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{{Short description|Group of Cuban intelligence officers who were arrested and imprisoned in Miami by U.S. authorities}}
{{articleissues|disputed=August 2008|POV=August 2008}} {{Citations broken|section|date=August 2008}}
{{Redirect|Wasp Network|the film|Wasp Network (film)}}
The '''Cuban Five''' ('''Gerardo Hernández''', '''Antonio Guerrero''', '''Ramón Labañino''', '''Fernando González''', and '''René González''') are five ]n nationals ] of ], ] to commit ], and other illegal activities in the ]. Although the ] declared they did not have a ], <ref>http://www.iacenter.org/cuba/cuban5-0206/</ref>all five are currently serving prison terms in the United States.
{{Unreliable sources|date=October 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2016}}
], ], calling for the release of the Cuban Five in 2007|357x357px]]
The '''Cuban Five''', also known as the '''Miami Five''',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/miami-five-wives-again-denied-visas-visit-husbands-20090326 |title=Miami Five wives again denied visas to visit their husbands |publisher=] |date=26 March 2009 |access-date=May 1, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111205210338/http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/miami-five-wives-again-denied-visas-visit-husbands-20090326 |archive-date=December 5, 2011}}</ref> are five ]n intelligence officers ('''Gerardo Hernández''', '''Antonio Guerrero''', '''Ramón Labañino''', '''Fernando González''', and '''René González''') who were arrested in September 1998 and later ] in ], Florida of ] to commit ], conspiracy to commit ], acting as an ], and other illegal activities in the ].<ref name="gu-2001-03-06">{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,447054,00.html |title=The agents who were too tired to spy |newspaper=The Guardian |date=6 March 2001}}</ref> The Five were in the U.S. to observe and infiltrate the ] groups ], the F4 Commandos, the ], and ].<ref name="call">June 4, 2008, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, . {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120221233845/http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200117176.opn3.pdf |date=February 21, 2012}}</ref> They were part of {{lang|es|La Red Avispa}} ({{literally|The Wasp Network}}) composed of at least 27 Cuban spies.<ref name="gu-2001-03-06" />

The Cuban government acknowledged that the five were intelligence agents in 2001, after denying it for three years. It said they were spying on Miami's Cuban exile community, not the U.S. government.<ref name="IHT">{{cite news |url=http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=361417&CategoryId=14510 |title=Havana Complains About Conditions for Cuban Spy in U.S. Jail |work=International Herald Tribune |date=August 4, 2010 |access-date=August 4, 2010 |archive-date=December 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201211114410/http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=361417&CategoryId=14510 | url-status=dead}}</ref> Cuba says that the men were sent to South Florida in the wake of several terrorist bombings in ] organized by ] terrorist ], a former ] operative.<ref name="IHT" /><ref>{{cite news |first=Duncan |last=Campbell |date=2008-01-09 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/09/cuba.usa |newspaper=The Guardian |title='Society has become more punitive'}}</ref>

The Five appealed their convictions, and concerns about the fairness of their trial received international attention.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Pat |last=Denny |magazine=Green Left Online |url=https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/united-states-cuban-five-ruling-travesty-justice |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071204010107/http://www.greenleft.org.au/2006/680/7868 |archive-date=2007-12-04 |title=United States: Cuban Five ruling a "travesty of justice" |issue=680 |date=1993-11-17}}</ref> A three-judge panel of the ] in Atlanta overturned their convictions in 2005, citing the "prejudices" of Miami's anti-Castro Cubans, but the full court later denied the five's bid for a new trial and reinstated the original convictions.<ref name="IHT" /> In June 2009 the ] declined to review the case.<ref name="reuters150609" /> In Cuba, the Five are viewed as ] and portrayed as having sacrificed their liberty in the defense of their country.<ref>{{cite news |first=Manuel |last=Roig-Franzia |newspaper=] |date=June 3, 2006 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201780.html |title=Cubans Jailed in US as Spies Are Hailed at Home as Heroes |access-date=August 26, 2017 |archive-date=July 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714061612/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201780.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

René González was released from prison on October 7, 2011, having completed thirteen years of his sentence, with three years of probation in the U.S. remaining.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-agent-idUSTRE7962A020111007 |work=Reuters |title=Cuban spy free from Florida jail but must stay in U.S |date=October 7, 2011 |access-date=July 5, 2021 |archive-date=May 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518213457/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-agent-idUSTRE7962A020111007 |url-status=live }}</ref> He was allowed to return to Cuba for his father's funeral on April 22, 2013, and a federal judge allowed him to stay there provided that he ].<ref name="Cave">{{cite news |last=Cave |first=Damien |title=Judge Says Cuban Who Spied on U.S. Can Stay in Cuba |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/world/americas/judge-allows-rene-gonzalez-one-of-cuban-five-spies-to-stay-in-cuba.html |access-date=May 4, 2013 |newspaper=] |date=May 3, 2013 |archive-date=May 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130505104325/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/world/americas/judge-allows-rene-gonzalez-one-of-cuban-five-spies-to-stay-in-cuba.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Fernando González was released on February 27, 2014.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/cuban-spy-release-us-prison-22693347 |title=U.S. News - National News |work=ABC News |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227152702/https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/cuban-spy-release-us-prison-22693347 |archive-date=February 27, 2014}}</ref> The remaining members were released on December 17, 2014, in a ] with Cuba for an American intelligence officer, identified by a senior American as ].<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929194047/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/journey-to-rapprochement-visited-worlds-of-presidents-popes-and-spies.html |date=September 29, 2023 }}, ''The New York Times'', December 17, 2014</ref> The exchange of prisoners coincided with Cuba's release of American contractor ], although the governments characterized the release of Gross as being unrelated to the prisoner exchange. The release of the Cuban Five was broadly part of a temporary easing of ], known as the ].<ref name="Labott">{{cite news |first=Elise |last=Labott |url=http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/17/politics/cuba-alan-gross-deal |access-date=2022-08-27 |title=Cuba releases American Alan Gross, paves way for historic easing of American sanctions |work=CNN |date=December 17, 2014 |archive-date=December 20, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220104405/http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/17/politics/cuba-alan-gross-deal |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Background==
In 1960s and 1970s, there were several attacks against Cuban civilians by U.S.-based exile groups such as ] (CORU), ], and ]. In a 2001 report by Cuba's Permanent Mission to the ], the Cuban government cataloged 3,478 deaths as a result of "terrorism", "aggression", "acts of piracy and other actions".<ref>{{cite web |website=Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations |date=2001 |language=es |url=http://embacuba.cubaminrex.cu/Default.aspx?tabid=4180 |title=Informe de Cuba al Comité Antiterrorismo del Consejo de Seguridad en virtud de la Resolución 1373(2001) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070623055346/http://embacuba.cubaminrex.cu/Default.aspx?tabid=4180 |archive-date=June 23, 2007 }}</ref> The events cited span the course of four decades and pertain to attacks such as the bombing of ] by men trained by the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA-supported ], and the ] between the government and ] rebels in the ] (see also ]). As a result, the Cuban government had long sought to combat these groups. Their efforts include the use of spies sent to operate in the U.S.<ref name=reuters040608/> The ] (FBI) and other U.S. organizations had been monitoring the activities of Cuban spy suspects for more than 30 years.<ref name=MH20901/>

