Five Cuban revolutionaries are currently serving prison terms of between 15 years and a double life sentence after being framed up and convicted in June 2001 in a U.S. federal court. They are René González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, and Fernando González.

The five revolutionaries were in the United States on an internationalist mission to defend the sovereignty of their country and the Cuban Revolution. They gathered information on the activities of counterrevolutionary groups in Florida--organizations with a history of launching violent attacks on Cuba from U.S. soil. The groups have been able to operate with impunity from Florida, often with the assistance of, training by, and funding from the U.S. government.

Unable to prove any illegal acts by the five men, the federal government pushed through convictions on a series of conspiracy charges, including conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign power, to commit espionage, and to commit murder.

An international campaign is being waged by various organizations to explain the truth about the cases of the five Cubans and to demand they be released from prison. Extensive information on this fight can be found at themilitant.com.

The Militant is running short biographical sketches of each of the five. The biographies of Gerardo Hernández, René González, and Fernando González appeared in the August 19, August 26, and September 2 issues respectively. Following is the biography of Antonio Guerrero.
 

"Documents and data given by the Cuban government as well as declassified secret documents of the U.S. government have shown a pattern of aggression," said Antonio Guerrero in his closing statement to a U.S. court on December 27. "This aggression," he continued, "has included the recruitment and the financing by the CIA of counterrevolutionary agents" from the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack to "bomb attacks on hotels, social centers, as well as historic and tourist centers.

"It has been a complex and difficult task to halt these terrorist acts because they have been in alliance with U.S. authorities."

Guerrero was born on Oct. 18, 1958, into a working-class family in the city of Miami. His family returned to Cuba in the first days of January 1959, after the overthrow of the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista by the Cuban toilers under the leadership of the July 26 Movement.

The young Guerrero played an active political part at each stage of his student and working life. In 1973 he became the president of the Federation of High School Students for the Boyeros region in Havana province. The next year he joined the Union of Young Communists, becoming the organization secretary of his unit.

After graduating from high school Guerrero earned a scholarship to study to be an engineer in airport construction in Kiev, in the former Soviet Union. He qualified in 1983, and put his skills to immediate use--most notably in the project, now completed, to expand the runway at the Antonio Maceo International Airport in Santiago de Cuba.

In 1989 Guerrero was accepted into membership of the Cuban Communist Party. After living for some years in Panama, Guerrero lived and worked in the United States.

Guerrero’s mother, wife, and other family members have visited him in the maximum security Florence prison in Colorado where he is serving a sentence of life plus 10 years. Guerrero "shares his cell with another Cuban, there are around 40 of them," said his mother after her visit. "They have respect and look after him."

Guerrero has written a number of poems behind bars, and has published one book of poetry in Spanish and English translation.

Like the other four who have been framed up and incarcerated, Guerrero defends his activities with pride. "If I were asked once again to cooperate in this task, I would again do it with honor," he told the court last December. "For me and my dear brothers your sentence means unjust imprisonment. We will not rest defending the just and moral cause we have embraced."
 
 
Related articles:
Read about Gerardo Hernández
Read about René González
Read about Fernando González  
 
 
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