Home > letter of january to Obama
Prison Governments USA South/Latin America
President Obama,
The White House,
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
2nd of January, 2010
President Obama,
Two events occurred at the end of 2009 that called me attention:
First: New sentences given to Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Ramon Labañino by the Miami Federal Court.
Second: Your Nobel Prize award in Oslo.
Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Ramon Labañino are three of the five Cubans who are inhumanely detained in your United-States prisons, since more than eleven years, the two others being Gerardo Hernandez and René Gonzalez.
When the United-States media speak about those five men, they identify them as “Cuban spies”. This is totally wrong as during the court session, none of such arguments could be proved.
The only thing they did was to infiltrate the terrorist milieu in Miami, which is totally the opposite! Their mission was to avoid such terrorist’s acts which multiplied against Cuba, especially during the years 1990.
The Cuban government handed documents to the FBI in June 1998 about such past and to future destructive acts planned by the Miami mafia was directly linked with the sudden detention of the Five Cubans.
The Atlanta Court of Appeal had judged the previous sentences for Antonio, Fernando and Ramon too severe, thus the new judging. Life sentences were cancelled; however the new sentences are an offense to the justice! Eighteen, twenty two or thirty years are totally unacceptable towards men who only tried to protect their country.
Same for René who is sentenced fifteen years which is a total denial of justice.
The worst is what Gerardo has to suffer with a double life sentence additionally to fifteen years, as none of the accusations could be proven. Gerardo was not allowed a new sentence since 1998.
Again your administration tried unsuccessfully to corrupt these men! It never understood anything!
Those men’s minds are free, because they have nothing to reproach to themselves!
Following the new sentences, here is portion of Antonio’s, Fernando’s and Ramon’s declarations:
“…. Our brother Gerardo Hernandez, who is sentenced double life additionally with fifteen years of prison, was arbitrarily excluded from receiving new a sentence. His situation remains the main unfair situation of our group. The government of United-States knows the false accusations made towards this man part of our group of Five, as well as the total discrimination of his sentence.
We have been offered, while being arrested and during the following years to collaborate with your government in exchange of lighter sentences. This is something that we shall NEVER accept whatever being the situation…”
A few days later, you received the Nobel Peace Prize. Such a prize should be deserved; this is exactly what we look forward in a young President like you, to orientate new policies by receiving this price!
First we were so happy; afterwards this became a deep delusion! I shall remain concerning the Cuban Five issue, and not wish to extrapolate for example about Honduras or about your decision to send new troops in Afghanistan.
Don’t you think Mister President, to honor this Nobel prize; you could yet initiate a new relation with Cuba? Today, the aggressive one is your country!
Just to mention the blockade you maintain against the international community’ opinion!
During the court re-sentencing hearings of Fernando, the Judge Lenard justified her decision about the excessive nature of the new sentence saying that : « it should serve as an example because persons from other country should not be allowed to spied in citizens of the United States to stop them from exercising their constitutional rights....» How is possible that a Nobel Prize could not question these words?
Do you really consider Cuba, like the doors of Inferno? Why not visit this country; you will discover the total different image. You might even gather numerous ideas while being there.
Why not visit Gerardo in his Victorville prison in California; you will discover a very humane and warm soul, with a lot of culture, a wonderful example of dignity and courage.
The first sign, which would show your real willingness to amend what you predecessors did not, would be to liberate the Five Cubans. This is a crucial step prior to initiate any new relation between your two countries! Only your single signature can provide to them an “executive grace”. This would allow an achievable dialogue between United-States and Cuba. What a New Year’s beautiful symbolic gesture this would be.
The business of the Five is politic; it only can be politically solved!
Mister President Obama, you must allow an “executive grace” to those five men who have suffered enough since more than eleven years.
This clemency will not erase all the years of youth they have lost in your prisons, especially under terrible conditions for those being in high security prisons. This would be a first step towards justice.
Will you have Mister President, the courage to take such measures and then being able to initiate new relations with Cuba?
Please receive Mister President, my most sincere humanist sentiments.
Jacqueline Roussie
64360 Monein (France)
As this letter is the first of the year, I wish to remind you, Mister President, that on 12th December 2006, 64 residents of Monein sent mail to the congress to Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi requesting to work on the freedom of the five Cuban.