==History==

===Activities===
The "Cuban Five" were ] officers who were part of "La Red Avispa", or Wasp Network, which the FBI dismantled with 10 arrests in 1998.<ref name=MH140901>{{cite news |first=Gail Epstein |last=Nieves |newspaper=The Miami Herald |date=September 14, 2001 |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/marisol-gari.htm |title=Lawyer: Accused spy to plead guilty |access-date=April 21, 2007 |archive-date=October 13, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061013170246/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/marisol-gari.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The court found that they had infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization that flew small aircraft over the Florida straits in efforts to rescue rafters fleeing Cuba, and had on some flights intentionally violated Cuban airspace and dropped leaflets.<ref name=call/> On February 24, 1996, ] in international airspace while flying away from Cuban airspace, killing four U.S. citizens aboard.<ref name=call/>

The U.S. government also accused the remaining four of lying about their identities and sending 2,000 pages of unclassified information obtained from U.S. military bases to Cuba. The network received clandestine communications from Cuba via the Cuban ''Atención'' ].<ref name="MNT">{{cite news |url=http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2001-02-08/kulchur.html |date=8 February 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010221161138/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2001-02-08/kulchur.html |archive-date=21 February 2001 |title=Espionage Is in the Air |first=Brett |last=Sokol |work=Miami New Times}}</ref>

U.S. government organizations, including the FBI, had been monitoring Cuban spy activities for over 30 years, but made only occasional arrests.<ref name=MH20901/> However, after the two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft were shot down by Cuban ]s in February 1996 and four U.S. citizens were killed, on the basis of information sent to Cuba by an infiltrator of the group, the ] launched a crackdown.<ref name=MH20901>{{cite news |newspaper=The Miami Herald |date=September 2, 2001 |url=http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y01/sep01/03e5.htm |title=Couple accused of reporting to two Cuban spies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927005557/http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y01/sep01/03e5.htm |archive-date=September 27, 2007 }}</ref> According to U.S. attorney José Pertierra, who acts for the ] in its attempts to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, the crackdown was aided by the cooperation of the Cuban authorities with the FBI in 1997. The Cubans provided 175 pages of documents to FBI agents investigating Posada Carriles's role in the ], but the FBI failed to use the evidence to follow up on Posada. Instead, they used it to uncover the spy network that included the Cuban Five.<ref>{{cite news |agency=] |date=May 3, 2007 |url=http://rawstory.com/news/afp/FBI_probes_Cuban_s_possible_links_t_05032007.html |work=RawStory |title=FBI probes Cuban's possible links to 1997 Havana bombing: report}} {{Dead link|date=June 2016}}</ref>{{Additional citation needed|date=August 2022|reason=Cannot find another AFP-based article on ProQuest, or any similar story using these quotes from Pertierra to verify this sentence as is. RawStory archives possibly accessible by subscription. The info (documents and Pertierra's outrage) isn't that important.}} He was not arrested until 1998.

At least two of the agents formed romantic relationships during their deployments.<ref name="gu-2001-03-06"/> One married an American woman, while another proposed during a relationship that lasted at least a decade.<ref name="gu-2001-03-06"/> After the agents were exposed, the spouse in the first case sued the Cuban government for rape on the basis that sexual intercourse had been procured by fraud.<ref name="gu-2001-03-06"/>


==Arrests, convictions and sentences== ==Arrests, convictions and sentences==
All five were arrested in Miami on September 12, 1998 and were ] by the U.S. government on 25 counts, including charges of ] and conspiracy to commit espionage. Seven months later, Gerardo Hernández was indicted for conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shoot-down of the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft.{{cn|date=December 2021}}
The Cuban Five were arrested as part of a group of alleged spies known as the "Wasp Network." One member of the Five, Gerardo Hernández, infiltrated ], which is regarded by Cuba as a ] group, and, according to the ], sent information back to Cuba that led to two civilian planes being shot down. The U.S. also accused the remaining four of lying about their identities, trying to infiltrate the ] headquarters in West Miami-Dade using other agents , and sending 2,000 pages of ] obtained from military bases to Cuba. The network received clandestine communications from Cuba via the ].


The trial began in November 2000 in the ] in Miami and lasted seven months. In June 2001, the jury returned verdicts of guilty on all counts, including the charge of first-degree murder against Hernández.{{cn|date=December 2021}}
All five were arrested in ], on September 12, 1998 and were ] by the U.S. government on 26 different counts, including charges of ], espionage and conspiracy to commit murder.


In December 2001, the members of the group were sentenced to prison terms: two ] for Hernández, to be served consecutively; life for Guerrero and Labañino; 19 years for Fernando González; and 15 years for René González. In addition, the prosecution sought the post-release deportation of the three Cuban-born members, and for the two US-born members, a post-release sentence of "incapacitation", imposing specific restrictions on them after their release, which would be enforced by the FBI. The restrictions would prohibit them from "associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists, members of organizations advocating violence, and organized crime figures are known to be or frequent."{{cn|date=December 2021}}
After the arrests, motions by the defense for a ] were refused. The jury did not include any ]s but 16 of the 160 members of the jury pool "knew the victims of the shootdown or knew trial witnesses who had flown with them."


