BARBADOS AND THE "CUBAN FIVE"

The "Cuban Five" are five patriotic Cuban men - Gerardo Nordelo, Ramon Salazar, Rene Sehweret, Fernando Llort and Antonio Rodriguez - who are currently locked away in a number of prisons in the United States of America, serving sentences ranging from 15 years to life in prison, imposed upon them by the Federal court of Miami in the state of Florida, USA for the alleged crime of espionage against the U.S.A and other associated alleged offences.

Over the past twelve years these five men have been treated by the judicial authorities of the U.S.A as if they are the most vile criminals, and yet, in the Republic of Cuba itself, and in numerous countries all around the world, these men are regarded as heroes and have been the subject of a multiplicity of campaigns and petitions demanding their release.

When one examines the backgrounds of the "Cuban Five", one discovers that they are all married family men between the ages of 45 years and 54 years, and that their occupations range from engineer, to pilot, to writer, cartoonist and economist. In addition, prior to their arrests and convictions by the U.S. criminal justice system they enjoyed shining and unblemished reputations.

The American establishment claim that they are guilty of some substantial crime, but at the same time , all around the world, tens of thousands of fair minded and justice loving persons, including no less than ten Nobel Prize winners have formed themselves into committees and are demanding the release of the "Cuban Five".

Indeed, right here in Barbados there is a small "Cuban Five Defence Committee" under the chairmanship of Mr Eddie Douglas! Furthermore, our very own "Clement Payne Movement" has also done some considerable work on bringing the plight of the Cuban Five to the attention of the legal fraternity of Barbados and in petitioning the government of the USA to release these unjustly convicted and imprisoned fighters against US based terrorist attacks on the Republic of Cuba.

And this is as it should be! In fact, Barbados should be playing an even greater role in the international campaign to free the Cuban Five, because, in a very real sense, the journey of these five Cuban patriots to their imprisonment in the USA began right here in Barbados, almost 25 years ago!

It was on the 6th day of October 1976 that, within minutes of a Cuban civilian airliner taking off from Seawell Airport in Barbados, a bomb planted in the cabin of the aircraft exploded, causing the Cubana airplane to plunge into the waters of the Caribbean sea, in close proximity to the west coast of Barbados. Every single one of the 73 Cubans, Guyanese and North Koreans on board perished in this precedent setting act of terrorism!

One week later - on 14th October 1976 - the government of Barbados appointed a Commission of Enquiry under the chairmanship of High Court judge, Denys Williams, to investigate the causes and circumstances of this tragic event.

In its report issued some four months later, the Commission noted that substantial evidence existed to identify Ricardo Lozano and Freddie Lugo--- two passengers who had joined the Cubana flight in Trinidad and who had disembarked when the plane landed at Seawell Airport in Barbados--- as the two functionaries who had been responsible for placing the bomb on the Cubana plane. And significantly, in his evidence before the Commission, the representative of the Cuban government, Senior Martinez, explained that the Cuban government’s own investigation had determined that Lozano and Lugo were subordinates of the anti-Cuban CIA supported terrorist organisations known as CORU and ICICA and run by arch-terrorists Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles respectively.

Needless-to-say, the Cubana mass murder in Barbados shocked the entire Cuban nation and brought about a national realization that the campaign of terrorism that had been launched in 1960 against the Cuban Revolution by the Cuban-American mafia and their United States backers had now reached a new level of barbarity, and that bolder measures would have to be taken in the future to foil the U S based terrorists.

Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carilles were never brought to justice for their high crimes against the Cuban nation, and in fact continued to be given comfort, succor and support in the USA by the plethora of Cuban-American counter- revolutionary organisations stationed in the city of Miami.

Indeed, Carilles and Bosch became so emboldened by their US based support that in the mid 1990's Bosch embarked upon a new conspiracy to assassinate Fidel Castro, and Carilles masterminded a terrorist campaign to blow up hotels in Cuba. And so, operating out of Miami, counter-revolutionary terrorists found their way into Cuba and set off explosions at no less than six Cuban hotels in the year 1997!

In fact, so brazen and arrogant had the counter-revolutionary forces become that the Miami Herald newspaper actually openly reported that Carilles was at the heart of these bombing operations, while Carilles himself, in a 1998 New York Times interview, publicly admitted to having organized the bombing campaign.

It was this intensification of terrorist attack on Cuba that led five Cuban patriots to station themselves in Miami in order to infiltrate the various terrorist organisations, and to collect advance intelligence that could be used to forestall pending attacks on their homeland.

Indeed, so open and well-meaning were the Cuban authorities, that in June 1998 Cuba’s Ministry of Home Affairs provided the FBI with dossiers of information on the acts of violence being planned in Miami, together with audio and video tapes which explicitly identified the malefactors. Ironically,

it was this honest and constructive overture that the American authorities pounced upon and used as a springboard to launch arrests against– not the Miami based terrorists – but against the five Cuban patriots who had helped to ferret out the information.

And so, on 12th. September 1998 the "Cuban Five" were arrested in Miami, subjected to a biased and deeply flawed political trial, and sentenced to unjust and inordinately long prison terms.

We all have a duty to help to get them released, and the best way we can do so is by raising our voices in condemnation of this egregious injustice, and by lobbying our government and fellow citizens to get involved in the international campaign to free the Cuban Five. Please feel free to contact the Peoples Empowerment Party for further information.