• Biographical information about René González Sehweret, one of the
                   five Cubans found guilty in Miami, revealed on Monday, June 25, during
                   the roundtable discussion held in Havana

                   MODERATOR Randy Alonso explained that René was born in Chicago
                   on August 13, 1956, a few months before Fidel landed in eastern
                   Cuba to fight for the downfall of the Batista dictatorship.

                   His Cuban-born father had emigrated to the United States in search
                   of employment, and was an iron and steel worker. In October 1961
                   René’s parents decided to return to Cuba because they had
                   supported the Cuban Revolution since before the triumph of the
                   Rebel Army.

                   René joined the Young Communist League in 1970 and, three years
                   later, the second contingent of the Manual Ascunce Pedagogical
                   Detachment, named after one of the literary workers killed by
                   counterrevolutionary bands that had been operating in the
                   Escambray mountain range.

                   He was a teacher at a secondary school in the countryside, in the
                   municipality of Alquizar, in southern Havana province. He did military
                   service voluntarily, because – given his U.S. citizenship – it was not
                   obligatory for him. During that stage, he became a tank driver.

                   He participated in an internationalist mission in Angola between 1977
                   and 1979, and upon his return from Africa he graduated as a pilot in
                   the Carlos Ulloa Aviation School. He was squadron chief at the San
                   Nicolás de Bari air base in Havana province.

                   In 1990 he joined the Communist Party of Cuba and months later
                   left for the United States.