In 2011, ] reported some of the people associated with this group were imprisoned in a ], a section within a federal prison that restricts and monitors all external communications.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/03/03/134227726/data-graphics-population-of-the-communications-management-units |title=DATA & Graphics: Population of The Communications Management Units |first1=Margot |last1=Williams |first2=Alyson |last2=Hurt |publisher=] |date=March 3, 2011 |access-date=March 4, 2011 |archive-date=March 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307093207/http://www.npr.org/2011/03/03/134227726/data-graphics-population-of-the-communications-management-units |url-status=live }}</ref>
They spent almost three years in ] between their arrest and the beginning of their trial. The five spent 17 months in ]. The trial went on for seven months and ] deliberations lasted four days.


=== Appeals ===
In June 2001, the Five were convicted of all 26 counts in the ] in Miami. In December 2001, the members of the group was sentenced to varying prison terms: Two ] for Hernández, to be served consecutively; life for Guerrero and Labañino; 19 years for Fernando Gonzáles; and 15 years for René Gonzáles.
], Cuba]]
After the arrests, motions by the defense for a ], on the basis that Miami was a venue too associated with exile Cubans, were denied, despite the fact that the trial began just five months after the heated ].<ref>{{cite news |first=Warren |last=Richey |newspaper=] |date=June 15, 2009 |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0615/p02s01-usju.html |access-date=2022-08-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026033606/https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2009/0615/p02s01-usju.html |archive-date=2012-10-26 |title=Convicted 'Cuban Five' spies lose bid for new trial}}</ref> The jury did not include any Cuban-Americans but 16 of the 160 members of the jury pool "knew the victims of the shootdown or knew trial witnesses who had flown with them."<ref name=reuters090805>{{cite news |first=Jane |last=Sutton |agency=Reuters |date=August 9, 2005 |url=http://www.nowaroncuba.org/Documentation/Cuban_5/Reuters/newsArticle.html |access-date=2022-08-27 |title=U.S. court reverses Cubans' spying convictions |archive-date=September 29, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929004020/http://www.nowaroncuba.org/Documentation/Cuban_5/Reuters/newsArticle.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On August 9, 2005, a three-judge panel of the ] in ] unanimously overturned the convictions and sentences of the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial outside Miami, saying that the ] and the trial publicity made the trial unfavorable and prejudicial to the defendants.<ref name=reuters090805/> This was the first time a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court's finding with respect to venue.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Julie |last=Webb-Pullman |magazine=Green Left Online |date=August 24, 2005 |url=https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/united-states-cuban-five-convictions-reversed-landmark-decision |access-date=2022-08-27 |url-status=live |title=United States: Cuban Five convictions reversed in landmark decision |issue=639 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120803090642/http://www.greenleft.org.au/2005/639/33991 |archive-date=August 3, 2012 }}</ref> However, on October 31, 2005 the Atlanta court agreed to a U.S. government request to review the decision, and in August 2006 the ruling for a new trial was reversed by a 10–2 vote of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal sitting '']''. ] wrote the opinion of the majority.


On June 4, 2008, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of the "Five" but ] and ]ed for resentencing in ] the sentences of Guerrero, Labañino, and Fernando González. The court affirmed the sentences of Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez.<ref name=call/><ref name=reuters040608>{{cite news |work=Reuters |date=June 4, 2008 |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN04314945 |title=U.S. court upholds conviction of Cuban spies |access-date=June 30, 2017 |archive-date=September 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200912195728/https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN04314945 |url-status=live }}</ref> The court held that the sentencing judge had made six serious errors and remanded the case back to the same court. The decision was drawn up by ].<ref>{{cite web |first=Leonard |last=Weinglass |website=Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal |date=September 23, 2008 |url=http://links.org.au/node/646 |access-date=2022-08-27 |title=Chronicle of an injustice: Summary of the case of the Cuban Five |archive-date=December 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211175816/http://links.org.au/node/646 |url-status=live }}</ref> In January 2009, the Five appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.<ref>{{cite news |first=Circles |last=Robinson |newspaper=Havana Times |date=January 31, 2009 |url=https://havanatimes.org/opinion/cuban-5-case-to-us-supreme-court/ |access-date=2022-08-27 |title=Cuban 5 Case at US Supreme Court |type=Op-ed |archive-date=August 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827203559/https://havanatimes.org/opinion/cuban-5-case-to-us-supreme-court/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Twelve ] briefs were filed.<ref>{{cite press release |via=Scoop |publisher=NZ Committee to Free the Cuban Five |date=April 6, 2009 |url=http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0904/S00060.htm |access-date=2022-08-27 |title=US Embassy Refuses Letter From MPs. Crs. Unionists |archive-date=May 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510051839/http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0904/S00060.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
On August 9, 2005, a three-judge panel of the ] in ] unanimously overturned the convictions and sentences of the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial outside of Miami, saying that the ] and the trial publicity made the trial unfavorable and prejudicial to the defendants.<ref></ref> However, on October 31, 2005 the ruling for a new trial was reversed by a 10-2 vote of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal sitting for an '']'' rehearing. ] wrote the opinion of the majority.


In May 2009, in response to the request for ] review of the panel decision by Judge Pryor, ] ], on behalf of President ], filed a brief asking that the petition for a writ of ] be denied.<ref>{{cite report |author=Office of the Solicitor General |title=Brief for the United States in Opposition |publisher=Supreme Court of the United States |date=May 2009 |docket=08-987 |url=https://www.justice.gov/osg/brief/campa-v-united-states-opposition |access-date=2022-08-27 |postscript=, |archive-date=August 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827175031/https://www.justice.gov/osg/brief/campa-v-united-states-opposition |url-status=live }} in {{cite court |litigants=Campa et al. v. U.S. |vol=459 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=1121 |court=11th Cir. |date=2006}}.</ref> On June 15, 2009, the Supreme Court denied review.<ref name=reuters150609>{{cite news |work=Reuters |date=June 15, 2009 |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE55E3VD20090615 |title=Top court won't review case of five Cuban spies |access-date=June 30, 2017 |archive-date=September 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200912195732/https://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE55E3VD20090615 |url-status=live }}</ref>
On June 4, 2008, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of the Five but ] and ]ed for resentencing in ] the sentences of
Guerrero, Labañino, and Fernando González. The court affirmed the sentences of Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez.


