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Subscribe to RSSIn what could be the setting for a gripping thriller, Cuba and the U.S. are reportedly locked in a standoff this weekend, with the fate of an American contractor hanging in the balance. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.
HAVANA, Cuba — It seems straight out of a Cold War spy movie. A group of Cuban undercover agents sneak into the U.S. and set up a secret pro-Castro network in south Florida — receiving instructions in code through late night radio transmissions from handlers in Havana. But the FBI gets wind, tails the agents, intercepts their messages and busts them, sending the agents off to federal prison, their ringleader for life.
Today, the story of those spies — called La Red Avispa, or the Wasp Network — rolled up by the feds 14 years ago is barely known in the United States. But its members, now known as the Cuban Five, are national heroes in Cuba — the subjects of mass demonstrations, their pictures on billboards and posters – and their petitions for freedom are championed around the world by Nobel Prize winners, celebrities like Danny Glover, even former President Jimmy Carter.
And they may now prove key to the tense impasse between Havana and Washington over the fate of jailed American contractor Alan Gross, arrested three years ago Monday for distributing sophisticated satellite equipment to Cuba’s tiny Jewish community and later sentenced to 15 years in prison for "acts against the independence and/or territorial integrity of the state." (Gross says he was only bringing Internet access to Cuba.)
While the U.S. is demanding that Cuba release Gross, who visitors say is angry and frail, having lost 110 pounds in prison, Cuban officials say they are willing to do so only if President Barack Obama will release the Cuban agents.
"I understand what Mr. Gross is going through," Gerardo Hernandez, 47, the Cuban Five ringleader, said in an exclusive interview with NBC News in October at his current home --a federal prison outside Victorville, Calif. "I understand his sufferings and that of his family. … If an agreement can be reached, to stop the sufferings of six families, then I welcome it."
The idea of a swap — the release of Gross for Hernandez and his confederates among the Cuban Five — faces legal and political hurdles.
NBC News
A billboard in Cuba shows the Cuban Five -- Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González.
An Obama administration official told NBC News that the "imprisonment of Alan Gross, an international development worker, is not comparable in any way to that of the five Cuban agents," noting that the Cubans were afforded their "due process rights" and convicted of serious crimes.
Cuban Five ringleader Gerardo Hernandez
Members of Congress have denounced Cuba for holding Gross "hostage" to the release of the Cuban Five. "The Castro regime has no regard for human rights or international law," said Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and frequent critic of the Castro regime. "The Cuba Five should serve their sentences for spying."
And Hernandez, who sports a trim goatee and displays a hearty laugh despite 14 years in prison, might not make the ideal candidate for a pardon or commutation from Obama — a precondition for a swap to take place. Asked if he regretted any of his actions, he smiled and said, "I regret that I got caught." In a follow up phone interview, Hernandez readily acknowledged that "we violated some U.S. laws" — mainly failing to register as foreign agents with the U.S. Justice Department. "We came here with fake passports. Fake identities." But, he added, "We act out of necessity."
As Hernandez and Cuban officials tell it, the Cuban Five was not sent to spy on the U.S. government. In fact, the members weren’t accused of stealing any U.S. secrets (although they were convicted of conducting surveillance of U.S. military bases.) Instead, the mission of the Wasp Network, they say, was to infiltrate anti-Castro exile groups in South Florida who Havana suspected of plotting terrorist attacks inside Cuba. Among those attacks: the notorious bombing of Cubana Flight 455 over the Caribbean in 1976, killing 73 passengers (including teenage members of a Cuban national fencing team) as well as a string of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997 that killed an Italian businessman and were believed to have been aimed at disrupting Cuba’s nascent tourist industry.
"Cuba doesn’t have drones to neutralize the terrorists abroad," said Hernandez. "They need to send people to gather information and protect the Cuban people from these terrorist actions. … I think it’s the same feeling that Americans have that defend their country and love their country when they go to infiltrate al-Qaida and send information here to avoid the terrorist acts. And the U.S. has to understand that Cuba has been involved in the war against terrorism for 50 years.”
Alan Gross in an undated family photo, left, and in 2012, after losing 110 pounds while imprisoned in Cuba.
While admitting his role in spying on anti-Castro exiles — "I would do it again," he said — Hernandez adamantly denies the most serious charge against him: conspiracy to commit murder. His conviction on that count, which has earned him a life sentence, was based on his alleged complicity in the February 1996 shoot-down by a Cuban fighter jet of two Cessna planes flown by members of the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue, killing four men.
