Confused About Venezuela?

Over the past few days, major newspapers in the United States, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal, have published editorials aggressively and harshly criticizing recent declarations and decisions made by re-elected President Hugo Chávez and his cabinet. A large percentage of the content of these editorials, which reflect the viewpoints of the newspapers, are based on a distortion and misconception of new policies being implemented in Venezuela and the overall way government is functioning. In the Washington Post’s “Venezuela’s Leap Backward”, published on January 10, the editorial board intentionally and mistakenly portrays the recent presidential elections this past December in Venezuela as illegitimate and unfair. By falsely claiming that Chávez conducted a “one-sided campaign that left a majority of Venezuelans believing they might be punished if they did not cast their ballots for him”, the Post wants its readers to think Venezuelans who voted for Chávez did so under duress and fear. Nothing could be further from the truth. A majority of Venezuelans publicly express their sincere admiration and approval of President Chávez in an open and fearless way on a daily basis in this country. Most Venezuelans believe Chávez is the best president the nation has ever had, and statistics prove that his government has built more bridges, railroads, hospitals, clinics, universities, schools, highways and houses than any administration in the past. The Post editorial also attempts to downplay the “only 7 million votes” Chávez received, not mentioning that those seven million votes represent more than 63% of total votes – a landslide victory to the opposition candidate’s 37% - and that no president in Venezuelan history has ever, ever received such a large number of votes in an election.The New York Times editorial, also published on January 10, attacks a recent statement made by President Chávez regarding the nationalization of one telephone company, CANTV, and an electric company. However the Times doesn’t explain that the CANTV is the only non-cellular telephone company in the country, giving it a complete monopoly on national land-line telecommunications and control over a majority of Internet service as well. Furthermore, the CANTV was privatized only in 1991, during the second non-consecutive term of Carlos Andrés Pérez, a president later impeached for corruption who implemented a series of privatization measures, despite having run for office on a non-privatization platform just three years before. In fact, as soon as Carlos Andrés Pérez won office in 1988 after convincing the Venezuelan people he would not permit “neo-liberalism” on Venezuelan shores, he immediately began to announce the privatization of several national industries, including telecommunications, education and the medical and petroleum sectors. This deception led to massive anti-privatization protests during February 1989 during which the government ordered the armed forces to “open-fire” on the demonstrators and arrest and torture those not killed. The result was the “Caracazo,” a tragic scar on contemporary Venezuelan history that left more than 3,000 dead in mass gravesites and thousands more injured and detained. The re-nationalizing of Venezuela’s one landline phone company is a strategic necessity and an anti-monopoly measure necessary to ensure that Venezuelans have access to telecommunications service. (Take it from someone who lives here. You can’t even get a landline if it isn’t already installed in your residence. The waiting list is over 2 years and you have to bribe someone to actually do the job). And furthermore, the new Minister of Telecommunications, Jesse Chacón, announced that any company “nationalized” will be fully compensated for its shares and property at market value.The third issue put forth in the editorials is the recent announcement by President Chávez that the license of private television station RCTV to operate on the public airwaves is up for review in May 2007 and most likely will not be renewed. The government has based its denial of the license renewal on RCTV’s lack of cooperation with tax laws, its failure to pay fines issued by the telecommunications commission, CONATEL, over the past twenty years, and its refusal to abide by constitutional laws prohibiting incitation to political violence, indecency, obscenity and the distortion of facts and information. The public airwaves, as in the case of the United States, are regulated by government. Television and radio stations apply for licenses from the telecommunications commission and are granted those licenses based on conditional compliance with articulated regulations. When a station does not abide by the requirements, it generally is fined and warned, repeatedly, until compliance is assured. In the specific case of RCTV, the station and its owner, multi-millionaire Marcel Granier, have refused to comply with the law and have continued to abuse and violate the clear and concise regulations that are supposed to guarantee Venezuelan citizens their constitutional right to “true and accurate information” (Article 58 of the Constitution).RCTV’s owner, Marcel Granier, played a key role in the April 2002 coup d’etat against President Chávez and has used his station to engage in an ongoing campaign of anti-Chávez propaganda and efforts to destabilize the nation through distorting and manipulating information to create panic, apathy, fear and violence in Venezuelan society. The station’s clear violations of the telecommunications regulations and the Constitutional guarantees that protect freedom of speech and access to true and accurate information provide sufficient reason to deny the renewal of its license to use the public airwaves. Unlike the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times (Fidel Chávez?, January 11, 2007) mistakenly claims, Chávez and his government are not “shutting down” the private media station. RCTV can continue to operate on the private airwaves, i.e. cable and satellite television. As would be the case in any country where law and order are respected, RCTV will not receive a renewal on its license to remain on the public airwaves because it repeatedly violated the law during more than a decade.Unfortunately, international groups that allegedly protect freedom of the press and of speech around the world, have fallen under the influence and manipulation of RCTV president Marcel Granier, who through his close relationship with Washington, is conducting a campaign to defend his station by user the banner of freedom and liberty. But consistent lawbreakers and coup leaders should not receive the support of international press watchdog groups and human rights defenders. Rather, those groups should praise the decision of the Venezuelan government to maintain the public airwaves in the hands of the public. The license so abused by RCTV will most likely be granted to various community and alternative media groups and stations in Venezuela that have emerged over the past few years as a result of the direct encouragement and support of the Chávez administration.Finally, the editorials in the Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal, all criticize President Chávez’s announcement to create a new political party in Venezuela: the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. The editorials inaccurately claim that Chávez will dissolve all political parties in the country and allow only one party to operate. This is a dangerous and false inference. What Chávez really declared was the formation of a new revolutionary party that would be open to all parties that support the revolution. There will be no closing down or abolishing of other political parties in the nation; they can all remain as they wish and those that choose to merger or support the new party can also freely do so. Furthermore, Chávez indicated that the reason for the designing of a new political party is to break free from the old corrupt hierarchical party structures of the past that concentrate power in the hands of few and exclude and ignore the vast majority of supporters. Chávez remarked that the new party he seeks to promote will be formed by grassroots community movements, and that there will be no power structures that isolate and marginalize constituents.If you only read the US press, you must be very confused about Venezuela. The extreme levels of distortion, lack of fact checking and source verification and outright manipulation of information in the US media on Venezuela is quite troubling and dangerous in a nation that has waged wars based on false data and misleading policies.
EVA GOLINGER