On October 13, 2009, Antonio Guerrero's sentence was reduced to 21 years and 10 months.<ref>{{cite news | publisher = Reuters | access-date = February 19, 2016 | url = https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE59C4X120091013 | title = U.S. jail term reduced to about 22 years | first = Tom | last = Brown | date = October 13, 2009 | archive-date = September 12, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200912193059/https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE59C4X120091013 | url-status = live }}</ref> On December 8, 2009, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González's sentences were reduced to 30 years and to 17 years and 9 months, respectively.<ref>{{cite news | access-date = February 19, 2016 | date = December 8, 2009 | publisher = Reuters | url = http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B759220091209 | title = Judge reduces sentences of two Cuban spies | archive-date = February 24, 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160224150039/http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B759220091209 | url-status = live }}</ref>
==Exile views on the convictions==
Some Cuban exiles, amongst them the family members of the downed Brothers fliers, <ref></ref>, and ], a suspected airline bomber<ref></ref>, view the process that led to the convictions as fair and impartial, and thus support the convictions. <ref></ref> Still other Cuban exiles believe that it is hypocritical for the Cuban government, a government which has engaged in numerous ]s and ]s, tolerates "actos de repudio" ("acts of repudiation") in which citizens attack other citizens and which many international groups criticize for lack of a fair judicial process, to be criticizing the judicial system of the United States. <ref> </ref>


==== Plans for appeal ====
==Cuban government's criticism of the convictions==
Cuban Five defense lawyer ] died on March 23, 2011. Following his death, civil rights lawyer ] took over the case.<ref>{{cite speech |last=Garbus |first=Martin |event=Free the Cuban Five forum at the Howard University School of Law |publisher=National Committee to Free the Cuban Five |date=2012-11-13 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SVJE122GOc |title=The Cuban Five: Justice or Injustice? |via=YouTube |access-date=February 11, 2013 <!--audio, photos, etc. at http://www.freethefive.org/resourcesaudio.htm (in case YT video is removed)-->}}</ref> On June 13, 2012, Garbus held a press conference where he revealed a new strategy based upon proof that the United States government had paid numerous reporters and press outlets to create media pressure on the jurors to convict.<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://july26coalition.org/wordpress/martin-garbus-speaks-new-motion-five%E2%80%8F/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305040935/http://july26coalition.org/wordpress/martin-garbus-speaks-new-motion-five%E2%80%8F/ |publisher=National Committee To Free The Cuban Five |date=2012-06-13 |via=July 26th Coalition |archive-date=2016-03-05 |title=Martin Garbus speaks on new motion for the Five |access-date=2013-02-11 <!--audio, photos, etc. linked at http://www.freethefive.org/resourcesaudio.htm-->}}</ref>
].]]
The arrest and conviction incited an uproar from the ] and sympathetic groups. The five convicted men claim that they were in Miami to monitor ] ] groups operating out of that city, which they claim were engaging in ] activities against Cuba, although anti-Castro supporters claim there has been no proof and/or conviction that those under surveillance by the spy network (ie. Brothers to the Rescue pilots; the Elian Gonzalez family, and other civic Cuban exile groups) have committed or have been involved in terrorist plots or acts {{Fact|date=January 2009}}.


===International criticism of the convictions, and U.S. response===
Defenders of the Cuban Five claim that their actions are justified on the grounds that acts of terrorism against Cuba were carried out by exile groups such as ], ], and ] during the 1960s and 1970s with impunity.


{{quote box|align=right|width=33%|quote = Holding a trial for five Cuban intelligence agents in Miami is about as fair as a trial for an Israeli intelligence agent in Tehran. You'd need a lot more than a good lawyer to be taken seriously.|source= —], President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser for Latin America<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-burk/obama-and-castro-sparring_b_529606.html |access-date=2022-08-27 |title=Obama and Castro: Sparring Over Human Rights |first=Martha |last=Burk |website=] Blog |date=May 25, 2011 |orig-date=April 7, 2010 |archive-date=June 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607052635/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-burk/obama-and-castro-sparring_b_529606.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}
In a 2001 report by Cuba's Permanent Mission to the ], the Cuban government cataloged 3,478 deaths as a result of "terrorism", "aggression", "acts of piracy and other actions". <ref></ref> The events cited span the course of four decades and pertain to attacks such as the bombing of ] by men trained by the ], as well as the CIA-supported ] and the ] between the government and ] rebels in the ] (see also ]). The frequency of these attacks has decreased in recent years.


Following their conviction, there was an international campaign for the case to be appealed. In the United States, the campaign was most conspicuously represented by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five<ref>{{cite news |first=Terje |last=Langeland |newspaper=] |date=April 10, 2003 |url=http://www.csindy.com/colorado/stinging-back/Content?oid=1118562 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319055628/http://www.csindy.com/colorado/stinging-back/Content?oid=1118562 |archive-date=2012-03-19 |title=Stinging Back: Antonio Guerrero claims he fought terrorism. John Ashcroft says he's a dangerous spy.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Walter |last=Putnam |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=] |date=June 4, 2008 |url=http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jun04/0,4670,CubaEspionage,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023125836/http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jun04/0,4670,CubaEspionage,00.html |archive-date=2012-10-23 |title=Court rules on sentences of 'Cuban 5'}}</ref> which was represented in twenty U.S. cities and over thirty countries.
==International criticism of the convictions==


On May 27, 2005, the ] adopted a report by its ] stating its opinions on the facts and circumstances of the case and calling upon the U.S. government to remedy the situation.<ref>, pp. 60–65. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926231335/http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/docs/62chr/E.CN.4.2006.7.Add.1.pdf |date=September 26, 2007 }}</ref> Among the report's criticisms of the trial and sentences, section 29 stated:
Since their conviction, there has been an international campaign for the case to be appealed. In the United States, the campaign is most conspicuously represented by the ] <ref></ref>, which is represented in fourteen cities. Other US groups, such as the ] have been known to campaign for the release of the Cuban Five.
{{quote|29. The Working Group notes that it arises from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a ] as defined in article 14 of the ], to which the United States of America is a party.}}