Since then, Monein’s residents are still waiting this liberation.
Today, it is almost a full population that joined the first 64 and last spring you received mail signed by one thousand of people requesting their liberation. Monein has only 4,000 inhabitants!
Translated by Martine Vaugien Gadbois, Québec Canada.
C.C.: Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid and his Excellency the ambassador of United States in France.
Forum posts
2 January 2010, 18:33, by Lisa Price
Dear Kakine,
that is a very nice and caring letter you wrote.
Obama is the President of the People of the United States of America.
As such he will decide for his people and their security .
I can only recommend you to take the humane approach and publish more explicatory letters to the people of America to archive a common understanding towards a more humane treatment of once political criminals.
Cuba is to make some kind of movement towards democracy to help the libration of political convicts.
A social capitalist society under a demorcratic government is the model of the future for all countries even for the United states. Such a system has proven to have the most advantages combined for the people of the world.
We all have the same objective, but come from different directions.
Happy New Year,
Lisa Price
2 January 2010, 20:08, by kakine
But we have not to choice what is good for the people of Cuba.
Read this, it is the same now!
J.C. Breckenridge, U.S. Undersecretary of War in 1897, sent the following memo to the Commander of the U.S. Army, Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles. The memo explains what is to be U.S. policy towards the Hawaiian islands, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
"The island of Cuba, a larger territory, has a greater population density than Puerto Rico, although it is unevenly distributed. This population is made up of whites, blacks, Asians and people who are a mixture of these races. The inhabitants are generally indolent and apathetic.
As for their learning, they range from the most refined to the most vulgar and abject. Its people are indifferent to religion, and the majority are therefore immoral and simultaneously they have strong passions and are very sensual.
Since they only possess a vague notion of what is right and wrong, the people tend to seek pleasure not through work, but through violence. As a logical consequence of this lack of morality, there is a great disregard for life.
It is obvious that the immediate annexation of these disturbing elements into our own federation in such large numbers would be sheer madness, so before we do that we must clean up the country, even if this means using the methods Divine Providence used on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
We must destroy everything within our cannons’ range of fire. We must impose a harsh blockade so that hunger and its constant companion, disease, undermine the peaceful population and decimate the Cuban army. The allied army must be constantly engaged in reconnaissance and vanguard actions so that the Cuban army is irreparably caught between two fronts and is forced to undertake dangerous and desperate measures...
When this moment arrives, we must create conflicts for the independent government. That government will be faced with these difficulties, in addition to the lack of means to meet our demands and the commitments made to us, war expenses and the need to organize a new country. These difficulties must coincide with the unrest and violence among the aforementioned elements, to whom we must give our backing.
To sum up, our policy must always be to support the weaker against the stronger, until we have obtained the extermination of them both, in order to annex the Pearl of the Antilles.
The probable date of our campaign will be next October (1898), but we should tie up the slightest detail in order to be ready, in case we find ourselves in the need to precipitate events in order to cancel the development of the autonomist movement that could annihilate the separatist movement. Although the greater part of these instructions are based on the different meetings we have held, we would welcome from you any observations that experience and appropriate action might advise as a correction, always, in the meantime, following the agreed upon lines.
3 January 2010, 01:49, by Matt Lawrence
Thank you for publishing the letter in reference to the Cuban 5 spies.
I, along with my co-author, three-time Pentagon appointee Thomas Van Hare flew rescue missions with the Brothers To The Rescue, owners of the two planes shot down by Cuban MiGs-thanks to the work of these very spies.
Our book BETRAYAL: Clinton, Castro & The Cuban Five is the result of a 13 year investigation, and is a compilation of the court documents, trial evidence and public record surrounding this case of the Cuban Five spies.
BETRAYAL was recently vetted in a CBS4 Miami investigative report which resulted in the same findings as ours....
1) The Cuban Five were part of a larger organization, La Red Avispa. The Five infiltrated military bases, exile organizations and the Brothers To The Rescue. Another spy, Ana Belen Montes was arrested in 2001 working in the Defense Intelligence Agency. (re: Ana Belen Montes)
2) U.S. government officials knew beforehand of the shoot down and did nothing. Specifically involved, Governor Bill Richardson, NSC Sandy Berger and Richard Nuccio
3) Our military had radar sites monitoring the Florida Straits on the day of the shootdown and held interceptor aircraft on the ground at HAFB, Homestead, FL as the attacks occurred.