The anti-Castro group had provoked Cuba by dropping anti-government leaflets over Havana. At the trial of the Cuban Five, prosecutors introduced messages between Hernandez and his controllers in Havana suggesting he had prior knowledge of the shoot-down. But Hernandez insists that prosecutors misinterpreted the messages and he knew nothing that wasn’t already public.
"No, sir, absolutely not," Hernandez replied when asked if he knew in advance about the incident. "All I knew was what everybody knew: that Brothers to the Rescue through the years has violated many times Cuban air space, that there have been 16 diplomatic notes from Cuba complaining over that situation."
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Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly
Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba’s National Assembly (the Parliament) and a longtime Castro confidante, said this week in Havana that "the Cuban government publicly, front page in our papers, months before that incident had warned that we are not going to allow any more intrusions into our air space. … The order, the decision (to shoot down the planes) came from the highest level. Fidel Castro himself had said that publicly, that he was responsible for that decision."
U.S. Appeals Court Judge Phyllis Kravitch of Atlanta concluded in 2008 that prosecutors never proved their case tying Hernandez to a plot to shoot down the planes, but she was outvoted two to one and his conviction on the murder conspiracy charge was upheld. Now Hernandez and his lawyers are appealing on another ground: that hundreds of thousands of dollars in secret U.S. government payments to anti-Castro journalists in Miami — newly discovered through Freedom of Information Act requests — inflamed the Miami community against the Cuban Five and made it impossible for them for them to get a fair trial. The payments were mostly made for appearances on Radio Marti, a TV and radio operation funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent agency that oversees international broadcasting sponsored by the U.S. government.
Slideshow: Castro through the years
In court papers, lawyers for the Cuban Five have cited articles by some of the journalists, including one that denounced the "genocidal character" of Castro’s regime and another that speculated that the real purpose of the Wasp Network was to introduce "chemical or bacteriological weapons" into south Florida. “"his information was spread throughout the Miami area and helped inflame the community against these guys," said Martin Garbus, Hernandez’ lawyer. "It was total madness. … When the case was brought, the anti-Castro feeling in the Miami area was at a fevered pitch."
Keystone / Getty Images
Ever since U.S.-backed Cuban President Fulgencio Batista was forced from power by rebels led by Fidel Castro in 1958, the relationship between the two nations has been fraught with difficulties.
U.S. prosecutors dismiss as “implausible” and "unfounded" the idea that the Radio Marti payments were part of a U.S. government effort to influence the jury in the Cuban Five case.
"The jury (in the case) was carefully selected, following a searching voir dire (jury selection process) that the appellate court deemed a high model for a high-profile case, and that the trial comported with the highest standards for fairness and professionalism,” wrote Caroline Heck Miller, an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami, in a court filing in July asking a judge to reject Hernandez’ motion for a hearing into the payments to the journalists. She also noted, as federal prosecutors have repeatedly done when the issue has come up, that “no Cuban-Americans – the audience (Hernandez) hypothesizes as the target of the government campaign he imagines — served on the jury."
Unless Hernandez can somehow persuade a court to reopen his case – or barring a prisoner swap with Gross — he would seem to have few options.
American imprisoned in Cuba may have cancer, doctor says
Rene Gonzalez, another member of the Cuban Five who was not convicted of the conspiracy-to-commit-murder charge, was released from federal prison on probation late last year, but has not yet been allowed to return home to Cuba to live.
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Adriana Perez, wife of imprisoned Cuban agent, Gerardo Hernandez
The Cubans are doing their best to ratchet up the pressure. Just as Judy Gross has launched a public relations campaign in the United States to free her husband, appearing at a National Press Club press conference on Friday, this week the Cubans made Hernandez wife, Adriana, available for an interview with NBC News. A chemist in the food industry in Havana, she wept as she described the pain of separation from her husband — and how it has left her unable to bear children. "Every detail, every single moment reminds me of him," she said. "I believe there are many people in the U.S. and the American people as a whole, who could convey to President Obama that there is a woman here suffering."
Hernandez, too, says missing his wife is the hardest part of his life in prison. And he has few illusions about his prospects of being freed. "The only thing I know for sure with me is that I have two life sentences and live with that every day," he said. "And to keep your sanity and your mind, you have to be realistic. But I would be dishonest to say that I don’t have hope."
Michael Isikoff is NBC News' national investigative correspondent; NBC News Producer Mary Murray also contributed to this report.
