The Cuban Five: examining the terrorism debate and trial fairness

Cuban Five -- Criminals or Antiterrorists

The Cuban Five

Why the Trial Was Unfair

The Aftermath of the Trial

The Implications of This Trial on the Relations between Cuba and the U.S.A.

Cuban Five as Criminals

The Five as Antiterrorists

Whether the Cuban Five are terrorists or not has to be seen from an international perspective that is impartial and takes into consideration the viewpoints of the Cubans as well as the Americans. The question has gained particular relevance in light of the international protests that consider the Cuban Five as antiterrorists and not criminals. According to Robert Pastor the National Security Adviser for Latin America in President Jimmy Carter's time:

"Holding a trial for five Cuban intelligence agents in Miami is about as fair as a trial for an Israeli intelligence agent in Tehran. You'd need a lot more than a good lawyer to be taken seriously."

This says a lot about the stance that the Cuban Five need to be looked at from. This paper will look at both sides of the coin, as the Cuban Five have been responsible for bloodshed even if they are considered antiterrorist. At the same time considering their activities as criminal when they were working for their country might seem to be in antinationalism flavor and Nobel Laureates having also written to the United Nations convinced that the Cuban Five are not criminals.

Background

Cuba's history has been checkered with war and conflict. Most of the conflict has been attributed to the United States government which has been aiding in the conflict and has infiltrated Cuban soil at several occasions. This has led to anti-American sentiment in the region.

The revolution led by Fidel Castro in Cuba against the former leader, Batista was successful and he took over reassuring the United States that he was anti-communist. But later it started showing communist sentiment when it appropriated land and private property and at the same time nationalized American land as well. This led to America responding by freezing Cuban assets and supporting the movement against Fidel Castro. However after the Cuban missile Crisis, America vowed not to aid anti-Castro movement and since then has remained out of it.

However during this time, the Cuban anti-Castro communities that had lost support of the United States were exiled with a large population of the anti-Castro communities held in Miami.

As far as the Cuban Five as considered these were men who claimed, when they were caught by the American authorities that they were spying on the Anti-Castro communities who they said were involved in terrorist attacks in Cuba.

These men, named: Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, and Rene Gonzalez, have been imprisoned in America on the charges of spying on American Military and being involved in the murder as well as the attacks on an Anti-Castro organization called Brothers to the rescue.

The background of the Five is that they were acting as foreign agents as well as a Castro defense group wherein they were retaliating against the measures taken by Brothers to the Rescue, who on several occasions, invaded Cuban airspace on purpose in order to drop leaflets and to raise public sentiments against Fidel Castro's government.

Their trial was held in Miami, where there are many Anti-Castro communities, which is one of the reasons why the trial is seen to be unfair in the international communities and is being objected to vehemently even by Nobel Laureates.

Why the Trial Was Unfair

The Cuban Five are seen to keep the cause of the Cuban Revolution and the cause of Fidel Castro alive by the Cuban government, while the exiled Cuban community in America considers them to be criminals who are violating their rights and are perpetuating fear in their community regarding even though they are far away from the country.

Even then, as far as the trial goes, the world is seeing the trial that was held as being unfair as it was not held on the Cuban soil, where these people belonged. This paper too agrees that the Cuban Five were not subjected to a fair trial as they should have been allowed a trial in their own country. It is hypocrisy being practiced at the level of the American government, where Raymond Davis, an American CIA agent's trial was protesting severely against the trial of the agent in Pakistan, as they said that he was of American origin and that his trial should take place in the country from where he originated.

As far as the issue of the Cuban Five is concerned, they were tried in state where anti-Castro spirit already persisted among the largest population of the community in America. It would have still been better had the government held the trial in some other state so that the jury members would at least have been somewhat impartial. While the jury did not consist of any exiled members, the press coverage coming out of the region was negative. Moreover even though the government was unable to prove that the members had passed on any confidential information, the fact remained that the Cuban Five's appeals were ignored and they were sentenced to life imprisonment and various other penalties varying with the involvement that the five were indicted of individually in their attacks on the Brother to the Rescue's two airplanes.

That was the reason why even Robert Pastor presented his reservations against the trial stating that there was too much pressure on the courts in their region.

One of the reasons that have been oft cited by the critics of this punishment is that they U.S. government was looking at its personal objective of being reelected again, and as Miami is a populous consistency with the exile members of the Cuban community being settled there in large numbers, there was pressure on the Obama government to appease them in order to garner support from them in the next election.

Cuban Five as Criminals

It is no doubt a factor that the activities of the five have been criminal where they have planned attacks and has murdered people who have been against the Castro government. Had it been full-fledged war, the planning and the attacks on the government and various Cuban communities would have been considered activities of war and would have had a legal logic to it. Although war crime is far more severe and at most times not even justified, these murders would have made sense. Moreover, the Five also did not get any such reports that could have in some way been connected to plan terrorist attacks in Cuba by the exiled group. Therefore the proactive stance that they took was not justified if they were protecting the country. Instead of combating these and ignoring the issues the Five made their own plans and executed them. There were no diplomatic talks or arrangements which leads us to believe that what the Cuban Five did on the pretext of saying their country was ethically incorrect. They might have been protecting their own country against known threats but there was no way of knowing whether those killed were actually looking to fight Castro.

