The Cuban Five - Innocents in U.S. Prison

Update: Maria Bibbs at The Madison Times has a piece on Leonard Weinglass' appearance in Madison on Nov. 11 on the Cuban Five.

by Maria Bibbs

Madison, Wisconsin - Renowned criminal defense attorney Leonard Weinglass publicly addressed the case of the unjustly imprisoned 'Cuban Five' on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Nov. 11. He clarified how this legal action defines the U.S. government’s failures in the 'War on Terror.'

The clients of Weinglass’ 40-year legal career — including Angela Davis, The Chicago 7, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Daniel Ellsberg, Jane Fonda, Amy Carter, and Antonio Guerrero of the Cuban Five — reflect his long investment in civil rights activism in the U.S.

In 2004, The Civil Rights Section of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) established the Leonard Weinglass Civil Rights Award to recognize outstanding contributions to human rights and the protection of our civil liberties. (Incidentally, Weinglass worked on Angela Davis’ case at the UW-Madison Law School 35 years ago.)

The Cuban Five are five Cuban men serving four life sentences and 75 years in U.S. prisons after being accused of conspiring to commit espionage in the U.S. They were falsely accused on June 8, 2001. The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labanino, Fernando González, and René González. Their indictment prompts a critique of the U.S. criminal justice system and foreign policy history. Weinglass offered an eclectic audience details about the ongoing case before answering questions.

’The sentence itself is an outrage,’ said Weinglass, who noted that the Cuban Five case is unique in its draconian treatment of a conspiracy case that involved no documented evidence and in which no one was ever harmed. ‘There is no comparable case in terms of sentencing,’ he said. ‘There is no comparable case in terms of prosecution.’

The Cuban government sent the five Cuban men to the U.S. specifically to nonviolently infiltrate illegal anti-Cuban, right-wing groups based in Miami and to document and report on terrorist plans against Cuba. The right-wing groups have waged continuous attacks on Cuba since 1961, resulting in the death or injury of nearly 3,000 people in Cuba, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

The U.S. government has refused to act against these terrorist groups, Weinglass said, so the Cuban government found it necessary to send agents to Florida to monitor their actions. The five Cuban agents were arrested in 1998 on the charge of ‘conspiring to commit espionage,’ but they were never a threat to the U.S., Weinglass concluded.
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From Crooks and Liars:

They went underground in another country to infiltrate groups carrying out terrorism in their country. When they discovered serious new plots, they notified law enforcement in that country - and for their trouble received harsh decades-long prison sentences. Yes, The Cuban Five still rot in US prisons.

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