks to Ileana he might stay in prison until age 75. He misses his family, as do the Cubans in U.S. prisons. Like Alan, they also have close relatives with serious illnesses. When my mother died in 2009, “I wasn’t in Cuba to bury her.”

Gerardo told us he and Adriana, now 42, want children. So does another member of the five, Fernando Gonzalez and his wife. The U.S. denies visas to their wives. Time is running out. Gerardo’s face showed a flash of anguish.

The Five’s cause gets little publicity. Not so the case of Alan Gross, an American contractor sentenced to 15 years in Cuba for activities designed to undermine Cuba’s government. The Gross and Cuban Five cases, however, are different. Gerardo received two consecutive life sentences plus fifteen years for conspiring to co