] criticized the U.S. treatment of the Cuban Five as "unnecessarily punitive and contrary both to standards for the humane treatment of prisoners and to states' obligation to protect family life", as the wives of René Gonzáles and Gerardo Hernández were denied ] to visit their imprisoned husbands.<ref>], January 26, 2006, {{cite web |url=http://www.antiterroristas.cu/lang/en/index.php?tpl%3D.%2Finterface.en%2Fdesign%2Freading%2Fbreaking-news.tpl.html%26aNews_lang%3Den%26aNews_obj_id%3D2461 |title=Five Cuban Prisoners – Antiterroristas.cu – Cuba vs Terrorism |access-date=June 5, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609103303/http://www.antiterroristas.cu/lang/en/index.php?tpl=.%2Finterface.en%2Fdesign%2Freading%2Fbreaking-news.tpl.html&aNews_lang=en&aNews_obj_id=2461 |archive-date=June 9, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
On 27 May 2005, the ] adopted a report by its ] stating its opinions on the facts and circumstances of the case and calling upon the US government to remedy the situation.<ref>, pages 60-65</ref> Among the report's criticisms of the trial and sentences, section 29 states:<blockquote>29. The Working Group notes that it arises from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a ] as defined in article 14 of the ], to which the United States of America is a party.</blockquote>


The U.S. Government has responded to these claims,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2007/07/20070712120209atlahtnevel0.7962915.html#axzz2lDrfq8td|title=The "Cuban Five"|work=IIP Digital|publisher= United States Department of State|date=July 12, 2007|access-date= November 20, 2013}}</ref> stating that the prisoners have received over a hundred visits from family members granted visas. The government contends that the wives of González and Hernández are members of the Cuban Intelligence Directorate, and thus pose a risk to the ] of the United States:
] criticizes the US treatment of the Cuban Five as ] violations, as the wives of René Gonzáles and Gerardo Hernández have not been allowed ] to visit their imprisoned husbands. <ref></ref>
Furthermore, Amnesty International has declared, in a 2006 open letter to the ], that they are following closely the status of the ongoing appeals of the five men of numerous issues challenging the fairness of the trial which have not yet been addressed by the appeal courts. <ref></ref>


{{quote|Consistent with the right of the United States to protect itself from covert spies, the U.S. government has not granted visas to the wives of two prisoners. Evidence presented at their husbands' trial revealed that one of these women was a member of the Wasp Network who was deported for engaging in activity related to espionage and is ineligible to return to the United States. The other was a candidate for training as a Directorate of Intelligence U.S.-based spy when U.S. authorities broke up the network.}}
Eight international ] winners have written and sent a document to the ] calling for freedom for the Cuban Five, signed by ] (], 2000), ] (], 1984), ] (], 1991), ] (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992), ] (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980), ] (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986), ] (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1996), ] (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999). <ref> </ref>


], Cuba]]
In the ], among other actions, 110 MPs wrote an open letter to the US Attorney General in support of the Five. <ref></ref>Six other wrote to ] calling on the ] to apply pressure on the US to act against terrorists in ] and to release the Five immediately. {{Fact|date=January 2008}} Blair declined to do so.


Eight international ] winners filed an amicus brief with the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five in 2009.<ref>{{cite news |last=Mears |first=Bill |location=Washington, D.C. |newspaper=] |date=January 30, 2009 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/30/scotus.cuban.five/ |title='Cuban Five' file appeal with Supreme Court |access-date=October 14, 2009 |archive-date=May 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510050421/http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/30/scotus.cuban.five/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite report |url=http://www.freethefive.org/legalFront/amicusnobel.pdf |title=Brief of ''amici curiae'' Jose Ramos-Horta, Wole Soyinka, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Adine Gordimer, Rigoberta Menchu, Jose Saramago, Zhores Alferov, Dario Fo, Gunter Grass, and Mairead Corrigan Maguire in support of the petition for writ of certiorari |type=Amicus brief <!--lay-title=Amicus brief of Nobel Prize winners--> |publisher=Supreme Court of the United States |docket=08-987 |date=2009-03-05 |via=National Committee to Free the Cuban Five |postscript=, |access-date=October 14, 2009 |archive-date=May 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510071804/http://www.freethefive.org/legalFront/amicusnobel.pdf |url-status=live }} in {{cite court |litigants=Campa et al. v. U.S. |vol=459 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=1121 |court=11th Cir. |date=2006}}.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}


In the ], among other actions, 110 ] wrote an open letter to the U.S. Attorney General in support of the Five.<ref>{{cite web |website=] |date=December 8, 2007 |last=Hallmark |first=Stephen |title=Leonard Weinglass Interview |url=http://www.freethefive.org/updates/USMedia/USMWeinglassZNet120807.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080209001501/http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=60&ItemID=14461 |archive-date=2008-02-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |website=Cuba Solidarity Campaign |url=https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news/article/1044/barclays-bank-asks-cuban-outfits-to-close-accounts |title=Hilton Hotels and discrimination against Cuban Nationals |type=Briefing Paper |date=March 2007 |access-date=August 27, 2022 |archive-date=August 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827175033/https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news/article/1044/barclays-bank-asks-cuban-outfits-to-close-accounts |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |website=Antiterroristas.cu |via=Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations |date=February 9, 2006 |url=http://www.cubaminrex.cu/english/five%20of%20Portal/2006/Nobel%20prize%20winner.htm |title=Nobel prize winner and 110 British demand the Cuban Five's liberation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611102802/http://www.cubaminrex.cu/english/five%20of%20Portal/2006/Nobel%20prize%20winner.htm |archive-date=June 11, 2008 }}<!--orig source url (dead site, no archive): http://www.antiterroristas.cu/index.php?tpl=noticia/anew%ACiciaid=2471%ACiciafecha=2006-02-13 "Nobel prize winner and 110 British MPs demand the inmediate liberation of the Cuban Five" --></ref>
==External links==
{{portalpar|Cuba|Flag of Cuba.svg}}


In April 2009, a Brazilian human rights group, ], awarded the Five its ] Medal, alleging that their rights had been violated, declaring that "their mail is censored and their visiting rights are very restricted."<ref>''Associated Press'', April 5, 2009, .{{Dead link|date=June 2016}}</ref>
'''Articles on the activities of the Five'''
*
*


