House Resolution No. 777 Urging the Philippine Government to make an official position calling for the release of the Cuban Five

Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

HOUSE RESOLUTION No. 777

Introduced by Rep. SATUR C. OCAMPO

RESOLUTION
STRONGLY URGING THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT TO MAKE AN OFFICIAL POSITION CALLING FOR THE RELEASE OF GERARDO HERNANDEZ, RAMON LABAÑINO, ANTONIO GUERRERO, FERNANDO GONZALEZ, AND RENE GONZALEZ, POPULARLY KNOWN AS THE CUBAN FIVE, WHO HAVE BEEN HELD ILLEGALY IN UNITED STATES PRISON SINCE SEPTEMBER 12, 1998 AND HAVE BEEN DENIED VISITS FRON THE FAMILIES DESPITE SIMILAR WIDESPREAD INTERNATIONAL APPEALS FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES AND PARLIAMENTS

WHEREAS, the Cuban people have been victims of terror attacks by the Miami exile groups, many of whom came from the wealthy class that left Cuba after the overthrow of the Fulgencio Batista regime in 1959. These Miami exile groups have conducted bombings, assassinations and other sabotage, killing hundreds of innocent Cuban civilians. Groups like Alpha 66, Omega 7, Brothers to the Rescue, and Cuban American National Foundation have terrorized the Cuban people for years with impunity;

WHEREAS, in 1990, Cuba made the careful and necessary decision to send Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Renė Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez - who later became known as the Cuban Five - - to Miami to protect Cuba from serious threat of invasion and terrorism posed by Miami exile groups;

WHEREAS, the Cuban Five were able to establish evidence implicating specific Miami exile groups and individuals in the 1976 bombing of a commercial Cuban airliner while on flight, and the 1997 bombing of Havana’s Hotel Copacabana;

WHEREAS, in May 1988, then President Fidel Castro sent a letter to the United States President Bill Clinton, asking to indict and prosecute those who committed crimes against Cuba. A month later, the United States sent a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team to Havana to discuss collaboration with Cuba on stopping acts of aggression emanating from Miami;

WHEREAS, Cuba waited for the FBI to start arresting the architects of these operations, but instead, on September 12, 1998, the United States Government arrested in the Cuban Five, the men who had come to Miami to monitor activities of the violent Miami exile groups. The arrest and prosecution of these men for their attempt to stop the terror was not only unjust, it exposed the treachery and hypocrisy to the United States’ claim to oppose terrorism wherever it surfaces;

WHEREAS, since the day of their arrest in Southern Florida, the Cuban Five were placed in the solitary confinement cells for 17 straight months before their cases were brought to trial. They were completely cut-off from their families and young children, and even barred from communicating with each other. They were likewise denied their right to ball;

WHEREAS, in June 2001, the five were tied in Miami Dade county and were charged with 26 counts of violating the federal laws of the United States. They were convicted of espionage on behalf of Cuba and murder involving the shooting down of the aircrafts belonging to the Miami exile groups over Cuban waters on February 24, 1996. Twenty four (24) of those charges were relatively minor and technical offenses, such use of false identifications and failure to register as foreign agents. Gerardo Hernandėz was condemned to life sentences plus 15 years. Ramon Labañino was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 18 years. Rene Gonzalez to 15 years imprisonment. Antonio Guerrero was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 10 years, and Fernando Gonzalez was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment;

WHEREAS, on November 2002, the lawyers for the Cuban Five filed a motion for a new trial that fully documents the impossibility of holding a fair trial in Miami. The motion was denied, so the petitioners include their motion as an additional argument in appeal presented before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta in May 2003;

WHEREAS, on August 9, 2005, a panel of three judges mandated by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals said no verdict against them has any worth and ordered a new trial. The U.S. Government petitioned for the entire Court of twelve judges to review the panel decision. On August 9, 2006, two judges of the same Court reversed the decision on finding that no prejudiced had been in the selection of the trial jury. On June 4, 2008, three-judge panel of the court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ratified the guilty verdicts against the Cuban Five, but annulled the sentences of Renė Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandėz. The case of three others will be sent for a new sentence to the Florida Court;

WHEREAS, on May 27, 2005, the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is issued its conclusion that the conditions of their confinement including the long period in solitary confinement cells, the limitation of defense access to the potential evidence, and the conditions and location of the Miami trial, are of such gravity that they confer the deprivation of the liberty of the Cuban Five which contravened Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which United States a signatory;

WHEREAS, Amnesty International has decried the denial of visas of Adriana Perėz and Olga Salanueva, wives of Gerardo Hernandėz and Renė Gonzalez respectively to enter the U.S. and visit their husbands in prison. For other families, the United States Government has continued to delay the granting of entry permits. This means that the average number of visas granted per family member is one per year;

WHEREAS, the European Parliament Union, Latin American Parliament, Africa-Caribbean - European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Parliamentary Conference of the Americas, Central American Parliament, Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, Argentina, Belgium, Venezuela, Bolivia, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Sweden, Panama and Italy have called for liberation of the five Cubans imprisoned. The appeal has been joined and supported by the prestigious association of lawyers and jury experts in the United States and abroad such as the National Jury Project, National Lawyers Guild, and International Association of Democratic Lawyers with members in 90 countries which has consultative status at the United Nations;

WHEREAS, the Cuban Five have been in custody for almost ten years. These five men have been held in maximum security prisons and have been held incommunicado in isolated cells for long periods of time. Two of them have been denied the right to receive family visits;

WHEREAS, the United States Government must honor the finding of the United Nations Body, by releasing these prisoners or providing them with a new trial. This arbitrary detention is extremely cruel and cannot be allowed to continue;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Philippine Government make an official position calling for the release of Gerardo Hernandėz, Ramon Labañino, Rene González, Antonio Guerrero, and Fernando González, popularly known as the Cuban Five who have been held illegally in the United States prisons since September 12, 1998 and have been denied visits from their families despite similar widespread international appeals from various countries and parliaments.

RESOLVED FINALLY, that the efforts be made for the entry of the Cuban Five’s spouses and their families to the United States territory in order to visit their loved ones.

Adopted,