REFLECTIONS OF FIDEL

Almeida is more alive today than ever

I have spent hours listening by television to the entire country’s tribute to Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque. I think that confronting death was for him a duty like all of those that he fulfilled throughout his life; he did not know, nor did we, how much sadness the news of his physical absence would bring to us.
I had the privilege of knowing him: a young black man, a worker, combative who, successively, was chief of his revolutionary cell, a Moncada combatant, a prison compañero, platoon captain in the Granma landing, Rebel Army officer — brought to a standstill during his advance by a shot to the chest in the violent Combat of Uvero — a Column commander, marching to create the Third Eastern Front, a compañero who shared the leadership of our forces in the last victorious battles to overthrow the dictatorship.
I was a privileged witness to his exemplary conduct for more than half a century of heroic and victorious resistance, in the struggle against bandits, the counter-blow of Girón, the October Crisis, the internationalist missions and the resistance to the imperialist blockade.
I listened with pleasure to some of his songs, and especially that one of impassioned emotion which, in response to the homeland’s call for "victory or death," bade farewell to human dreams. I did not know that he had written more than 300 of them that joined his literary work, a source of enjoyable reading and of historic events. He defended principles of justice that will be defended at all times and during any period, as long as human beings breathe on Earth.
Let us not say that Almeida has died! He is more alive today than ever!

Speech by Raúl Castro

The modest results reaffirm our optimism and confidence that

Yes, we can do it!