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This should have been within the lead in paragraph. The 5 have been unjustly imprisoned for defending themselves against TERRORISTS!! FREE THE FIVE!!!!!
As Hernandez and Cuban officials tell it, the Cuban Five was not sent to spy on the U.S. government. In fact, the members weren’t accused of stealing any U.S. secrets (although they were convicted of conducting surveillance of U.S. military bases.) Instead, the mission of the Wasp Network, they say, was to infiltrate anti-Castro exile groups in South Florida who Havana suspected of plotting terrorist attacks inside Cuba. Among those attacks: the notorious bombing of Cubana Flight 455 over the Caribbean in 1976, killing 73 passengers (including teenage members of a Cuban national fencing team) as well as a string of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997 that killed an Italian businessman and were believed to have been aimed at disrupting Cuba’s nascent tourist industry.
This proposed exchange should have been expected; President Raul Castro told Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in 2008 his hope to have a prisoner exchange with the United States to win return of the Five.
At the time the Cuban government held no US citizens in its prisons. In December 2009 Alan Gross was arrested for alleged crimes against the state and convicted of equally flimsy charges as the Cuban Five.
The Five came to the US to thwart terrorism against Cuba by Miami-based remnants of the Batista Dictatorship. Some of this terrorism was funded by US taxpayers through shadowy groups who receive upwards of $40 Million annually in taxpayer money. Cubana flight 455 was blown out of the sky in 1976 much the same way as Pan Am 103 was in 1989. The dead included young members of Cuba’s National Fencing Team. The man allegedly responsible for that bombing according to CIA documents is Luis Posada Carilles who lives freely in Miami with asylum from the US government.
Posada is also suspected in the bombing of Havana hotels in 1997 and an attempt to bomb a University of Panama auditorium where Fidel Castro spoke in 2000. The Five came to the US not to spy on our government but to monitor Posada and infiltrate terrorist groups supported by the Batista cabal. They were subsequently arrested and charged with spying and murder. The hysteria to convict the men was driven by two things: revenge for the return of Elian Gonzalez and the downing of two Brothers to the Rescue pilots by the Cuban Air Force.
The pilots were shot down for having violated Cuban airspace on numerous occasions and had flown over Havana dropping half a million leaflets. The Batista cabal in Miami blamed the Cuban Five for the shoot down because one of them had called to notify his government the planes were en-route. Granted this occurred in 1996 and we now view things through a Post 9-11 prism but if converted military aircraft flew over Washington dropping leaflets then or now how would our military react?
Cuban-American politicians will likely clamor against any exchange, especially US Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart. Ros’ father is a Batista relic who for years has been paid with taxpayer funds to rant against Castro on Radio Marti, a program zero citizens in Cuba hear because of signal jamming.
Diaz-Balart’s late father was Interior Minister in the Batista Dictatorship, overseeing the military, prisons, torture, and firing squads. Ros and Diaz-Balart fled to Miami after Castro’s Revolution along with other Batista loyalists and set up a dictatorship-in-exile in South Florida that wields extraordinary power.
The power of that cabal and its terrorist wing remain intact. In March I assisted at Masses celebrated in Cuba by Pope Benedict XVI. I met many Cuban exiles who – tired of being constrained by the Batista cabal – traveled to their homeland for the Papal Masses. They were 300 strong and had traveled on a special charter from Miami.
Early on April 27 the Coral Gables travel agency that booked that charter was destroyed by a firebomb. Not one Cuban-American politician in South Florida expressed outrage over this act of terrorism. It’s fortunate that in a Post 9-11 world we have security procedures in place for commercial aviation or we might have had another Cubana 455, hundreds more innocents on their way to see the Holy Father killed by the Batista cabal.
It’s time for President Obama to do what eleven US presidents have failed to do - take a stand against the Batista cabal and their terrorist thugs, do what’s right by Alan Gross’ family and the families of the Cuban Five, and approve this prisoner exchange. History is filled with examples of prisoners being exchanged by countries and we have a long history of doing that with the former Soviet Union.
Some might argue a 5:1 exchange is unequal. The US could also ask for the release of 100 or so jailed Cuban dissidents whose female relatives make up Las Damas de Blanco. Or examine the track record of our allies, the Israelis. In their 60 year history of conflicts, Israel has returned 28,905 prisoners, and the remains of 423. In return, they have recovered 401 prisoners and the remains of 78, a ratio of 69:1.
No one ever disputes or talks crap when a poster is obviously very knowledgeable.
