“Shootdown” ebook now available
“Shootdown,” an excerpt from Stephen Kimber’s forthcoming book, What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five is now available as an ebook from Amazon. http://amzn.to/HWl12l
The excerpt unfolds the critically important episode of the shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft over the Straits of Florida in February 1996—from Brothers’ first illegal flyover of Havana in July 1995; through seven months of escalating diplomatic back and forth between Havana and Washington; equally escalating provocations by Brothers’ leader José Basulto; on to the February 24, 1996 mid-air confrontation and then the fallout—the unseemly quick passage of the draconian Helms-Burton law, which continues to hobble any serious attempt to improve relations between the United States and Cuba.
The excerpt also documents what members of the Cuban Five did and—more importantly—didn’t do in the lead-up to the Cuban government’s decision to bring down the two civilian aircraft, killing four people.
Seven months after the FBI arrested the Five in September 1998 for failing to register as foreign agents, using false documents and conspiracy to commit espionage—all serious but relatively minor charges—prosecutors tacked on an explosive addendum, charging Gerardo Hernandez with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shootdown.
That red-flag charge in Miami’s virulently anti-Castro exile community dramatically upped the stakes of the case, making it even more impossible for the Five to get a fair trial. The shootdown allegations permeated the trial and affected the sentencing, not only of Hernandez—who was handed a double-life sentence plus 15 years—but also of the other members of the Five, whose fates had all inextricably become linked to the shootdown.
As this excerpt clearly shows, there was not a shred of compelling evidence to indicate Hernandez even knew about, let alone had any role in the shootdown.
The full book, What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five, will be published by Fernwood Publishing in the spring of 2013.
Copyright 2012 Sting of the Wasp: The Cuban Five Connection
U.S. says no prisoner swap
The Miami Herald has published the text of a letter from the U.S. Departments of State and Justice to Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) regarding rumours the Cuban government might be willing to exchange an American contractor it is holding in exchange for members of the Cuban Five. The letter:
Dear Congressman Díaz-Balart:
Thank you for your letter of Sept. 1, which expressed your concern about reports alleging that the Cuban government is offering to free USAID subcontractor Alan Gross in exchange for convicted Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez.
While we are committed to using every possible diplomatic channel to press for Mr. Gross' release, we have not and will not consider a "prisoner swap" with any of the five Cuban spies who participated in the Wasp network.
We agree that Alan Gross' efforts to provide global Internet access to the Jewish community in Cuba and other marginalized groups do not compare and are not in any way linked with the grave crimes of which the so-called Cuban Five have been convicted.
Thank you for sharing your concerns and providing us the opportunity to clarify our position on this matter. We hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Richard Verma, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Legislative Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
Ronald Weich Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice
The Cuban government alleges that Gross, who has been held since last December but has not been charged, entered the country illegally to distribute satellite communications equipment to "mercenary" dissidents.
Copyright 2010 Sting of the Wasp: The Cuban Five Connection
More details emerge of Hernandez’s time in the ‘hole’
Gerardo31
"[Gerardo] Hernández’s sister Isabel first learned that he had been put in the 'hole' ... when she went for a visit at the U.S. maximum security prison in Victorville, California, July 24. She was only allowed to talk to him by phone, separated by a thick glass partition, while he was kept handcuffed...
"Hernández had been asking to see a doctor since April. He was not given an appointment until July 20, when doctors ordered blood tests to see if he had been infected by a bacteria that has sickened many prisoners. Instead of facilitating the tests, prison authorities put Hernández in the hole the next day..."
More from The Militant, August 16, 2010.
Copyright 2010 Sting of the Wasp: The Cuban Five Connection
Hernandez’s lawyers file habeas corpus petition
Gerardo Hernandez
In a last-ditch, no-more-cards-to-play legal effort, lawyers for convicted Cuban Five spy Gerardo Hernandez this week (June 14, 2010) filed what is called a collateral appeal—or writ of habeus corpus—in Miami Federal Court claiming it has new evidence the court should have aware of before letting a jury decide the fate of the Five.
The evidence, uncovered by the National Committee to Free The Five through freedom of information requests, shows that a number of Hispanic journalists who wrote inflammatory stories about the Five were actually in the pay of the U.S. government at the time.
That's not the only grounds Hernandez's lawyers cite—in their documents, they also argue that the government concealed important evidence and they question the adequacy of the Five's defence team—but the new evidence is the key to any faint hope the defence has that it will prevail.
Meanwhile Hernandez continues to be held in a US prison in California where he had not been allowed a visit from his wife for 12 years.
You can read the full text of an interview with Leonard Weinglass, the lawyer for Hernandez, here.
Copyright 2010 Sting of the Wasp: The Cuban Five Connection
Hernandez to file new motion
Gerardo Hernandez
Lawyers for Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cubans serving time in American prisons in connection with the Cuban Five affair, will return to court in June 2010—nine years after his original conviction—to present a writ of habeas corpus, asking the judge in the case to reconsider his sentence.
Three other members of the Five—Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez—were re-sentenced to lesser terms last fall.
Following his conviction in June 2001, Hernandez was handed two life terms plus 15 years. The final member of the Five, Rene Gonzalez, received a 15-year prison term. Neither man was included in the 2009 re-sentencing process.
Copyright 2010 Sting of the Wasp: The Cuban Five Connection
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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.
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