Speech by General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz, president of the Councils of State and Ministers, at the central rally commemorating the 56th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Garrisons, in the Mayor General Calixto García Plaza, Holguín, July 26, 2009, "Year of the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution."
Combatants of July 26, 1953 (Applause), of the Rebel Army, the clandestine struggle and the glorious internationalist missions (Applause;
Families of the fallen;
Women and men of Holguín (Applause); compatriots:
We could begin by asking a question out of pure personal curiosity. You all know that I am from here (Applause and exclamations), and therefore I have the right to pry in the context of knowing, if possible, which co-province-dweller thought of placing us here with the sun behind us (Laughter), which doesn’t bother me, but I’m sure that none of you can see me; you will see, perhaps, a shadow: that’s me (Applause).
"For those reasons, at this commemoration of the 56th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Garrisons, my speech will be very brief, considering the high temperatures that have characterized our summer this year, even though we are beginning earlier than usual — at 7:00 hours — and knowing that all of you have been here since 6:00 a.m, the majority of you have come on foot from your respective homes (Applause), and that last night, as I briefly saw on television, you were precisely celebrating this anniversary. And, moreover, that sun, placed in front of you by who knows who.
For these reasons, I will be brief, I repeat, and in the coming days, very soon, we will be having important meetings that will serve as highly appropriate scenarios for exploring complex questions in depth.
The first is the Council of Ministers, the day after tomorrow, dedicated to analyzing the second adjustment to expenditure in this year’s plan, due to the effects on our economy of the world economic crisis, particularly the significant reduction in income from exports and additional restrictions on access to sources of external financing.
As you all know, for 11 days I was touring several countries in friendly Africa, and participating – until very recently – as president of the Non-Aligned Movement, and handing over that responsibility to the president of Egypt.
The time that I have available is very little and tight on account of these meetings and the important issues that I am informing you about.
The day after the Council of Ministers meeting, on July 29, we will hold the 7th Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, in which, for an entire day, according to the program and agenda to be discussed, we will be analyzing vital issues related to the national and international situation.
And moreover, lastly, the ordinary session of the National Assembly of People’s Power is convened for August 1, when, among other things, the draft Law for the General Comptroller of the Republic will be subjected to debate. That office will contribute to raising exigency in implementation of existing legislation and in terms of control for all structures of the country’s leadership.
REWARD FOR EFFORTS AND WORK
This year, the selection of the venue for the central event of the 26th of July did not strictly follow the established indicators. It would have been illogical to base the selection solely on the degree of meeting those indicators, when since September, after the devastating passing of the hurricanes, it was evident that, in a large part of the country, it was simply impossible to meet them.
Do not forget, as we reported in our Parliament at the time, that the destruction — without saying that the figures are all perfectly reconciled or accounted for – totals approximately $10 billion, the equivalent of 20% of the gross domestic product; or in other words, of the value of everything we did in terms of work and production during last year.
For those reasons the Political Bureau, in determining that Holguín should be the venue and naming as "outstanding" the provinces of Villa Clara, Granma and City of Havana, balanced what had been achieved in the first months of the year, in more or less normal circumstances, with – above all – the efforts of the provinces, first to deal with the meteorological phenomena and ensure the fewest human and material losses, and then particularly in the recovery work.
In that, a great responsibility has fallen on Holguín. It is an extensive province, with more than one million inhabitants and a considerable influence on the national economy because of its nickel industry, it being the third largest tourist destination in the country and other important production. It is a reward for the efforts made and the work done.
Therefore, we congratulate the women and men of Holguín (Applause); compañero Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (Applause), first secretary of the Party in the province during that difficult time and in previous years, which were also ones of intensive work. We extend those congratulations to compañero Jorge Cuevas Ramos (Applause) of Las Tunas, another province hit hard by Hurricane Ike; since elected head of the Party in Holguín; he has carried out enthusiastic and active work.
We likewise congratulate the outstanding provinces, without failing to recognize the efforts made by everybody; the compatriots of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth (Applause), in the west, who faced extremely severe damage, and the people of Camagüey and Las Tunas, particularly the inhabitants of Santa Cruz del Sur and Guayabal, towns that were considerably affected, in some cases causing total destruction (Applause).
A PEOPLE EDUCATED IN GENUINE SOLIDARITY
I have just mentioned some of the places that suffered the greatest damage. There have been really difficult months of arduous work from one end of the nation to the other. All over the country, our people’s capacity for resistance, organization and solidarity has been demonstrated. Examples abound of how work should be undertaken in these times.
That was the conduct of the immense majority of compatriots in this province during the passing of Hurricane Ike and subsequent months. That is how it was everywhere.
Many compañeros have remained mobilized far from their families, even though more than a few of them also suffered serious limitations, often housed in shelters after having lost all or part of their homes.
They trusted in the Revolution and carried out their assigned tasks, conscious of their importance and confident that their loved ones would not be neglected.