BETRAYAL is endorsed by Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Defense Intelligence Agency Analysts, and Dr. Jaime Suchlicki of the University of Miami’s Institute of Cuban-American Studies.
If you’d like more information please visit our website, turn up your speakers and listen to the intro...Cuban MiG pilots stalking and shooting down civilian aircraft.
Best Wishes,
Matt Lawrence
BETRAYAL: Clinton, Castro & The Cuban Five
www.mattlawrencebooks.com
3 January 2010, 08:18, by kakine
In France, we say that when we want to kill our dog, it is accused of rabies. This is exactly what is happening with the FIVE! The main accusations are totally invented: willingness to spy, willingness to commit murders, etc. None of such proof could be provided;
As Mr. Pastor said, former adviser on National Security for Latin America, under Mr. Jimmy Carter: “Judging five Cuban agents being held in Miami is as fair as judging an Israeli agent being judged in Teheran.” (New York Times, 14th of October 2009).
It is quite extraordinary, from a country which is seeking for almost fifty years to place Cuba on its knees, to discover how pitiful it is to see this same country becoming a martyr during the judgment court proceedings!
A country which additionally allows asylum to Luis Posada Carriles, the Latin American Ben Laden! This man has Venezuelan nationality was the responsible individual together with Orlando Bosch for the terrorist destruction of the “Cubana Airlines” plane resulting in 73 deaths on the 6th October, 1976. Venezuela still demands from the U.S.A., with no success, his extradition for a judgment. Orlando Bosch was freed by G. Bush senior in 1990.
Criminal acts against Cuba are beyond what suggested the Deputy Secretary of State Leser D. Mallory to his Secretary of State Roy R. Rubottom, on the 6th of April 1960 in the following memorandum:
“The majority of Cubans support Castro, there is no efficient political opposition.…All means should be rapidly undertaken to weaken the economic life in Cuba.…A measure that would have a deep impact would be to refuse any financial relations with, or shipping goods to this country. This would reduce incomes, therefore could provoke famine, despair and destabilize the government.”
Since the 1959 Revolution, many deadly attacks have multiplied against Cuba, endorsed by U.S.A. One example is the incredible propaganda, like taking children away from their parents, as was the case with the “Peter Pan” project. Dangerous and immoral procedures continue to be carried out against Cuba, beyond what is a simple economic war.
About the "brothers to the rescue, the death of 4 young pilots on 24th February 1996 is tragic incident, and I am deeply sorry for this.
Since 1994, acting publicly to “save” the “balseros”, the “Brothers” never followed the flight plans and thus violated the Cuban air spaces, defying international laws and the Federal Aviation Administration, acting as terrorists against Cuba.
On 13th July 1993, Basulto’s planes were definitely flying on low altitude over Havana. This same day could have been deadly for this association’s pilots. Upon return Basulto was joyfully commenting his exploit on “Radio Marti”. Following this flight incursion, the Cuban government warned the United States authorities, that in case of any new violation of its aerial space, serious measures would be undertaken. The government of United States advised Basulto on August 8, 1993.
Such serious warning had not stopped Basulto to fly over Cuba again on the 9th and 13th of January 1996, and to release hundreds of thousands propaganda flyers, and to finally once again boast about his new heroic exploit on “Radio Marti”.
Cuban authorities have again protested to the United States government, warning that new violations would have serious consequences.
Playing with fire, someone may get burned; on the 24th of February 1996 Cubans reacted to this new provocation and you know the end result.
It is unfortunate that pilots had to pay with their life, due to the ideas of their chief Basulto. Don’t you think that they might have been sacrificed on the altar of the counter-revolution?
Why incriminate Gerardo Hernandez for such a sad issue, as Miami judges went a little too far by linking this story with Gerardo.
3 January 2010, 14:35, by Matt Lawrence
Gerardo was the ring leader of the Cuban Five. He infiltrated the Brothers organization with 2 other spies...Juan Pablo Roque and Fernando Gonzalez.