In 2011, Brazilian writer Fernando Morais wrote ''The Last Soldiers of the Cold War'', about the Cuban Five. The book is based on over 40 interviews and documents of the governments of United States and Cuba. Martin Garbus, the attorney representing the Cuban Five, has released a book about the case titled "North of Havana, The Untold Story of Dirty Politics, Secret Diplomacy, and the Trial of the Cuban Five".<ref>{{cite book |last=Garbus |first=Martin |title=North of Havana: The Untold Story of Dirty Politics, Secret Diplomacy, and the Trial of the Cuban Five |publisher=The New Press |date=2019 |isbn=978-1620974469}}</ref>
'''In defense of the Five'''
*
*
*
*
* &mdash; site run by the Cuban newspaper '']''
* &mdash; by Jim Carey
* &mdash; by ]
* &mdash; ]
* &mdash; and why they might have been justified.


===Release===
'''In defense of the verdict'''
René González was put on parole for three years starting 2011. He was allowed to return to Cuba for his father's funeral on April 22, 2013, with the understanding that he would return to Florida to fulfill his three years of probation, but on May 3 a federal judge ruled that he could remain in Cuba provided that he renounce his United States citizenship.<ref name="Cave"/>
*
*


In May 2012, it was reported that the U.S. had declined an exchange of prisoners proposed by the Cuban government, that would have seen the Cuban Five returned to Cuba in exchange for ] contractor ], imprisoned in Cuba for illegally distributing communications equipment.<ref>{{cite news |first=Circles |last=Robinson |url=http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=69843 |title=US Says NO to Alan Gross-Cuban 5 Swap |work=Havana Times |date=May 11, 2012 |access-date=February 18, 2016 |archive-date=January 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104123952/http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=69843 |url-status=live }}</ref> American officials did not consider Gross, whom they viewed as unjustly detained for a comparatively minor offense, equivalent to spies, one of whom had been convicted of murder.<ref name=secretive>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/americas/a-secretive-path-to-raising-us-flag-in-cuba.html | title=A Secretive Path to Raising U.S. Flag in Cuba | access-date=February 17, 2016 | work=The New York Times | date=August 13, 2015 | first1=Julie Hirschfield | last1=Davis | first2=Peter | last2=Baker | archive-date=March 20, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320170921/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/americas/a-secretive-path-to-raising-us-flag-in-cuba.html | url-status=live }}</ref>
'''Other news'''

* &mdash; '']'', June 2006.
Fernando González was released on February 27, 2014.<ref>{{cite news|title=Jailed Cuban spy Fernando Gonzalez freed from US prison|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26373687|access-date=February 18, 2016|work=BBC|date=February 27, 2014|archive-date=March 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312043045/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26373687|url-status=live}}</ref> He returned to Cuba and campaigned for the release of the remaining three.
* &mdash; '']'', February 1999.

* by Wilfredo Cancio Isla, ''El Nuevo Herald'', January 26, 2009
As secret negotiations toward an exchange of prisoners proceeded, U.S. Senator ], while on a trip to visit Gross in prison, met with Adriana Pérez O'Connor, whose husband Hernández was in prison for life. She asked him to arrange a way for her to become pregnant by her husband. Leahy made her case to U.S. officials, who arranged for Hernández to provide his sperm for ]. When Pérez became pregnant, officials negotiating the prisoner exchange worried that her pregnancy would make their dealings public before they were ready to announce a deal. Leahy reported that prison conditions for Gross improved after he had assisted Pérez and Hernández.<ref name=secretive/>
* -- aired on February 9 and 10, 2009, conducted by Radio Host, Reid Mullins.

*, a 2009 book that brings together 13 years of intensive research into the events of the shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue and the involvement of the Cuban Five, co-authored by Matt Lawrence and Thomas Van Hare; both authors are seen regularly in media interviews.
The prisoner exchange took place in December 2014 as part of a broader agreement to move toward the normalization of ].<ref name="swap">{{cite news|title=Cuba libera a Alan Gross y EE UU a los 3 espías|url=http://www.cubanet.org/noticias/cuba-libera-a-alan-gross-y-ee-uu-a-los-3-espias/|publisher=CubaNet|date=December 17, 2014|language=es}}</ref> In addition to the three remaining Cubans who were returned to Cuba, ], a Cuban who had worked as an agent for American intelligence until his arrest in November 1995 was returned to the United States. Sarraff was described as a key figure in Cuban intelligence, a cryptologist who provided the Central Intelligence Agency with information that helped the CIA arrest Cuban spies long after Sarraff's arrest and imprisonment.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/world/americas/cia-mole-now-out-of-prison-helped-us-identify-cuban-spies.html |title=Crucial Spy in Cuba Paid a Heavy Cold War Price |work=The New York Times |first1=Mark |last1=Mazzetti |first2=Michael S. |last2=Schmidt |first3=Frances |last3=Robles |date=December 18, 2014 |access-date=December 19, 2014 |archive-date=December 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218220301/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/world/americas/cia-mole-now-out-of-prison-helped-us-identify-cuban-spies.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-spy-freed-by-cuba-was-longtime-asset/2014/12/17/a3b374c4-8612-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html| title=U.S. spy freed by Cuba was longtime asset| newspaper=The Washington Post| date=December 18, 2014| first=Adam| last=Goldman| access-date=February 18, 2016| archive-date=March 5, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305194824/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-spy-freed-by-cuba-was-longtime-asset/2014/12/17/a3b374c4-8612-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html| url-status=live}}</ref> The exchange of prisoners coincided with Cuba's release of American contractor ], jailed in Cuba since December 2009, although both governments characterized the release of Gross as unrelated to the prisoner exchange.<ref name=Labott/>

==See also==
*]
*] – Cuban spy sentenced to a 25-year prison term in the United States
*] – other intelligence officers whose relationships with unsuspecting victims resulted in litigation

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|title=The perfect storm: the case of the Cuban Five|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_lKbdWKpahoC |year=2005|publisher=Editora Politica|isbn=9789590106774}}
* ''What lies across the water: the real story of the Cuban Five'', by Stephen Kimber, Fernwood: 2013 {{ISBN|9781552665428}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Cuban Five}}
*
* — site run by the Cuban newspaper '']''{{Dead link|date=June 2016}}
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140208060108/http://www.antiterroristas.cu/ |date=February 8, 2014 }} — on terrorism against Cuba, and on the Cuban Five
* by Tristram Korten and Kirk Nielsen, '']'', January 14, 2008
*. '']'' December 17, 2014.