Likewise, it says a lot about the human quality of our people how they were massively willing to welcome into their homes neighbors whose houses were unsafe, an attitude that has become everyday in the face of adversities of every type.
It is in these values that our people are educated, in genuine solidarity; they share what they have with their brothers and sisters, be they Cuban or from other lands, not what is left over, and here nothing is left over, usually just problems (Applause).
In that same measure, the Cuban people are grateful for the help, gestures of generosity and support received from many places all over the world. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the noble and honorable work of the interreligious foundation Pastors for Peace (Applause), and its leader, the Reverend Lucius Walker (Applause), and the members of the 20th U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan, as well as the Venceremos Brigade that is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and its representatives who are here with us at this rally (Applause).
DAMAGE TO HOUSING IS A VERY SERIOUS MATTER
The damage to housing is a very serious matter. In Holguín alone, almost 125,000 homes were affected, about half of which have been restored.
Nationwide, if we combine the damage from these three hurricanes with that still pending solution from previous years, above all at the beginning of the century for similar reasons of hurricanes, at the end of 2008, these added up to more than 600,000; that is why I warned then that time would be needed to radically turn around that situation.
An effort has been made that is worthy of being recognized, by agencies, workplaces and residents themselves. It is significant that as of July 20, some 43% of damages had been resolved; that is, more than 260,000 homes.
Nevertheless, there is a great deal of work to be done, and moreover it is necessary to avoid such enormous figures accumulating again in the future, taking into account that, due to climate change, many scientists are predicting that hurricanes may become more intense and much more frequent.
BEING IN A POSITION TO ANTICIPATE AND DEAL WITH DROUGHT
Likewise, work is underway to be in a position to anticipate and deal with the effects of recurrent periods of drought, increasingly long and intense, via different measures, including water pipelines, even from one province to another.
Remember the three difficult years of drought from 2000 to 2005 when, it was necessary to transport water all over the country — even on trains and in every kind of vehicle and container — to close to 3.5 million Cubans (Applause).
That is why we are constructing those strategic water pipelines in different places, which will enable us to maneuver with that vital liquid from one province to another.
As everybody knows, this monumental project began here in Holguín, where the paradox is presented of two regions side by side: one of the highest rainfall on the island — there on the outskirts of Baracoa, Guantánamo province — and one of the driest, which a few years ago endangered the water supply of this well-populated city.
In the coming days — we were going to do it today after this rally, but because of the previously stated reasons at the beginning of my remarks, we will do so during the course of August, later on — we will formally inaugurate the first stage of the East-West pipeline (Applause), which includes the pipeline from the Nipe Reservoir — there near the river of the same name in Mayarí municipality — to the Gibara Reservoir, not in the vicinity of the city of Gibara, but more to the north, one that is here, closer to the city of Holguín, east of it.
Or, in other words, Nipe Reservoir to Gibara; from there, downstream, via the river which I believe has the same name, to the Colorado Reservoir, which is further north, and from this Colorado Reservoir, it goes back, but through the north, via another pipeline that has been constructed, to the El Naranjo Reservoir, with a capacity of about 11 or 12 million cubic meters, but which is often dry, and which supplies that area and the Guardalavaca tourism complex, where during those years of drought it was necessary to close down some hotels.
Once finished and in use, this costly project — and this is just the beginning —will ensure a stable water supply for northern Holguín, including its capital.
The continuation of the project, which is in an advanced stage, includes the construction of a reservoir called Melones, which, to be more exact, I propose calling Mayarí, after the river that feeds it (Applause), whose curtain — the only one of its type built in Cuba with that technology — will be closed by April 2011, although it will begin storing water next year, 2010.
The Nipe Reservoir, with about 130 million cubic meters, was under construction for 25 years without giving it any use value.
At the time of the aforementioned inauguration of the first stage in August, which I already mentioned to you; that is, of the East-West pipeline, the television will broadcast an extensive report on this large-scale and extremely important project, which moreover will explain the entire system of interprovincial water pipelines under construction.
It is a program for the present and above all for the future, when water will be an increasingly scarcer resource, above all on a long, narrow island like ours, where the precious liquid is lost in rapid flows into the sea.
I have only mentioned one stage of this program, which covers a large part of the country, from Sancti Spíritus, in the center of the island, to Guantánamo. In the first semester of next year, this latter province, concretely the fertile valley of Caujerí, will begin receiving water by gravity via tunnels bored through the mountains — in this case built by the armed forces — which will imply considerable fuel savings by eliminating its costly pumping.
Work is also underway to rebuild this province’s aqueduct and sewer systems, including the municipalities of Cacocum and Urbano Noris, and specific actions in Frank País, Gibara and Banes. In the city of Holguín, 114 km of lines have been laid, with 21,620 pipes feeding houses and a benefited population of 86,400 inhabitants.
With the arrival of new equipment in the coming months, the pace of this work will be stepped up in Holguín, the location of one of the three factories that produce the necessary pipes of different sizes. As is known, another costly investment is underway to definitively solve the water supply problem in Santiago de Cuba, and which should be finished in 2010. And in 2011, work is should be completed on the El Cristo and El Cobre aqueducts in that Santiago municipality, and the one in Palma Soriano is now being studied.