The day before the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down, Gerardo assisted Juan Pablo Roque in escaping from the U.S. back to Cuba, where Roque was originally shown as a "survivior" of the murders.
Gerardo as well as the others, created false identities and identification including passports while in Miami and untilized shortwave radios to receive and digital pagers/pay phones to communicate messages with their Cuban DGI handlers.
These same tools have been utilized by othe other Cuban spies captured in the U.S. They include:
Former U.S. State Department analyst Walter Kendall Myers & his wife Gwendolyn.
Ana Belen Montes 16 year Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst in charge of the "Cuba desk". She was Cuba’s "Queen of Spies".
Carlos & Elsa Alvarez, two Florida International University academics.
These spies are all in prison, as are Gerardo and his crew. Which is right wehre they belong. Perhaps if Cuba and the familes would like to open a dialogue, Cuba would consider extradition of the Perez-Perez brothers, the pilots of the MiG29 that shot down the two civilian aircraft over international waters...which is a blatant act of murder and violation of international law.
Matt Lawrence, Author
BETRAYAL: Clinton, Castro & The Cuban Five
www.mattlawrencebooks.com
3 January 2010, 18:40, by kakine
Anna belen Montes said:
«
…Your honor, I engaged in the activity that brought me before you because I obeyed my conscience rather than the law.I believe our government’s policy towards Cuba is cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it.
We have displayed intolerance and contempt towards Cuba for most of the last four decades. We have never respected Cuba’s right to make its own journey towards its own ideals of equality and justice.
I do not understand why we must continue to dictate how the Cubans should select their leaders…My greatest desire is to see amicable relations emerge between the United States and Cuba.
I hope my case in some way will encourage our government to abandon its hostility towards Cuba and to work with Havana in a spirit of tolerance, mutual respect, and understanding … »
3 January 2010, 21:51, by Matt Lawrence
You quote Montes?
…Your honor, I engaged in the activity that brought me before you because I obeyed my conscience rather than the law."Montes obeyed her "conscience" while she worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C.. Her JOB required her to follow the law and if she preferred to be a Cuban activist, she should have resigned her post...instead she chose the life of a Cuban mole (a spy).
She memorized sensitive information, which she transmitted to her Cuban handlers. She interpreted information to her bosses in the U.S. government so that it skewed the TRUTH.
Montes also lied to members of U.S. Congress in the aftermath of the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down and outted U.S. military instructors in Latin America and allowed them to be killed.
Thankfully, Montes was arrested in the wake of 9-11 before she had an opportunity to divulge any U.S. tactical information to Cuba, which would have surely been sold to those who wish to do the U.S. great harm.
Kakine, won’t you be so kind as to read BETRAYAL: Clinton, Castro & The Cuban Five and educate yourself as to the truth of what really happened. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the read.
Matt Lawrence, Author
BETRAYAL: Clinton, Castro & The Cuban Five
5 January 2010, 19:19, by Machetera
Matt Lawrence, don’t you have any better methods to sell your sorry book? Your posts here are sad and pitiful.
http://machetera.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/matt-lawrence-and-brothers-to-the-rescue-to-the-back-of-the-class/
6 January 2010, 22:15, by Matt Lawrence
The evidence used to write BETRAYAL is published evidence. Evidence you don’t debate or refute with any evidence of your own; only your rhetorical statements without sources of your information.
You continually claim the Cuban 5 are heroes, what did they do that was heroic? What did any of the La Red Avispa do that was heroic? Some ran away, others were weak and "caved" to quote you.
You claim Antonio Gurrero was not a spy, but a low-life janitor at the Navy base....what did he do that was so heroic? Clean toilets?
Your personal attacks towards me indicate my writing the TRUTH about los cinco gusanos has touched you in a personal way...and you’ve no other way to defend against the TRUTH other than a personal attack against me. Como uno gato de la calle...typical, muy typical.
Matt Lawrence, Author
BETRAYAL:Clinton, Castro & The Cuban Five
6 January 2010, 22:49, by Machetera
Oh Matt, cutting and pasting again. Do put in a little effort, please.
By the way, all of my article was sourced, so apparently in addition to being a bad speller you are also a bad reader.