Havana, Apr 23 (Prensa Latina) Gerardo Hernandez, one of the five Cuban anti-terrorists imprisoned in the US, said many groups plotted and perpetrated terrorist acts against his country from Florida. In a telephone interview with author and filmmaker, Saul Landau, released on www.terroristas.cu, the Cuban fighter said ‘We were collecting information on Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and Brothers to the Rescue.’
Gerardo, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Rene Gonzalez were detained on September 12, 1998 while monitoring Florida-based anti-Cuba terrorist activities.
‘The Five’, as they are known in international campaigns for their release, are jailed in maximum security prisons in California, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Texas and Colorado.
In a trial that renown lawyers term biased, they were given sentences ranging from 15 years to double life sentences.
In the interview, Gerardo said ‘the first thing that struck me was the impunity with which these groups operated, violating the laws of the U.S.: The Neutrality Acts [of the 1790s] that supposedly mean no organization can use American soil to commit terrorism against another country.’
He denounced that ‘in the case of Alpha 66, the operatives would take a fast boat and shoot at targets along Cuba’s coast. When they would return to Miami, they would hold a press conference and openly say what they had done.’
On Brothers to the Rescue, he said, ‘When I mention Brothers to the Rescue, some might think, ‘This is a humanitarian organization that rescued balseros [rafters].’ On the contrary, while their activities were limited to rescuing balseros, they had no problems with the Cuban authorities.
What people tend to not know is that Jose Basulto, the head of that organization, has a long record. He trained with the CIA, and infiltrated Cuba in the 1960s.
‘In 1962, he came to Cuba on a fast boat and fired shells at the Cuban coast, including targeting a hotel. Even Basulto, with all his known history, had no problems while he limited his actions to rescuing balseros. In 1995, however, the United States and Cuba signed migratory agreements specifying that boats intercepted at sea would no longer be brought to the United States; rather they would be returned to Cuba,’ he stressed.
So, when Basulto saw his business in danger, he invented this invasion [in 1995] of Cuban airspace as a way to keep people donating money.
‘We presented this evidence in our case. If the press hasn’t wanted to pay much attention to this â�� well, they don’t want to touch such material. It doesn’t behoove them. I am referring to the corporate press. The documents are all there showing how Basulto and the Brothers to the Rescue were trying out handmade weapons in order to introduce them in Cuba,’ he witnessed.
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