RETURNING TO THE LAND, MAKING IT PRODUCE MORE
Moving onto another subject, of the few that I plan to touch on this morning, on July 26, 2007 in Camagüey, I referred to the pressing need for us to return to the land, to make it produce more. At that time, almost half the arable area was idle or under-exploited. We called at the time for generalizing – with the greatest speed possible and without improvisations – every experience of outstanding producers in the state and campesino sector, and to stimulate their hard work, as well as to definitively resolve the state’s damaging failure to make payments in that sector.
The handover of land in usufruct is progressing satisfactorily, although shortcomings persist, in some municipalities more than in others. Of the 110,000-plus applications made, close to 82,000 have been approved to date, covering 690,000 hectares; in other words, 39 percent of idle land.
I believe that it is little. It is not a question now of rushing to distribute it without control; it is doing so more efficiently, it is doing it in an organized way, and it is a task of top strategic priority. One of the speakers who preceded me referred to the fact that it is a matter of national security to produce the products used in this country and on which we spend hundreds and thousands of millions of dollars — and I am not exaggerating — transporting them from other countries.
The land is there, here are the Cuban people, let us see if we work or not, if we produce or not, if we keep our word or not! It is not a question of shouting ‘Homeland or Death!’ ‘Down with imperialism!’ ‘The blockade is hurting us!’ while the land is there, waiting for our sweat. Despite the increasingly greater heat, we have no choice but to make it produce. I think we agree (Exclamations of "Yes!" and applause)
Flying, mostly by helicopter, all over the country, I sometimes order the pilot to take a detour and fly over any town, city, etc. I can assure you that in the majority, there is an abundance of land, and good quality land, right outside our backyards, which is not being cultivated; and that is where a plan is being made to advance, with intensive crops, irrigating wherever possible, where there is water and the resources to do so. If one day there is no fuel left in this crazy, changing world, we should have our food close by, to be able to bring it in a cart with horses, an ox, or pushing it ourselves (Applause).
Of the land distributed, close to half has been declared free of marabú and other undesirable plants, and almost 225,000 hectares have been planted — that is, one-third.
We cannot be satisfied as long as a single hectare of land exists without being usefully employed, and while a person willing to make it produce is waiting for an answer.
Land that is no good for producing food should be used for planting trees, which are, moreover, a great resource. And the person who is talking to you has experimented for many years, especially in recent years, with planting small forests, and I have had the pleasure and satisfaction of watching them grow, and according to the type of tree, sometimes, within five years, I have formed a small forest with several hundred different types (of trees); but every time we talk about this subject, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture appear — the current one, and all the previous ministers of agriculture — with an endless list of millions of pesos or foreign currency requested for the task assigned, and if a little plastic bag doesn’t appear, the planting can’t be done. I don’t know what the hell our grandparents planted with (Laughter and applause), but there they all are, and we are eating the mangos that they planted (Applause).
We are not educating children to love trees, and that they should plant some— where there is land, of course — over the course of their years in elementary and high school. Some of the youth leaders are hearing me here; but planting trees can be done by young people of the third age, like me; in other words, it is not just a task for the young (Applause).
There are encouraging results for the milk distribution process, which has grown by more than 100 million liters annually in the last two years, given that from 272 million in 2006, it went up to 403 million in 2008, and this year everything seems to indicate that the increase will be higher. I spoke about this in 2007 in Camagüey, on a day like today.
I have very briefly addressed two aspects of the decisive issue of food production, which holds great importance in replacing imports, as I was saying to you, and in reducing the country’s hard-currency expenditure.
OUR PEOPLE ARE CAPABLE OF OVERCOMING ALL DIFFICULTIES
The progress ratified, despite the shortages in material and financial resources, while insufficient, confirm the enormous potential that we have yet to exploit in agriculture and in all sectors of the economy.
The modest results reaffirm for us once again the optimism and confidence that yes, we can do it! And that our heroic people are capable of overcoming all difficulties, no matter how large (Applause).
It is without any doubt an enormous challenge in the midst of an economic blockade and many other aggressions conceived of precisely to prevent the nation’s development.
Our people have never failed when the country has called. Invariably, they have said "Present!" from the times when the Mambí troops of Calixto García, the general of three wars, with his star on his forehead, committed suicide before letting himself be taken prisoner; the son of a heroic mother, he faced in these lands many thousands of soldiers with far superior weapons, far more, in the largest army sent by the Spanish colonial power to the Americas.
And together with the Liberation Army, the population withstood, stoically and without ceasing the struggle, the countless hardships caused by the war and the cruel repression of the colonial authorities. That was our lineage and we will continue to be true to their legacy (Applause).
With the monolithic unity of our people, its most powerful weapon, forged in the crucible of the struggle under the guidance of the leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz (Applause), no matter how great the difficulties and dangers may be, we will continue forward! (Applause)
Glory to the country’s martyrs! (Exclamations of "Glory!") Viva Fidel! (Exclamations of: "Viva!")¡Viva Cuba libre! (Exclamations of: "Viva!") (Ovation).
Translated by Granma

THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE CUBAN FIVE (PART II)

The Face of Impunity

By Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly of People's Power

• As they recognized during voir dire, the kidnapping of Elian González and its consequences for the community was very much in the minds of those chosen to be jurors at the trial of the Cuban Five a few months after the six-year-old boy was rescued by the federals.
Like everybody else they had followed the events related to Elian which saturated the news. The faces of the kidnappers, their promoters and supporters, as well as others involved in the scandal had become quite familiar to the jury members. The faces, and two features of the Elian drama: its unique nature and its direct connection with the trial of the five Cubans.
First, the perplexing behavior of every Miami public official, from its Federal Congress members, the mayor and the city commissioners, to firefighters and members of the police force, who openly refused to obey the law and did nothing to put an end to the most publicized case of child abuse ever to occur. And, secondly, but no less incredibly, that nothing happened to a group of individuals who had so clearly violated the law with the abduction of a child and the violence and disturbances that they created all over the city when he was rescued by the federal government. Nobody was prosecuted, arrested, or fined. No local authority was dismissed, replaced or asked to resign. The Elian case demonstrated how anti-Castro impunity reigns in Miami.
When the jurors first took their seats in the Court room to do their citizens’ duty they were probably taken by surprise. There, live, were the "Miami celebrities" that they were so used to seeing, day and night, on local TV. And they were together, sometimes smiling and embracing each other, like old pals. The kidnappers and the "law enforcement" guys hand and glove with the prosecutors (those valiant people who never showed up when a little boy was being molested in front of the media).
The jurors spent seven months in that room looking at, and being watched by the same people so familiar to them who now were on the witness stand, in the public area or at the news corner, the same people there frequently going to find in the parking lot, at the building entrance, in the corridors. Some of them now and then proudly displaying the attire used for their last military incursion to Cuba.
The jurors heard them explaining in detail their criminal exploits and saying time and again that they were not talking about the past. It was a strange parade of individuals to appear in a court of law, acknowledging their violent acts against Cuba planned, prepared and launched from their own neighborhood.
There, making speeches, demanding the worst punishment, slandering and threatening the defense lawyers.
The judge did what she could to try to preserve calm and dignity. She certainly ordered the jury, many times, not to consider certain inappropriate remarks but, in doing so, could not erase their prejudicial and fearsome effects from the jurors’ minds.
The consequences were obvious. The Court of Appeal panel’s decision stated it in clear terms: "The evidence at trial disclosed the clandestine activities not only of the defendants, but also of the various Cuba exile groups and their military camps that continue to operate in the Miami area. The perception that these groups could inflict harm on jurors who rendered a verdict unfavorable to their views was palpable". (Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal, No. 01-17176, 03-11087)
But there was more. After hearing and seeing the abundant evidence of terrorist acts that the defendants had tried to avert, the government succeeded in defending the terrorists by having the Court inexplicably agree to remove from the jury the right to exonerate the Five on the basis of legal necessity, which was the foundation of their defense.
The heart of the matter, in this case, was the need for Cuba to protect its people from the criminal attempts of terrorists who enjoy total impunity in U.S. territory. The law in the United States is clear: if persons act to prevent a greater harm, even if they violate the law in the process, they will be excused from any criminality because society recognizes the necessity – even the benefit – of taking such action.
The United States, the only world superpower, has interpreted that universal principle to take war to distant lands in the name of fighting terrorism. But at the same time it refused to recognize it in the case of five unarmed, peaceful, non-violent persons who, on behalf of a small country, without causing harm to anybody, tried to avert the illegal acts of criminals who have found shelter and support in the United States.
The U.S. government, through the Miami prosecutors, went even further, to the last mile, to help those terrorists. They did it very openly, in writing and with passionate speeches that, curiously, were not considered newsworthy.
That was happening in 2001. While the Southern Florida prosecutors and the local FBI were so caught up in harshly punishing the Cuban Five and protecting "their" terrorists, the criminals preparing the 9/11 attack had been training, unmolested, in Miami for quite some time. They must have had a weighty reason for preferring that location. (Taken from Counterpunch) •