{{Cuba-United States relations}} {{Cuba-United States relations}}
{{Portalbar|Cuba|United States}}


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Latest revision as of 21:53, 20 September 2024

Group of Cuban intelligence officers who were arrested and imprisoned in Miami by U.S. authorities "Wasp Network" redirects here. For the film, see Wasp Network (film).
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A poster in front of Plaza de la Revolución, Havana, calling for the release of the Cuban Five in 2007

The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five, are five Cuban intelligence officers (Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González) who were arrested in September 1998 and later convicted in Miami, Florida of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and other illegal activities in the United States. The Five were in the U.S. to observe and infiltrate the Cuban-American groups Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and Brothers to the Rescue. They were part of La Red Avispa (lit. 'The Wasp Network') composed of at least 27 Cuban spies.

The Cuban government acknowledged that the five were intelligence agents in 2001, after denying it for three years. It said they were spying on Miami's Cuban exile community, not the U.S. government. Cuba says that the men were sent to South Florida in the wake of several terrorist bombings in Havana organized by anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, a former Central Intelligence Agency operative.

The Five appealed their convictions, and concerns about the fairness of their trial received international attention. A three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned their convictions in 2005, citing the "prejudices" of Miami's anti-Castro Cubans, but the full court later denied the five's bid for a new trial and reinstated the original convictions. In June 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case. In Cuba, the Five are viewed as national heroes and portrayed as having sacrificed their liberty in the defense of their country.

René González was released from prison on October 7, 2011, having completed thirteen years of his sentence, with three years of probation in the U.S. remaining. He was allowed to return to Cuba for his father's funeral on April 22, 2013, and a federal judge allowed him to stay there provided that he renounce his U.S. citizenship. Fernando González was released on February 27, 2014. The remaining members were released on December 17, 2014, in a prisoner swap with Cuba for an American intelligence officer, identified by a senior American as Rolando Sarraff Trujillo. The exchange of prisoners coincided with Cuba's release of American contractor Alan Phillip Gross, although the governments characterized the release of Gross as being unrelated to the prisoner exchange. The release of the Cuban Five was broadly part of a temporary easing of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, known as the Cuban Thaw.

Background

In 1960s and 1970s, there were several attacks against Cuban civilians by U.S.-based exile groups such as Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), Alpha 66, and Omega 7. In a 2001 report by Cuba's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, the Cuban government cataloged 3,478 deaths as a result of "terrorism", "aggression", "acts of piracy and other actions". The events cited span the course of four decades and pertain to attacks such as the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 by men trained by the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA-supported Bay of Pigs invasion, and the Escambray Rebellion between the government and anti-communist rebels in the Escambray Mountains (see also Operation Mongoose). As a result, the Cuban government had long sought to combat these groups. Their efforts include the use of spies sent to operate in the U.S. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other U.S. organizations had been monitoring the activities of Cuban spy suspects for more than 30 years.

History

Activities

The "Cuban Five" were Cuban intelligence officers who were part of "La Red Avispa", or Wasp Network, which the FBI dismantled with 10 arrests in 1998.

The court found that they had infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization that flew small aircraft over the Florida straits in efforts to rescue rafters fleeing Cuba, and had on some flights intentionally violated Cuban airspace and dropped leaflets. On February 24, 1996, two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft were shot down by Cuban military jets in international airspace while flying away from Cuban airspace, killing four U.S. citizens aboard.

The U.S. government also accused the remaining four of lying about their identities and sending 2,000 pages of unclassified information obtained from U.S. military bases to Cuba. The network received clandestine communications from Cuba via the Cuban Atención numbers station.

U.S. government organizations, including the FBI, had been monitoring Cuban spy activities for over 30 years, but made only occasional arrests. However, after the two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft were shot down by Cuban MiGs in February 1996 and four U.S. citizens were killed, on the basis of information sent to Cuba by an infiltrator of the group, the Clinton administration launched a crackdown. According to U.S. attorney José Pertierra, who acts for the Venezuelan government in its attempts to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, the crackdown was aided by the cooperation of the Cuban authorities with the FBI in 1997. The Cubans provided 175 pages of documents to FBI agents investigating Posada Carriles's role in the 1997 bombings in Havana, but the FBI failed to use the evidence to follow up on Posada. Instead, they used it to uncover the spy network that included the Cuban Five. He was not arrested until 1998.

At least two of the agents formed romantic relationships during their deployments. One married an American woman, while another proposed during a relationship that lasted at least a decade. After the agents were exposed, the spouse in the first case sued the Cuban government for rape on the basis that sexual intercourse had been procured by fraud.

Arrests, convictions and sentences

All five were arrested in Miami on September 12, 1998 and were indicted by the U.S. government on 25 counts, including charges of false identification and conspiracy to commit espionage. Seven months later, Gerardo Hernández was indicted for conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shoot-down of the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft.

The trial began in November 2000 in the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami and lasted seven months. In June 2001, the jury returned verdicts of guilty on all counts, including the charge of first-degree murder against Hernández.

In December 2001, the members of the group were sentenced to prison terms: two life terms for Hernández, to be served consecutively; life for Guerrero and Labañino; 19 years for Fernando González; and 15 years for René González. In addition, the prosecution sought the post-release deportation of the three Cuban-born members, and for the two US-born members, a post-release sentence of "incapacitation", imposing specific restrictions on them after their release, which would be enforced by the FBI. The restrictions would prohibit them from "associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists, members of organizations advocating violence, and organized crime figures are known to be or frequent."

In 2011, NPR reported some of the people associated with this group were imprisoned in a Communication Management Unit, a section within a federal prison that restricts and monitors all external communications.

