Vol. 73/No. 48      December 14, 2009

The five are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, René González, and Antonio Guerrero. They were arrested by the FBI in 1998 on a range of frame-up charges including “conspiracy” to commit espionage and in one case “conspiracy” to commit murder. The five were in the United States monitoring counterrevolutionary Cuban-American groups in Florida that have carried out violent attacks in Cuba with the complicity of the U.S. government.

Convicted in a 2001 trial in Miami, the five received draconian sentences ranging from life to 15 years. Gómez said that the impact of the worldwide effort in support of the five was registered at the October 13 resentencing of Antonio Guerrero.

“The prosecutor, that is the representative of the U.S. administration, told the judge that the government wanted to lower Guerrero’s sentence because of the strong public opinion in the United States and the world in support of him,” said Gómez. “That means that our work is having results.”

In June 2008 a federal appeals court vacated the sentences for three of the five—Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, and Fernando González—ruling the sentences were excessive because they were inconsistent with the court record. The appeals court ordered that each of the three be resentenced. Guerrero’s sentence was reduced from life plus 10 years to 21 years and 10 months. The resentencing of the other two is still pending.

Gómez is also a leader of the Miami-based Antonio Maceo Brigade, an organization in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution. He spoke about the work of the brigade and prejudicial conditions that the five faced in getting a fair trial in Miami.

“It is impossible to fight for the Cuban Five without taking up the terrorism of the right wing there, and the aggression of the U.S. government that supports them,” he said. “For 52 years, every day, this danger is present. In the ’90s, when the five revolutionaries entered the right-wing organizations in Miami, the terrorist attacks were above all directed against tourists in Cuba, tourism being an important source of income for Cuba at the time.”

Another speaker asked if the new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama had made any change in relations with Cuba. “Obama said in his campaign he would reconsider the U.S. policies against Cuba. But so far nothing has changed!” Gómez said.

“Some of the restrictions for Cuban Americans to go home have been lifted. The demagogy and tone is different from the Bush administrations. And some meetings about immigration from Cuba to the United States that [President George] Bush cancelled have been restarted, although at a low level. But that is all. The Helms-Burton law is a law. That law is not being changed.” Helms-Burton places harsh restrictions on trade with Cuba.

Gómez visited Stockholm and four other Swedish cities as part of a north European tour to build support for the five Cubans. He had meetings in Belgium, Finland, Norway, Denmark France, and the Netherlands.
 
 
Related articles:
Supreme Court upholds ban on book about Cuba
1971 raid on Cuban town, one of many U.S. assaults
Eyewitnesses address Cuban Five meeting
Cuban youth: ‘We are ones who will improve socialism’  
 
 
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