The Untold Story of the Cuban Five (Part 1)

Forbidden Heroes

By Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada

"It takes all the running you can do,to keep in the same place"Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

• REMEMBER Elian?
The case of Elian González, a six year-old boy forcefully retained by his unknown great-uncles against the will of his father and in clear defiance of U.S. law and decency was widely reported by media around the world. Miami, the place of the kidnapping, became a kind of secessionist city in North America when the Mayor, the chief of police, the politicians, every newspaper and local radio and TV broadcasters, together with religious and business institutions, joined with some of the most notorious terrorist and violent groups in opposing the courts' and government's orders to free the boy.
It was necessary for a Special Forces team sent from Washington DC to launch a surreptitious and swift operation to occupy several houses, disarm the heavily armed individuals hidden there and in the neighborhood to save the child and restore law.
Everybody followed that story. Day in and day out.
But practically nobody knew that, at the very same time, in exactly the same place--Miami--five other young Cubans were arbitrarily deprived of their freedom and subjected to a gross miscarriage of justice.
Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González were detained in the early hours of Saturday September 12th, 1998, and locked for the next 17 months in punishment cells, in solitary confinement. The main accusation against them--as recognized by the prosecutors and the judge from their indictment to the last day of the trial--was that they had peacefully, with no weapons, penetrated ant-Cuban terrorist groups with a view of reporting back to Cuba about their criminal plans.
Was it conceivable to have a fair trial in Miami for any Cuban revolutionary facing such an accusation? Could that happen while the kidnapping of Elian was going on with its surrounding atmosphere of violence, hatred and fear?
According to the prosecution it was perfectly possible. In their words Miami was "a very large, diverse, heterogeneous community" capable of handling any sensitive issue, even those involving the Cuban Revolution. The prosecutors repeated that line when rejecting the more than ten motions presented by the defense lawyers requesting a change of venue before the start of the trial.
The same government that was obligated to deal with Miami as a sort of rebel city and to secretly send there its forces to restore legality, lied repeatedly about the venue issue, denying the defendants a right so cherished by Americans, and refused to move the proceedings to the neighboring city of Fort Lauderdale, half an hour away from Miami.
Ironically, a few years later, in 2002, when the government was the object of a civilian complaint of an administrative nature, of far lesser significance--later resolved by an out of Court settlement--and only indirectly related to the Elian case, they asked for a change of venue to Fort Lauderdale, affirming that "anything related to Cuba" was impossible to get a fair trial in Miami. (Ramírez vs. Ashcroft, 01-4835 Civ-Huck, June 25, 2002)
Such a flagrant contradiction, a clear proof of prosecutorial misconduct, of real prevarication, was one of the main factors leading to the unanimous decision of the Court of Appeals panel, in 2005, to vacate the convictions of the Five and order a new trial. (Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 01-17176, 03-11087).
That historic decision was later reversed by the majority of the entire Court under pressure from Attorney General Alberto González in an action that went contrary to the normal US legal practice. Mr. González's successful move, a manifestation of his peculiar legal philosophy, foreclosed the possibility of a just resolution of this case in a manner that would have honored the United States.
The panel decision, an exceptionally sound and solid 93 pages document, including irrefutable facts about the half century old terrorist war against Cuba, remains an outstanding moment in the best American tradition and will continue to be a text to be analyzed with respect by scholars and law school students.
But that’s another chapter in the long saga of the Cuban Five.
Elián González now is about to finish high school and continues to attract the attention of foreign media and visitors who keep going to Cardenas, the beautiful town where he lives. When traveling towards Elian’s home they will be surprised by billboards demanding freedom for five youngsters they never heard off before.
In Leonard Weinglass’s words:
"The trial was kept secret by the American media. It is inconceivable that the longest trial in the United States at the time it was taking place was only covered by the local Miami press, particularly where generals and an admiral as well as a White House advisor were all called to testify for the defense. Where was the American media for six months? Not only was this the longest trial, but it was the one case involving mayor issues of foreign policy and international terrorism. The question should be directed to the American media, with continues to refuse to cover a case with such gross violations of fundamental rights, and even violations of human rights of prisoner". (Response by Leonard Weinglass in the forum organized by www.antiterroristas.cu on September 12, 2003).
Elian was saved because Americans knew about his case and got involved and made justice prevail. The Five are still incarcerated – it will be 11 years next September – victims of a terrible injustice, because Americans are not permitted to know.
The Five are being cruelly punished because they fought against terrorism. They are heroes. But forbidden heroes. •

