*Updated May 31*
Guadalajara -
A federal court in Florida today granted all but unconditional freedom to René González, 56, one of the members of the Miami Five arrested in 1998 and sentenced to a long prison term for espionage.
González was in Cuba when he received the news.
González was released on parole October 7, 2011, after serving 13 years behind bars. He asked to be allowed to return to his family in Havana but the government objected, insisting he spend another 36 months of conditional release in the U.S. Judge Joan Lenard sided with prosecutors. González, who was born in Chicago and holds both American and Cuban citizenship, remained in Florida.
In February 2012 González filed a motion requesting permission to travel to Havana to visit his brother, who was in the final stages of terminal brain and lung cancer. Justice Dept. prosecutors strongly objected, but Leonard granted the motion in March, ordering González to return to Miami within 14 days. He did so, and his brief visit to the island for the first time in 15 years was scarcely noted by the government controlled press. González' brother died several days later. U.S. judge allows Miami Five member René González to visit his dying brother.
González' father died in Havana last month, and he filed a second motion asking that he be allowed to travel to Cuba for a few days to attend a family memorial service. This time the government did not oppose the request, and González departed on Apr. 22. Today the federal court told him that he need not return to the United States, provided he agreed to renounce his American citizenship.
In Miami this afternoon González' attorney Phil Horowitz said his client was "surprised and delighted" by the ruling, and had already presented himself at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to renounce. Cuba and the United States have not had formal diplomatic relations for more than half a century.
González leaving the American diplomatic mission in Cuba. After 13 years in prison followed by three years on parole, the U.S. extracted the last pound of flesh by demanding that he renounce citizenship of the country where he was born. How any of this will help another prisoner, Alan Gross, is unclear.
Although González technically remains on U.S. parole for another six months, the government will have no practical means by which to monitor him, and even less interest in doing so. The other four members of the Miami Five all remain in federal prisons, serving lengthy sentences. Their fates have been linked in recent years to that of convicted U.S. contractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15 year sentence in Havana for smuggling and anti-state crimes. Gross has been in custody since December 2009 (Bolivian president Morales expels "subversive" USAID).
The Miami Five are national heroes in Cuba. The Castro government has repeatedly demanded their release, arguing that they did nothing illegal. Cuban officials, including Fidel Castro, were infuriated when Lenard refused to let González return home after his lengthy incarceration in the United States.
The U.S. says the Miami Five were members of a spy ring known as La Red Avispa, or the Wasp Network. There has been endless post-trial litigation since their convictions in a Miami federal court, with many prominent supporters, both in the United States and internationally, contending the men did not receive a fair trial in a judicial district well known for rabidly anti-Castro sentiment.Robert Pastor, national security adviser for Latin America to former president Jimmy Carter, told the New York Times several years ago that "Holding a trial for five Cuban intelligence agents in Miami is about as fair as a trial for an Israeli intelligence agent in Tehran. You'd need a lot more than a good lawyer to be taken seriously."
René González' wife and young adult daughters live in Havana. Prior to his return in 2012 González had not seen his wife for more than a decade. U.S. authorities denied her travel visa requests in the early 1990s, claiming she was an agent of the Castro government.
May 10 - The U.S. has formally accepted René González' renunciation of American citizenship, he said in Havana yesterday. Also on Thursday, the mother of one of the four Miami Five members still in custody said in Madrid, "it depends now on Obama; only he can do something to resolve the cases." Alan Gross y Los Cinco de Miami.
May 31 - American minister Joan Brown Campbell is in Havana, hoping she can negotiate a swap of the now Miami Four for Alan Gross. It's Gross' only way out, and there are no more political races for the president to fret over. Barack Obama should free Alan Gross.
Cuba
Cuba lambasts U.S. embargo at U.N. General Assembly
Colombia's president Santos calls for normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations
U.S. embargo of Cuba is 50 years old today
Alan Gross and the Miami Five
Alan Gross sues U.S. and its "subversion" contractor, claiming he was deceived about Cuba gig
U.S. refuses to to swap Miami Five for convicted American smuggler Alan Gross
In Havana, Mexican president Felipe Calderón condemns U.S. embargo of Cuba
Alan Gross exposed
U.S. Shows Revolting Double Standard in René González Case
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
Obama is usually right on the button. But this speech sounds like it was spoken for US ears, with very little relevant to the average Mexican.
ReplyDeleteI think your comment was intended for one of the two articles just below, concerning the president's Mexico trip. Readers may wish to check there.
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