The American government would rather the world not hear this: Five Cuban men imprisoned in the United States for fighting against terrorism. That is right — imprisoned for fighting terrorism.
US President George W. Bush has endlessly lectured on how he plans to rid the world of those involved in acts of terror. “We’re going to find them,” he has said.
“They think they can hide in a cave in the outer reaches of Afghanistan. We will go to the cave and find them.”
Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez, the wives of two of the imprisoned Cuban men, could give some pointers to US security experts in this ever-expanding mission to “smoke out” terrorists.
“If they [the US] really want to get their hands on terrorists, they don’t have to invade other countries,” Salanueva says. “Terrorists live in the US.”
Salanueva is talking about Miami-based organisations run by exiles, who the Cuban government accuses of carrying out terrorist attacks in that country.
About 3,500 have died in such attacks since 1959, when the Cuban Revolution got rid of a dictator close to the US. The attacks include an aeroplane bombing in 1976 and the deliberate targeting of Cuba’s growing tourism sector during the Nineties.
The five imprisoned Cubans, who had been monitoring the shadowy organisations, were taken into custody in Miami in 1998.
All of them have since been convicted with long jail terms, including life sentences for three. Salanueva’s husband René González got 15 years.
“The case of the five bears all the hatred that the US administration has towards Cuba,” Perez says.
“We had been living under an economic blockade for more then 50 years. There have been different administrations in the US and their aggressiveness and hostility have only increased through the years.”
Her husband Gerardo Hernández is serving two life terms in the US plus 15 years. Despite several attempts in almost a decade, Perez and Salanueva have been denied visas to travel to the US to meet their husbands.
The US for its part accuses the five of espionage, lying and being “foreign agents”. The Cubans say they were not spying on the US government or its security apparatus but only monitoring certain shadowy organisations to prevent terrorist attacks in their country.
“The five were in US territory out of purely humanitarian reasons,” Perez says. “And we have a right to demand their release. We have every right to visit them while they are in prison.”
The story of how the five were discovered is itself strange. In 1998 Fidel Castro sent Nobel prize-winning Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez as his emissary to deliver a handwritten note to president Bill Clinton in Washington.
His aim was to try and put a stop to the terrorist attacks on Cuba. As Clinton was away, the letter was handed over to the White House chief of staff.
Following this, a meeting was arranged between the FBI and Cuban officials, who provided files containing the results of their investigation into the terrorist acts.
Instead of dealing with the accused people, the American authorities ended up arresting the Cubans, who were monitoring the suspected organisations.
It is no surprise that in Cuba the five are heroes whose images grace giant billboards. Many refer to them as the Miami Five.
Salanueva says everyone in Cuba, from “ordinary workers to the most important and renowned intellectual” is aware of these five persons.
“Everybody knows about the case because the five are part of the Cuban people. They are from a generation born after the revolution — five men who understood the need for the Cuban people to defend themselves against terrorist actions.”
It is a different story in the US, where the media has given scant coverage to the issue.
The same media, which had been active in providing constant news feeds about non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” in the lead-up to the Iraq war, has preferred to remain uninterested in the Cubans’ issue.
This raises questions on whether more airtime needs to be assigned to matters closer home.
“There has been total silence about the case in the US media,” says Perez. “It is proof of the US government’s link with these organisations. Had there been proper media coverage, it would be clear that the objective of these men was to monitor terrorist organisations in the United States.”
As a result of the media blackout, visits by family members of the five and newspaper advertisements have become the means to spread the word.
The closer one scrutinises the issue of the Miami Five, the more sinister it appears. There are suggestions and accusations of the CIA’s links with the accused groups.
The US intelligence agency’s involvement in Cuba during the Sixties is an open secret.
“If there hadn’t been this wall of silence around this case, it would have meant that the world would come to know about the double standards of the US government in relation to the war on terror,” Perez says.
“On the one hand they claim to be fighting terrorism and on the other they protect these terrorist organisations.”
The campaign for the five is taking the form a global movement, with support from Nobel laureates and celebrities.
In the United Kingdom, support has come from at least 110 MPs and the former mayor of London, Ken Livingston, who signed a letter calling for the five’s release. Trade unions also have come out in support.
Amnesty International has backed Salanueva and Perez’s right to get US visas to visit their husbands, terming the refusal to do so as “unnecessarily punitive and contrary to standards for humane treatment of prisoners”.
In a message to the supporters of the five imprisoned persons, Hollywood actor Danny Glover said: “People who honestly stand up against terrorism must speak out against these terrorist acts that operate outside of US and international law. They must speak out in defence of the five.”
The continued US occupation of Guantanamo Bay also comes into the picture. “This is part of Cuban territory occupied by the US against the will of the Cuban people,” Salanueva says.
Guantanamo Bay has been described by Amnesty as the “Gulag of our times”.
The base was leased out to the US in 1903 under a treaty by president Theodore Roosevelt which was to stand until both governments agreed to withdraw or the base was abandoned. But under Castro, Cuba declared the American occupation of Guantanamo illegal.
For nearly half a century Castro has refused to accept the annual lease payments amounting to $4,085. It is said that the US makes out a cheque to the Cuban government every year and it goes uncashed.
One could easily argue the agreement signed in 1903 stands invalid today as it was forced upon Cubans and stands as a throwback to the colonial era.
“The Cuban people are completely against the concentration camps, torture and the goings-on in Guantanamo,” Salanueva says.
“Especially for the families of the five, it is particularly painful because we have gone through a process riddled with violations. We have seen things that we never thought could happen to a prisoner. We know what’s going on in Guantanamo is not propaganda — it happens.”
If America really wants to eradicate terrorism, she says, its fight will have to begin at home. “America’s own foreign policy is a terrorist one. A lot of innocent people are paying the price for this policy. All countries should unite to fight this and every other injustice.”
US President-Elect Barack Obama has promised change in the policy on Cuba, including easing restrictions on travel and sending money.
But Perez says her hopes do not rest on a change in government in the US. “There is no doubt that the Bush administration has been the worst in many years. But they have the chance to change their image by freeing the five men and putting the real terrorists in prison.”
Salanueva echoes Perez’s condemnation of America’s double standards in its war against terror.
“They are not fighting against terrorism. They invade countries; they massacre people just to increase their might. They need a pretext to invade a country and that is what they are looking for.”
One could ask: If terrorists are roaming free in the US, is the military prepared to carry out Afghanistan-style bombings of Miami to root them out? Of course not, because it would go against all norms and human rights.
“While the five are in prison the real terrorists continue to live happily in Miami,” Salanueva says. She is referring to characters such as former CIA employee Luis Posada Carriles.
He is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela, where he is accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban aeroplane, in which 73 people were killed.
He has also been linked to terrorist attacks on tourist spots in Cuba. Another man is Orlando Bosch, who is considered a terrorist in Cuba for his alleged involvement in the aeroplane bombing and other incidents.
The US government, however, does not appear to be bothered when it comes to fighting terrorism inside Cuba.
Salanueva recalls something her husband González once said: “A person can be a capitalist and yet be a good person. A person can be a socialist and be a good person. A person can be a Catholic or a Muslim and be a good person. What you definitely cannot be is a terrorist and a good person.”
In a situation where injustice and double standards prevail, what brings hope for these women? “There is no evidence whatsoever to condemn them [the five men]. We know this is a political case,” Perez says. “The one thing to which we have a right is not to lose hope.”
Syed Hamad Ali is an independent writer based in London.