Forbidden Heroes

Justice in Wonderland

Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada —

President of the National Assembly of People’s Power

"Sentence first-verdict afterwards"Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• Having been defeated on the issue of venue the outcome of the Cuban Five's trial was predetermined. It will go strictly in accordance with the Queen’s prophecy.
The American media played a very important two-pronged role. Outside Miami it was, and it continues to be, how Attorney Leonard Weinglass so aptly described contrasting sharply with their role within Dade County, both offering an impressive show of discipline.
The local media not only intensively covered the case, but intervened actively in it, as if they were part of the prosecution. The Five were condemned by the media even before they were indicted.
Very early in the morning on Saturday September 12th 1998, each media outlet in Miami was talking breathlessly about the capture of some "terrible" Cuban agents "bent to destroy the United States" (the phrase that prosecutors love so much and will repeat time and again during the entire process). "Spies among us" was the headline that morning. At the same time, by the way, the Miami FBI chief was meeting with Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ross Lehtinen, representatives of the old Batista gang in federal Congress.
An unprecedented propaganda campaign was launched against five individuals who could not defend themselves, due to the fact that they were completely isolated from the outside world, day and night, for a year and a half, in what is accurately described in prison jargon as the "hole".
A media circus has surrounded the Five since they were detained all the way until now. But only in Miami. Elsewhere in the United States the ordeal of the Five has only gotten silence. The rest of the country does not know much about this case and is kept in the dark, as if everybody accepted that Miami--that "very diverse, extremely heterogeneous community" as described by the D.A.--belongs to another planet.
That might have been a reasonable proposition, if it were not for some rather embarrassing facts recently discovered. Some of the media people involved in the Miami campaign--"journalists" and others--were paid by the US government, were in its payroll as employees of the radio and TV anti-Cuban propaganda machine that has cost many hundreds of millions of US tax payer’s dollars.
Without knowing it, Americans were forced to be very generous, indeed. There is a long list of "journalists" from Miami who covered the entire trial of the Five and, at the same time, were receiving juicy federal checks (for more on the "work" of these journalist see: www.freethefive.org).
The Court of Appeals decision in 2005 provides also a good summary of the propaganda campaign before and during the trial. That was one of the reasons leading the panel "to vacate the convictions and order a new trial". Miami was not a place to have even the appearance of justice. As the judges said "the evidence submitted in support of the motions for change of venue was massive". (Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 01-17176, 03-11087)
Let’s clarify something. Here we are not talking about journalists in the sense Americans outside Miami may be thinking of. We are referring to Miami "journalists," something quite different.
Their role was not to report the news, but to create a climate guaranteeing conviction. They even called for public demonstrations outside the office of the defense counsel and harassed prospective jurors during the pretrial phase. The Court itself expressed concern about the "tremendous amount of requests for the voir questions in advance of them being asked, apparently destined to inform their listeners, including members of the venire, of the questions prior to the time they are posed to them by the Court".
We are talking about a bunch of individuals who harassed the jurors, following them, with cameras, through the streets, filming their car licenses and showing them on TV, tracking them inside the Court building, down to the jury room’s door, during the entire seven months trial proceedings, all the way to the last day.
Judge Leonard more than once protested and begged the government to stop such a deplorable masquerade. She did that at the very beginning of the trial, on several occasions thereafter and until the very end. To no avail. (Official transcripts of the trial, pp. 22, 23, 111, 112, 625, 14644-14646).
The government was not interested in having a fair trial. During the jury selection process, the prosecution was very keen to exclude the majority of African American prospective jurors. It also excluded the three individuals who didn’t manifest strong anti-Castro sentiments.
By that time Elian González has been rescued but he was very much in the minds of the jurors. As one of them said during voir dire: "I would be concerned about the reaction that might take place … I don’t want rioting and stuff like that to happen like what happened in the Elian case". Or in the words of another: "I would be a nervous wreck if you wanted to know the truth … I would have actual fear for my own safety if I didn’t come back with a verdict that was in agreement with the Cuban community".
In that ambience of fear began the longest trial to date in American history. And the one that the big media "chose" to ignore.

One Day Five Shirts Will Be Hung There

One day Antonio Guerrero will be free and return to Cuba.

One the White House will recognize the injustice of the system had locked up the FIVE.

One day the American people discover Tony, Ramón, Fernando, René and Gerardo also are their heores.

One day five shirts will be hung there.

And that day will come........................