------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Nov. 28, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
CITING BIAS IN MIAMI AREA: NEW TRIAL SOUGHT FOR IMPRISONED CUBANS By Gloria La Riva In a major development for all five Cuban political prisoners held in the U.S., attorney Leonard Weinglass filed a motion on Nov. 12 in a Miami federal district court seeking a new trial for his client, Antonio Guerrero. The other four prisoners will soon join the legal action. Weinglass's motion cites newly discovered evidence of deliberate misrepresentation in the trial of the five Cubans by the U.S. Attorney, whose office fought to keep the trial in Miami. Although the defense attorneys had argued strongly to the court that widespread prejudice in Miami precluded a fair trial in that city, Federal Judge Joan Lenard denied a venue change. The Miami trial ended in June 2001 with convictions on all 26 federal charges. In a Nov. 12 press conference to announce the motion, Weinglass showed that the same U.S. Attorney's office which had claimed that a fair, unbiased trial in Miami was possible for the five then argued the opposite position one year later, when U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was the defendant in a June 2002 civil suit--Ramirez v. Ashcroft. Weinglass said: "The government took the position that when the defendants were agents of the Cuban government charged with murder and espionage, they could receive a fair trial in Miami. But when the defendant in a civil case is the Attorney General of the United States, he could not receive a fair trial in the Miami district because of the very same prejudice and bias coming out of the Cuban American community. These contradictory positions make a mockery of justice." "Mr. Weinglass's motion is extremely well thought out and compelling," said Richard Klugh of the federal public defender's office in Miami, who also participated in the press conference and whose office defended Fernando Gonzalez, now in a federal prison in Oxford, Wisc. Paul McKenna, trial and appeals lawyer for Gerardo Hernandez, who is in Lompoc prison in California serving two life sentences on false charges of conspiracy to commit murder and espionage, says, "Remember that now we depend on Judge Lenard, who's being asked to undo four years of work. That's a tremendous request. I don't know if she will have the courage to do it, but I know it would be the correct thing to do." Lenard's conduct during the seven-month trial may be a gauge of how she could rule on the new-trial motion. During the trial, Lenard dismissed the significant findings of a survey prepared for the defense by a Florida professor, Gary Moran, in the struggle for venue change. The poll showed strong anti-Cuba prejudice in the Miami/Dade County area, and considerably less hostility in nearby Broward County, 25 miles away. The survey showed that 74.5 percent of Miami-area respondents called for U.S. policy to "intensify U.S. opposition to Cuba." In Broward County, only 26.5 percent of respondents supported that position. The defense was willing to have the trial moved to Broward. Judge Lenard rejected Moran's survey findings, claiming, among other things, that a 300-person survey was too small, although she had earlier approved the defense's plan for a 300-person survey. A supporting affidavit to the Weinglass motion, by Dr. Kendra Brennan, a legal psychologist and survey expert, supports the validity of the Moran survey. The five men--Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez and Ramon Labanino--are serving from 15 years to two life terms in federal prison. They were railroaded by the U.S. government on false charges of espionage against the U.S. and other related crimes. In actuality their sole mission was to monitor and report on the activities of anti-Cuba, right-wing organizations in Miami, in order to prevent terrorist attacks on Cuba. Instead of prosecuting the terrorists, the FBI arrested the anti-terrorists in pre-dawn raids on Sept. 12, 1998. The five Cubans were portrayed by the government and right-wing Miami media as agents threatening the "national security"of the United States. They spent 17 months in solitary confinement in a Miami prison. DENIED THEIR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS In Miami every legal, political and social issue is influenced by the strong counter-revolutionary atmosphere. The courts, police, city and county governments, media, educational systems, and other institutions zealously promote hostility toward Cuba. For the counter- revolutionary, terrorist groups and their supporters, it is a billion-dollar industry. While racism abounds against the African-American, Haitian and other communities, the Cuban community has been afforded privileges by the U.S. ruling class for providing shock troops against the Cuban Revolution. Certainly, the ultra-right do not speak for the majority of all Cubans in Miami, who for the most part are working-class poor who have arrived in recent years for economic reasons. But for more than 40 years, those in Miami who speak openly in favor of normalizing relations with Cuba and ending the blockade have lived under intimidation and often terror. Orlando Bosch, the notorious terrorist found responsible by a Venezuelan court for the murder of 73 individuals in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana passenger plane, was officially declared a "hero" by the city of Miami. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida congressperson, used her office's influence to help procure planes for the terrorist group "Brothers to the Rescue." Even in Miami's cultural scene, the terrorists have held sway. Last September, when Miami was the scheduled host city for the Latin Grammy awards, local politicians and the police catered to right-wing demands for access to the artists, forcing the Grammy organizers to move their event to Los Angeles at the last minute. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
