[Ppnews] BBC interview with Gerardo Hernández, one of the Cuban Five

[Political Prisoner News]

BBC interview with Gerardo Hernández, one of the Cuban Five

BBC World Service
2007/7/2



Transcript of 
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ondemand/rams/nh27166____2007.ram>BBC 
interview with Gerardo Hernández
July 2, 2007


Well next month, a court in Florida is going to 
hear an appeal in a case that sums up much about 
the relationship between the United States and 
Cuba. Gerardo Hernández and four other Cubans 
were convicted in Florida in December, 2001 on a 
range of charges including trying to obtain U.S. 
military secrets, spying on Cuban exile groups, 
and, in Mr. Hernández' case, conspiracy in the 
deaths of four Cuban-Americans whose planes were 
shot down by the Cuban government in 1996.

Gerardo Hernández is serving a double life 
sentence, but he argues that all he was trying to 
do was protect Cuba from what he calls "terrorist 
groups," anti-Castro organizations based in the 
U.S. He and his fellow defendants also argue that 
their trial was unfair because of the anti-Castro 
mood in Florida where it was held.

In the first-ever media interview given by any of 
the five prisoners, I spoke to Mr. Hernández on 
the telephone from his maximum security prison in 
Victorville, California, and asked him to explain 
his story from the beginning. What was he doing in Florida in the first place?

Gerardo Hernández: Well in the first place, I was 
gathering information on terrorist groups that 
used to operate in Florida with total impunity. 
So at a certain point Cuba decided to send some 
people to gather information on those groups and 
send it back to Cuba to prevent those actions. In 
1998, Cuba passed to the FBI some information 
regarding those groups, hoping that the FBI would 
do something against them. And unfortunately, 
what they did was arresting the people that have gathered that information.

But you do acknowledge that you were working as 
an agent for a foreign government, and in one of 
your defense statements you do say that you were 
working with false documents, falsee identity documents?

GH: Yes, I do acknowlege that. But there is 
something called "necessity defense," that says 
that if in order to prevent crime you have to 
violate a law you can understand that. In my 
case, yes I have fake I.D., I was working for 
foreign government, but not to affect the U.S. 
interest, but to defend Cuban interests, to 
defend the Cuban people from terrorism.

And the crime you were trying to stop, what exactly were they, the crimes?

GH: Well, for example, in 1997, a bomb exploded 
in a Cuban hotel and killed an Italian tourist. 
And in 1976, as you know, a bomb exploded in a 
Cuban airplane and killed 73 people. And that's 
only two samples of terrorist acts committed 
against Cuba. Anybody who lives in Miami, they 
know what Commandos F-4 is, and they know what 
Alpha 66 is. They've got training camps in the 
Everglades, they dress camoflage, and got 
weapons, and they train for the day they're 
gonna' liberate Cuba. They used to go to Cuba in 
boats and fire at Cuban buildings and they tried 
to organize an internal sabotage and all kinds of 
actions. Hopefully the U.S. government and the 
U.S. authorities will do something, because they 
say they have a war against terrorists, but how 
come you gonna' allow those terrorists to operate freely in Miami?

There is one very contentious charge on which you 
were convicted and the reason why you are serving 
such a long sentence ­ the shooting down by Cuba 
of two civilian planes from the United States in 
1996. Did you have any role connected to that?

GH: No, absolutely not. I was in Miami and the 
plane was shot down in Cuban waters, a long way away.

So you didn't pass any information that would 
have helped the Cuban government to shoot down the planes?

GH: No, of course not. If you go to the records 
of those times, you will see that José Basulto 
announced way before the trip, he said we are 
going there on February 24, everybody knew that. 
And the government charged me for conspiracy, and 
they said that is because I knew that the plane 
would be shot down, and because I knew that the 
plane would be shot down over international 
waters, which has no sense at all. It's something 
crazy, but they need to blame somebody and they chose me.

You have an appeal coming up. What will be the grounds for the appeal?

GH: We argue that the trial wasn't fair in Miami. 
Our trial lasted over seven months and there were 
over 100 witnesses. The jury deliberated a few 
hours and they didn't ask a single question. They 
just found us guilty on every single count, and 
then the judge gave us the higher sentence possible on every count.

And you say that that is because of the influence 
of the Cuban exile community in Florida?

GH: Yes, of course. During the trial there were 
all kinds of irregularities, to call it like 
that. People were phoning [?] the jurors, and 
following the jurors, the press was following the 
jurors to their cars, and there were riots or 
some kind of contest [?] in front of the courts, all kind of things.

So you think the jury was intimidated, or even 
tampered with? Was it as serious as that?

GH: I believe the jury was intimidated. Anybody 
who lives in Miami or who knows what is going on 
there would understand that nothing related to Cuba is normal in Miami.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the past has taken 
quite an interest in your case and he's spoken on 
your behalf. Have you heard from him directly at all?

GH: Well I had the opportunity to talk to him by 
phone on his birthday two years ago.

And what did he say?

GH: Well he said that he's confident that justice 
will prevail because he has always been confident 
that when the American people find out about what 
has been done in our case, when the American 
people find out the truth about our case, justice 
will prevail. Everybody are confident on that.

Gerardo Hernández of the so-called Cuban Five, 
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ondemand/rams/nh27166____2007.ram>on 
the phone from prison in California.



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