Documents
September 10, 1997
- Cuban State Security announces the arrest of Salavdoran mercenary Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon for planting bombs at Cuban hotels but says the attacks were orchestrated by Miami-based exiles, including members of the Cuban American National Foundation. The full statement. See also this Spanish language video released by Cuban State Security, in which León retraces his footsteps as he plants the bombs.
May 12, 1998:
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez's report to Fidel Castro on his meeting with the White House concerning an exile plot to blow up airliners filled with tourists traveling to Cuba from either Europe or Canada.
July 13, 1998:
- Journalist Ann Louise Bardach's reports (with Carribean bureau chief Larry Rohter) for the New York Times in which Luis Posada Carriles admits his role in the 1997 bombing campaign against Havana hotels. (He later recanted.)
December 21, 1999:
- Report of United Nations Special Rapporteur into the circumstances surrounding the 1997 hotel bombing campaign against Cuba. Among his conclusions: "The attacks on tourist facilities in Cuba were conceived as a sustained bombing campaign that would disturb the security of Cubans living in the island and, more particularly, of foreign tourists; the plan was prepared outside Cuba with the participation of Cuban-American agents having links to organizations hostile to the Government of Cuba, and executed using foreign mercenaries who were specially recruited, hired, trained and financed. The recruitment and training of those who were to carry out the attacks took place in third countries. These attacks were terrorist acts carried out by mercenary agents and as such must be categorically condemned... There is no such thing as good or bad terrorism according to who the target is or where the terrorist act takes place. Nor are there good or bad mercenaries depending on who they fight for or against..."
May 20, 2005:
- Fidel Castro lays out the details of what he sees as the American betrayal in the summer of 1998 in a speech to the Cuban people.
November 15, 2007
- Ann Louise Bardach testifies before the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight on her investigations into the activities of Luis Posada Carriles.
April 8, 2009
Luis Posada indicted for lying to authorities when attempting to enter America in 2005.
June 14, 2010
Lawyers for Gerardo Hernandez file a last ditch habeas corpus petition citing new evidence in the case against their client and the Five. Supporting Document.
Copyright 2010 Sting of the Wasp: The Cuban Five Connection
-
About
This is the site for What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five, collected research and other materials for an in-progress narrative nonfiction book about the Cuban Five by Stephen Kimber.
The Cuban Five were members of "La Red Avispa"—the Wasp Network—spies Havana dispatched to Florida in the early 1990s to infiltrate militant anti-Castro exile groups that Cuba believed were plotting terrorist attacks on its soil. The Cuban Five were arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to long prison terms in the United States.
In the United States, they are virtually unknown. In Cuba, they are heroes.
That’s the short version of the story. The long version is… well, more complicated... Stay tuned.
Subscribe