Appeals

Sign supporting the "Cuban Five" in Varadero, Cuba

After the arrests, motions by the defense for a change of venue, on the basis that Miami was a venue too associated with exile Cubans, were denied, despite the fact that the trial began just five months after the heated Elian Gonzalez affair. The jury did not include any Cuban-Americans but 16 of the 160 members of the jury pool "knew the victims of the shootdown or knew trial witnesses who had flown with them." On August 9, 2005, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta unanimously overturned the convictions and sentences of the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial outside Miami, saying that the Cuban exile community and the trial publicity made the trial unfavorable and prejudicial to the defendants. This was the first time a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court's finding with respect to venue. However, on October 31, 2005 the Atlanta court agreed to a U.S. government request to review the decision, and in August 2006 the ruling for a new trial was reversed by a 10–2 vote of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal sitting en banc. Charles R. Wilson wrote the opinion of the majority.

On June 4, 2008, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of the "Five" but vacated and remanded for resentencing in district court the sentences of Guerrero, Labañino, and Fernando González. The court affirmed the sentences of Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez. The court held that the sentencing judge had made six serious errors and remanded the case back to the same court. The decision was drawn up by William Pryor. In January 2009, the Five appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Twelve amicus curiae briefs were filed.

In May 2009, in response to the request for Supreme Court of the United States review of the panel decision by Judge Pryor, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, on behalf of President Barack Obama, filed a brief asking that the petition for a writ of certiorari be denied. On June 15, 2009, the Supreme Court denied review.

On October 13, 2009, Antonio Guerrero's sentence was reduced to 21 years and 10 months. On December 8, 2009, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González's sentences were reduced to 30 years and to 17 years and 9 months, respectively.

Plans for appeal

Cuban Five defense lawyer Leonard Weinglass died on March 23, 2011. Following his death, civil rights lawyer Martin Garbus took over the case. On June 13, 2012, Garbus held a press conference where he revealed a new strategy based upon proof that the United States government had paid numerous reporters and press outlets to create media pressure on the jurors to convict.

International criticism of the convictions, and U.S. response

Holding a trial for five Cuban intelligence agents in Miami is about as fair as a trial for an Israeli intelligence agent in Tehran. You'd need a lot more than a good lawyer to be taken seriously.

Robert Pastor, President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser for Latin America

Following their conviction, there was an international campaign for the case to be appealed. In the United States, the campaign was most conspicuously represented by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five which was represented in twenty U.S. cities and over thirty countries.

On May 27, 2005, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted a report by its Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stating its opinions on the facts and circumstances of the case and calling upon the U.S. government to remedy the situation. Among the report's criticisms of the trial and sentences, section 29 stated:

29. The Working Group notes that it arises from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a fair trial as defined in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States of America is a party.

Amnesty International criticized the U.S. treatment of the Cuban Five as "unnecessarily punitive and contrary both to standards for the humane treatment of prisoners and to states' obligation to protect family life", as the wives of René Gonzáles and Gerardo Hernández were denied visas to visit their imprisoned husbands.

The U.S. Government has responded to these claims, stating that the prisoners have received over a hundred visits from family members granted visas. The government contends that the wives of González and Hernández are members of the Cuban Intelligence Directorate, and thus pose a risk to the national security of the United States:

Consistent with the right of the United States to protect itself from covert spies, the U.S. government has not granted visas to the wives of two prisoners. Evidence presented at their husbands' trial revealed that one of these women was a member of the Wasp Network who was deported for engaging in activity related to espionage and is ineligible to return to the United States. The other was a candidate for training as a Directorate of Intelligence U.S.-based spy when U.S. authorities broke up the network.

Sign on a street in Varadero, Cuba

Eight international Nobel Prize winners filed an amicus brief with the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five in 2009.

In the United Kingdom, among other actions, 110 Members of Parliament wrote an open letter to the U.S. Attorney General in support of the Five.

In April 2009, a Brazilian human rights group, Torture Never Again, awarded the Five its Chico Mendes Medal, alleging that their rights had been violated, declaring that "their mail is censored and their visiting rights are very restricted."

In 2011, Brazilian writer Fernando Morais wrote The Last Soldiers of the Cold War, about the Cuban Five. The book is based on over 40 interviews and documents of the governments of United States and Cuba. Martin Garbus, the attorney representing the Cuban Five, has released a book about the case titled "North of Havana, The Untold Story of Dirty Politics, Secret Diplomacy, and the Trial of the Cuban Five".

Release

René González was put on parole for three years starting 2011. He was allowed to return to Cuba for his father's funeral on April 22, 2013, with the understanding that he would return to Florida to fulfill his three years of probation, but on May 3 a federal judge ruled that he could remain in Cuba provided that he renounce his United States citizenship.

In May 2012, it was reported that the U.S. had declined an exchange of prisoners proposed by the Cuban government, that would have seen the Cuban Five returned to Cuba in exchange for USAID contractor Alan Gross, imprisoned in Cuba for illegally distributing communications equipment. American officials did not consider Gross, whom they viewed as unjustly detained for a comparatively minor offense, equivalent to spies, one of whom had been convicted of murder.

Fernando González was released on February 27, 2014. He returned to Cuba and campaigned for the release of the remaining three.

As secret negotiations toward an exchange of prisoners proceeded, U.S. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, while on a trip to visit Gross in prison, met with Adriana Pérez O'Connor, whose husband Hernández was in prison for life. She asked him to arrange a way for her to become pregnant by her husband. Leahy made her case to U.S. officials, who arranged for Hernández to provide his sperm for artificial insemination. When Pérez became pregnant, officials negotiating the prisoner exchange worried that her pregnancy would make their dealings public before they were ready to announce a deal. Leahy reported that prison conditions for Gross improved after he had assisted Pérez and Hernández.

The prisoner exchange took place in December 2014 as part of a broader agreement to move toward the normalization of Cuba–United States relations. In addition to the three remaining Cubans who were returned to Cuba, Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, a Cuban who had worked as an agent for American intelligence until his arrest in November 1995 was returned to the United States. Sarraff was described as a key figure in Cuban intelligence, a cryptologist who provided the Central Intelligence Agency with information that helped the CIA arrest Cuban spies long after Sarraff's arrest and imprisonment. The exchange of prisoners coincided with Cuba's release of American contractor Alan Phillip Gross, jailed in Cuba since December 2009, although both governments characterized the release of Gross as unrelated to the prisoner exchange.

See also

References

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