BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD —Special for Granma International—
"WHEN he saw Gerardo, he was naked, locked up in what they called the "box," that is to say a "hole" within the "hole", with no clothes and with absolutely no contact with the outside world. When they took him out, they removed all the other prisoners who were in the "hole" because he was not allowed to be seen, or hear another human voice or see another human being," explained Ricardo Alarcón, recalling how New York lawyer Leonard Weinglass had described his first encounter with Gerardo Hernández, one of the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in the United States.
"This is physical torture!" denounced the president of Cuba’s National Assembly, interviewed by Granma International in relation to the maltreatment inflicted on Gerardo since his detention in September 1998, in relation to several cases of torture that have occurred over the last few years within the U.S. penal system, not just on that territory but also in Afghanistan, Iraq and the illegal Guantánamo base.
René González, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González, were arrested on September 12, 1998 in Miami and taken that very same day to the city’s Federal Detention Center (FDC) where they were immediately incarcerated in punishment cells, without being able to contact anyone for 17 days. On September 29, they were moved to the special holding unit, a solitary confinement cell known as the "hole" where they remained until February 3, 2000: 17 months of a treatment usually reserved for prisoners responsible for serious disciplinary problems or murders carried out within the prison itself.
"Leonard Weinglass described to us the conditions in which he saw Antonio when he – and he’s his lawyer! – finally managed to meet with his client," commented Alarcón. "They were preparing the appeal document and he hadn’t even been able to see him to explain on what grounds the appeal was to be based. And he found him chained up. He wasn’t even able to talk to him. They spoke to each other by phone through a glass window!
During the trial that was rigged by the FBI and the District Attorney’s Office, the Five were once again locked up in the "hole", where they remained for 48 days. When they were finally returned to normal cells, the unnecessarily cruel sanctions were maintained, such as deprivation of personal belongings, including photos of their relatives.
Besides this, openly advised by the capos of Miami’s Cuban-American mafia, the District Attorney’s office and the FBI constantly separated them from their families in order to try and crush their spirits.
They have prohibited visits between Gerardo Hernández and his wife Adriana Pérez O’Connor for more than six years now. The State Department consistently denies Adriana a visa to enter the United States under the pretext that she is believed to be "a threat to the national security of the United States."
Olga Salanueva, the wife of René González, is in the same situation, having been prevented from seeing her husband for more than four years. To such an extent that her young daughter, Ivette González – a U.S. citizen by birth – has had no contact with her father.
For the president of the National Assembly, the violation of human rights is evident: "This is torture not just for them but for their families as well," stressed Alarcón, adding that, "they have finally given a visa to Ramón’s family. We’re in December, it’s the end of the year and they originally asked for it in early 2004!"
With the cruelty of this situation, deliberately isolated in five different prisons spread throughout the immense U.S. territory, the Five are also suffering from the fact that they are serving their sentences in a foreign country, "which is an additional suffering" and in the case of those serving life sentences, living in exceptionally harsh conditions," concluded Alarcón, who also six weeks.
In the Victorville jail in the state of California where he is imprisoned, Gerardo is subjected to "lock down" due to disturbances amongst the prison population. Under this regime – so characteristic of this country’s penal system that violates the human rights of other prisoners – inmates are confined to their cells, with no hot meals, with restricted recreation time, and no visits or even telephone calls.
AN ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTARY
Alarcón attended the premiere of the film Mission Against Terror - a documentary on the Five and their fight against terrorism, directed by Irish journalist Bernie Dwyer from Radio Habana Cuba, and Cuban Roberto Ruiz, programs director and scriptwriter with the Cuban television Education Channel.
Mission Against Terror received its international premiere at the European Cuba Solidarity Congress in Luxembourg on November 21 and has since been shown in several different European countries.
The documentary provides ample information on the work carried out by the Five who infiltrated terrorist circles in Miami, as well as the context of this work, namely the terrorist attacks on Cuba for almost five decades and the Cuban people’s need to defend themselves.
Co-produced by Cuba’s Education Channel and the Irish production company Two Islands Productions, Mission Against Terror is an essential documentary for those who want to find out more about the Five’s case.