Due to their efforts nearly 3000 people have been killed. While there are chances that some of these people might have been conspiring against the government, this number is bond to include the innocent ones as well who were punished without a reason. This was because the five had mounted various attacks n the people in Miami over the years and these were not planned attacks where the two countries were at war officially with each other. These were mounted as retaliation on people who might not have even is concerned with a cause. These attacks were surprise attacks and were in the nature of terrorist attacks which was the reason why there was public outrage in Miami and their punishment was rallied for where people were outside courts demanding that the five be hanged.

According to Duncan Campbell in the Guardian in 2008, he indicates that the society has become more punitive and indicates that:

"All were accused of committing espionage. Their defense was that they were involved in infiltrating and monitoring Miami-based anti-Castro groups to prevent terrorist attacks on Cuba. These organizations have mounted various attacks on the island over the years; the Five claimed that as many as 3,000 people have died as a result."

The Five as Antiterrorists

The Five have claimed that they were collecting information against the Cuban community in America and that was the reason why they indulged in the activity. Therefore in this regards, they were defending their own country and that is the reason why their countrymen consider them as freedom fighters. Their pictures and their sculptures are found everywhere along with that of Fidel Castro and they are being cited and being upheld in their own country as heroes.

Their activities have been such that they have been trying to avert attacks on Cuba and trying to save the Cuban people by seeking intelligence information and passing it on to the authorities in order for them to introduce counter measures.

Another reason why they are being so highly held in esteem is because of the unfairness meted out to them during their days in court as the trial is and is being seen in the world as being unfair. After all it is the Cuban government's right to punish them, and even if the reason for Cuba being pro -- the Cuban Five is considered the trial should have been held in a third country with impartial judges so that they would have at least gotten a fair trial.

According to Bill Mears in CNN he feels that the trial was not held justly and has indicated that it was the only trial that was condemned by the UN Human Rights council as being unjust. Bill Mears said that:

"Attorney Thomas Goldstein, representing the five, said lower courts unfairly refused to move the trial from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, 30 miles to the north."The defendants were very concerned about the prevalent anti-Castro hostility, and the tremendous press coverage," he said, "The [federal] appeals court has made it virtually impossible to get a change of venue, even in this kind of case."

The appeal also claimed prosecutors unfairly excused seven potential African-Americans from the pool of potential jurors. The final jury included three black members but no Cuban-Americans. The Cuban Five trial was the only judicial proceeding in U.S. history condemned by the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Eight Nobel Prize winners have also petitioned the U.S. attorney general, calling for freedom for the five."

Conclusion

The case of the Cuban Five brings to light an example of international controversies where there is nothing black or white. There are no evil monsters and neither are their saints and angels. There in fact are real people who have different ideologies and beliefs and in doing so they take actions that can be detrimental to society.

In case of the Cuban Five, these men were working on the ideology the Fidel Castro was their leader and that any revolt against him had to be subdued. The people against Castro were in fact waging a war that Castro once fought himself before he took over, and was in fact the leader of a revolt against social injustice which was successful. Seen from that perspective where the Cuban government feels that the Americans are hypocrites, Castro too is a hypocrite as he is trying to subdue the revolt which is based on the same causes that he once believed in as well.

Therefore where the five are trying to protect their country and their leader, they are also oppressing people who have a right to their own opinions. Had they been doing it in a peaceful or a diplomatic fashion that would have been understood, even an announced war would have been acceptable, but killing innocents in the name of stability and anti-terrorism is really not the way. They are criminals and need punishment.

But here too is the case of the American government which was involved in their cases when it really was not the deciding authority. As indicated above, a third country and an impartial judge should have been involved in the case for it to be truly fair. Moreover, as America itself had a role to play in the Cuban revolt and uprisings it was a stakeholder and should have demanded a trial of these Five and not has conducted itself.

Moreover, as far as the Jury itself is concerned, people who were pertinent to it were not involved and hence a perspective on the situation in Cuba could not be judges on by the jury which gave its decision.

Therefore, the Cuban Five committed crimes in the name of ideology whereas the exiled Cuban parties also did the same under the head of a different viewpoint. The case brings to light how warfare and conflict really cannot solve any political problems as these have been worsened rather than helped along. Diplomatic dialogue between t he two nations is key if the differences are too settled. Each side should take into consideration the other's opinions and while not accepting them as their own should be tolerant to them so that the peace process can get a boost.

If events continue in this way the relations between the two countries will be irreparable. It does not matter that the Five are criminals or antiterrorists what matters are the countless people who lost their lives in someone else's conflict which killed people on each side with no resolution in sight.