Free The Miami Five

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Tuesday February 15, 2005 22:58 by Sean

FREE THE MIAMI FIVE
CAMPAIGN IRELAND

present
The Irish Premier of the Film

MISSION AGAINST
TERROR
A Documentary Film written and directed by Bernie Dwyer and Roberto Ruiz Rebo

Thursday 21 April 2005 at 7.30pm
in Liberty Hall, Dublin 1
Admission Free

Followed by a discussion with the co-directors

IMPRISONED FOR FIGHTING AGAINST TERRORISM
For over 40 years, Washington has tolerated the existence of a terrorist network in Miami, made up of extremist, right-wing Cuban-Americans. These Miami-based terrorist organizations operate with impunity. Anti-Cuba terrorism has caused the deaths of almost 3,500 Cubans in a low-intensity warfare against the island, a war unknown to most United States citizens outside of Florida.
Yet, terrorists like Orlando Bosch - who walks the streets of Miami a free man - are protected by U.S. officials all the way up to the White House: '... now the Bush Administration coddles one of the hemisphere's most notorious terrorists (Orlando Bosch). And for what reason? The only one evident is currying favor in south Florida.' (New York Times, July 20, 1990)
After decades of protests to the U.S. government, which did nothing, Cuba dispatched a group of men to Miami to observe, monitor, and report on the workings of the terrorist network. The objective: To protect innocent lives in Cuba AND the United States.
The men, now known as the Miami Five, collected evidence of the terrorists' plots, which was then presented to the FBI. On June 17, 1998, a historic meeting was held in Havana. There, Cuban officials implored U.S. law enforcement officials to act on evidence presented, in order to end the cycle of terror.
Instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI rounded up the Miami Five, the very people who were warning about the terrorist plans. Gerardo Hernández, René González, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labaniño, and Fernando González were arrested on September 12, 1998, and placed in solitary confinement for 17 months.
They were charged with failure to disclose themselves as foreign agents, passport violations and several counts of conspiracy. The Cuban Five were denied the right to an unbiased jury trial, after the judge turned down their motions for a change of venue out of Miami.
The jury was intimidated, witnesses were bullied by the prosecution, and defence lawyers were denied access to evidence on the spurious grounds that the information was classified. Even high-ranking officials of the FBI and the U.S. Southern Command testified that the Five did nothing to compromise the national security of the United States. After a seven-month trial, generating 14,000 transcript pages to consider, the Miami jury convicted on all counts without asking one question of the court in deliberations.
The swift verdict was not the result of a careful analysis of the facts presented at trial. Rather, the convictions were inevitable in a trial held in Miami - the only city so deeply saturated with anti-Cuba prejudice. The Miami Five were sentenced to four life terms and 75 years collectively. This 48 min film tells their story.