International Committee in Defense of the Cuban 5 Anti-terrorists in
US Jails Meets in Holguin, Cuba
by Daniel del Solar (danieldelsolar@gmail.com)
More than 180 delegates are in attendance at the International Colloquium in Defense of the Cuban 5 began a three day meeting in Holguin, province of Holguin, 500 miles to the East of Havana.
Representing active committees in 45 nations world-wide, the meetings will include work sessions at which will be discussed forthcoming plans to achieve justice for the Cuban 5. The 5 men face sentences ranging from 20 years to life. The meeting will conclude with a Plenary closing session this coming Sunday.
The case of the Cuban 5 is about 5 Cuban men, nationals from Cuba, who worked in Miami for several years attempting to identify active terrorist cells in MIami that had been carrying out terrorist actions.
Amongst numerous other destructive acts, the Miami-based terrorists, mostly so-called "Cuban Exiles" caused the death of a visiting Italian tourist in Havana and destruction of agricultural products, such as burning of suger cane fields.. Over the years of such terrorist activity, the local FBI office had been "unable" to discover the source of the terrorist activities nor the perpetrators of terrorist
acts.
The Cuban 5 were part of an anti-terrorist team sent by Cuba to the United States to correct the inability of the FBI to take effective action to stop the terrorism. The Cuban agents, attempting to stop the illegal acts, identified both the particants and the plans of the terrorist organizations and communicated this information to the Cuban Government, which in turn gave this information to the U.S. government
authorities.
Shortly thereafter, the Cuban agents were arrested and have since suffered extraordinary prison mistreatment. In the eleven years of their incarceration, they have frequently been placed in solitary confinement, a form of torture, and have also been denied access to conjugal visits by their wives. The U.S. Government has imposed this inhumane treatment through the denial of visas to the wives.
The men have been accused and convicted of murder, although they none of them had committed a murder. The prosecution alleged that the information given to the Cuban Government had led to the shoot down of a small aircraft over Cuban national territory based on the information given to them by the Cuban men. In fact, the Cuban
government had warned the US authorities that the continual violation of Cuban airspace by aircraft from the so¡-called ¨Brothers to the Rescue¨ would lead to a shoot down months before any specific information was transmitted by the Cuban agents in Miami.
Brothers to the REscue had overflown Cuba deliberately more than 40 times and it was clear to US government authorities that the aircraft involved in illegal activities departed from airfields in Florida and tracked them via radar as they approached and then violated Cuban airspace.
The prosecution argued successfully, but in error, that the shoot-down was attributable to the Cuban 5 and therefore they warranted charges of murder, as a pilot and passenger where killed as a result of their violating Cuban Airspace. The US military had been advised by Cuban military in the course of an informal meeting, months before the fatal "Brother´s" aircraft shoot-down, that further flyings would be met with force, and pleaded with the US military to prevent such illegal
flights.
The Cuban 5 where also accused of spying, but this was not a formal charge as several former US military witnesses asserted that the Cuban 5 had not taken any actions that could be considered ¨"spying."
For more information on this complex case, one can consult the web (
http://www.thecuban5.orgThe Coloquium will have working sessions on Saturday and will conclude with visits and information exchanges in Cuban communities throughout the region on Sunday.
For La Raza Chronicles, this is Daniel del Solar reporting from Holguin, Holguin Province, Cuba.
Septeto Nacional was finally allowed to enter the United States and bring their classic Cuban son to enthusiastic audiences in New York, Miami and California. Their performances at Yoshi's Jazz Club in San Francisco quickly sold out. Other performances have been added, but are going fast!