Thanx Missionary
99.9% don't read long winded post.There no dispute there.
By the way the Trade Embargo isn't driven by the US Government - its driven by two families - Bacardi of rum fame abd the Fanjuls of sugar fame. They grease the slimeballs from South Florida in Congress to protect their interests.
"NUTS"
Sounds like a fair swap - their spies for one idiot. Anything fundamentally wrong with that trade? It sounds uch like the wrangling in D.C. where one side thinks they are Christmas shopping with an unlimited budget but actally have a zero balance on the card.
Mr. Gross went to Cuba knowing well what he was doing was illegal. The Cuban 5 should stay where they are at as they deserve their sentance along with Mr. Gross. I live in Miami and there is NO community push by the majority Miami community, Cuban (or other latin groups), for the exchange. If Mr. Gross's family wanted greater support by the Cuban exiles, he should have been taking humanitarian aid to the most needy Cubans not singling out poeple based on his religion. He was there to help Jews not Cubans and they must not be that needy if they are asking for satellite equipment. I'm not Cuban, but I go every year with my Cuban wife to take aid to her family. Last year we took albuturol to a local doctor in Cientfuegos for kids with asthma. We don't tell him to use only on Catholic, Afro-Cuban kids, it simply goes to the most needy Cubans. Cubans will tell you, they need medicine, basic living items, etc. My in-laws can't leave but Jews who live in Cuban can emigrate to Israel if they want as Cuba has relations with Israel. Wish I could help your cause Mr. Gross and Family, but I'm only helping Asian Buddhist at this time. Better luck next time.
The guy looks a lot healthier now than before he was caught. He might need a happy meal . There is a Mc donalds on Gitmo( BTDT only it was a big mac for me) .
Spies, in the 21st century? - don't make me laugh. You have to pay informants nowadays; there's no $$$ in spying, & definitely not worth going to jail over.
Put the Cuban spys in a Cessna and send them home. Be sure to tell the Cuban Airforce that their coming first.
As for the trade embargo, forget about it. Cuba's trade problems are their own doing. They trade with the rest of the world. If I want a Cuban cigar, I'll go to Canada and buy one at the shop on the other side of the border. When was the last time you heard of a freighter headed for Havana being stopped by the US Navy?
They need money, we need money... this is a no win situation. Let's get China in here.
Let them all stay in prison. They all did something wrong in another country.
IMHO: U.S. policy perpetuating the isolation of Cuba is by far the most disgraceful government policy other than Native American policies.
It started with President Eisenhower, and continues.
Bottom line, undeniable fact: We are harboring terrorists in southern Florida. By anyone's definition the Batista remnents...puercos cubanos...are terrorists.
Back off and think for one minute: What were your thoughts when it was announced that Osama bin Laden was killed in the same town with the Pakistani "West Point". An Ally(?) Right.
Can any of us put an accurate number on the assassination attempts sponsored by the CIA, and/or these exiled cuban terrorist organizations against the head of a LEGITIMATE government in Cuba?
Remember the BAY OF PIGS? The entire Cuban missile crisis is a result of that abortion. And the entire Latin Americian community, as well as South America views the Bay of Pigs as a victory against American imperialism.
As we sow....we reap. Our blind resistance to "communist regimes" needs to go away. Have you ever noticed that all enemies of the U.S. are accused of wanting to take over the whole world?
Regime change, toppling legitimate governments......Guatamala, Panama, Columbia, Iran, Iraq, Viet Nam, Libya and Afghanistan...the last 2 had some merit.
When will we learn that embargos don't hurt oppressive governments? We've been trying to do that in North Korea and Cuba for far too long. The people are the ones who suffer.
And what exactly IS our motive for the continued embargo and isolation of Cuba?
The embargo resulted from a tit for tat duel....started when Fidel wanted U.S. owned refineries to refine crude oil from trade with the Soviet Union. Our government pressured the oil companies to say "NO". Fidel nationalized the refineries. Then we embargoed Cuban sugar and cigars. Then Fidel took over more U.S. owned business. Then we embargoed all trade other than medicine and some food products. Then Fidel took over control of ALL U.S. owned businesses. I remember when the "C" in C&H sugar stood for Cuba.......not California. I also remember C&H spending a lot of money to make consumers aware of that change in fear it would hurt sales.
Please note that every action to strengthen the trade restrictions has been taken by a Democratic President. Yes, my dear, politics. The southern Florida democratic vote has been important to the party for a long long time. Most of the Cuban exiles have gotten on with their lives....many are sympathetic to the anti-castro cause, some even support the terrorist groups.
