December Blues for the Miami Five

Another December gone by. Seven Decembers in jail for Gerardo, Rene, Antonio, and Ramón, four of them since the end of the embarrassing trial in Miami that taints the history of jurisprudence in the land of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. On the other hand, in 2005, two events came to the fore - for those who are too blind to see the truth that Cuba says over and over: the true nature of this process is not legal, but political.

Last August 9th, a three judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta declared, the warped trial that occurred in Miami between December 2000 and June 2001 null and void. This decision was written by highly regarded federal judges, none of whom have any links to the Island.

In a tightly worded 93 page decision, the judges annulled the guilty verdicts that resulted from that twisted process: alluding to the numerous unheeded requests made by the defense for a change of venue; the three-judge panel emphasized the evidence offered concerning the contaminated political climate in Miami, hazardous to a fair trial and also mentioned the harassment of jurors who complained that local television stations filmed during their deliberations. The judges also remarked on the unprofessional behavior by the district attorneys.

Yet the Five remain behind bars, because the U.S. Attorney successfully appealed for an en banc hearing. Oral arguments are scheduled for the week of February 13th, 2006.

Prior to the Three-Judge Panel decision, The Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions of the United Nations Human Rights Commission declared on May 27, 2005, that the detention of the Five is illegal and in violation of International Law.

The U.N. decision is based on three grounds: 1. Rene, Ramon, Fernando, Gerardo and Antonio were kept in solitary confinement for 17 months, making it difficult for counsel to communicate with them; 2. Defense counsel was prevented from complete access to the evidence, 3. and Miami's contaminated climate of bias and prejudice against the accused made a fair trial impossible.

The United Nations specialists - men and women of unsurpassed authority on such matters of justice - concluded that those three considerations "in unison, are of such significance that they grant arbitrary character to the incarceration of these five men." In consequence, they requested the government of the United States take the necessary measures to remedy this.

The White House ignored the U.N. decision despite the jurisdiction of U.N. organizations to oversee international law, irrespective of the peculiarities of local legal systems. It is so stipulated in article 14 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, paradoxically, the only one of the thirteen legal instruments of the United Nations Human Rights subsystem that the US government has ratified in recent years.

Then, why are they still incarcerated?

The issue goes beyond justice. It grows out of the ancient battle the United States has waged against the small Island that dares to express its sovereignty under its very nose. With the Five, Cuba is on trial. Any delay is welcome to condemn rebellion, to satisfy anti Castro extremists in Miami, and to justify the presence of this tiny country on the list of presumed terrorist nations threatening the "free world." Meanwhile, the United States government continues to practice terrorism all over the globe. Prisoners are tortured by American troops in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan. Others are "rendered" for torture abroad in clandestine prisons, beyond the reach of the Bill of Rights. Cruelty has replaced the Constitution.

Ethics dictates that the Five be freed. Anything less will bring discredit on the U.S. government.

However with the years in captivity piling up - we remember Rene's words a few Decembers ago at his sentencing-- "we will continue appealing to the American people's desire for the truth. We will do so with the patience, faith and courage that falls upon those of us whose only crime is our dignity."