I am an independent non-partisan voter so don't go there. The very same people talk about how their relatives in Cuba suffer.....while supporting the perpetual embargo responsible for the suffering.
That is the problem with special interest groups. Our government shoots us in the foot by setting policy based on special interests rather than what would be for the mutual good of both countries.
5 spies for one contractor. That's just the kind of stupid deal the U.S. government would make. They'll probably offer 10 billion dollars in foreign aid too.
Anybody notice how well fed and fit looking the Cuban spy Hernandez is while living in a US prison compared to an American citizen in a Cuban jail? Wouldn't it be nice to make our prisons a little less comfortable for criminals and spend my/our tax money on the unfortunate in our country that can't make ends meet?
Where does Cuba get off? I mean really. A tiny little nation island holding a U.S. citizen in return for five of their criminals imprisoned here?
I'm sick of this mentality of kow-towing to some third rate country 90 miles off of our shores.
There's no reason why we can't silence them militarily, none. These are not the days of the Bay of Pigs (nice name for a bay?) Invasion. Tactical weapons work just fine. We've proven that in the past. We just never used the nuclear option. If terrorists can deliver dangerous bombs that can kill only a small number of people around it's intended target, why can't we just do the same only in a small nuclear kind of way? The technology and delivery systems are there to be used. Let's not waste the energy and monies spent on R&D and just be done with Cuba once and for all. Of course we'd have to get "ours" off site from Gitmo and get them back home before the strike.
And of course we'd want to do it when the winds are predominantly coming out of the North. It would make a nice Christmas present for the refugees that have taken over my home town of Miami.
Too bad Castro had the coup in '59. The mob was getting ready to make Cuba the next Las Vegas. They already had beautiful beachfront resorts and hotels. That's why the CIA tried to kill Castro. Lots of mob $$$ to be made.
Sorry but this dick thought he saw away to make some fast bucks from the U.S. Gov and got his t*t caught in a ringer.
He rolled the dice and lost, end game.
Hey, if you're stupid and greedy enough to go to that s**t-hole country to try to make a fast buck, then you have to be ready to pay the consequences. No sympathy for that dumb A$$.
You buys the ticket and you takes the ride. Too bad, so sad.
If you are going to be dumb........you better be tough....
Offer Cuba Hussein and Hillary with an apology. Say we're Sorry. We know they are Inadequate, but they're all we've got. Maybe Cuba would be Stupid enough to accept. We can only Hope.
Don't release the cuban five, Gross should not have gone to Cuba, surely he knew the risks. You don't go to communist run countries on vacation let alone to distribute communication equipment considered illegal by the govt. While I am sorry Gross is undergoing this deprivation I am not in favor of letting our prisoners go back as heros. What is it with these people who go off to unfriendly countries then want our govt to bail them out.
***The reason we have been taught to hate Fidel Castro is that he and Hugo Chavez are among the few national leaders that the CIA has not been able to conquer. We have open trade relations with Vietnam and yet they killed over 50,000 Americans. We have never been at war with Cuba. we have attacked Cuba a few times, tried to assassinate their president several times, orchestrated terrorist attacks against them etc. just to add a little historical perspective: The CIA has conquered Panama, El Salvador, Iran (and lost), Iraq (and lost), Nicaragua, Honduras, Grenada, Haiti, Chile to name a few. The contractor on the other hand got busted in a foreign country with no relations to the United States. no help from the CIA here. Maybe he should have thought it through a little better before he traveled to Cuba in the first place. we should normalize trade relations with Cuba immediately. There is absolutely no reason to continue the madness of the Cuban embargo.
The stigma of the C.I.A. is the tail that wags the dog which is all in history since before the fifties. How's that little 'thingy' working out for the people of the U.S.? The founding fathers never foresaw that little scenario when they wrote the Constitution, did they? Now the people of the U.S. must come to grips with reality as the people of Cuba did. Wake up time.
I like Cuba. They do their own thing and stood on their own two feet ever since the 'bay of pigs'. They have major off shore oil coming on stream and as far as they're concerned now, the U.S. can screw themselves which they seem to be quite adept at doing.
Mr. Alan Gross the Jewish American "contractor" ( sheetrock hanger or plumber, LOL ) was a bloated fatty when busted. Now, he looks quite normal for a Jewish spy. Contractor is US code speak for a mercenary or spy.
The 5 Cubans and obama for the American is a fair trade.