The Cuban Five Pending Supreme Court Case - Come hear about it!!! Host: Loyola Law School Chapter - National Lawyers Guild Type: Meetings - Club/Group Meeting Network: Global Date: Monday, March 23, 2009 Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm Location: Donovan Hall Street: 919 Albany Street City/Town: Los Angeles, CA Contact: Veronica veronica.aragon@lls.edu Description The Cuban Five’s Pending Supreme Court Case!
When: Monday, March 23rd, 12p-1p
Where: Donovan Hall
Who: Gloria La Riva. As coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, Ms. La Riva has spoken extensively on the case as well as the worldwide campaign to win their freedom. She has spoken on the Five at forums in the United States, Europe, Brazil, India, Japan, Bolivia, Venezuela, Argentina, Canada and Cuba.
Co-Sponsors: International Law Society, ACLU, La Raza of Loyola, NLG
Food: Of Course!!!!
What: Gloria La Riva will be speaking about the recent developments in the Cuban Five’s pending Supreme Court Case, as well as the history or their legal struggle.
The Cuban Five’s mission:
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men imprisoned in the United States since 1998. Their story begins in the early 1990s, when each one entered Miami from Cuba. They came to infiltrate extremist rightwing Cuban-American organizations to prevent those groups from carrying out terrorist attacks on Cuba. After Cuban dictator Batista was overthrown in 1959, thousands of reactionaries left Cuba for Miami. Using the most violent of these exiles, the U.S. government launched a program of terrorism to try to destabilize and overthrow the Cuban government, a policy that continues today. Since 1959, 3,478 Cubans have died from terrorist attacks.
Despite the Cuban Five’s mission to monitor and stop the terrorists’ attacks, the FBI arrested them on Sept. 12, 1998 in Miami. They were charged with failure to register as foreign agents and conspiracy to commit
espionage, among other charges. But the Five never committed espionage nor planned to, nor was the U.S. government their target. The object of their monitoring was the Miami terrorists.
“The Five were not prosecuted because they violated American law, but because their work exposed those who were.” Leonard Weinglass, appellate attorney
The Five’s seven-month trial took place in Miami in an atmosphere of deep anti-Cuba prejudice. The climate of bias in that city assured the Five’s convictions. The judge repeatedly refused to grant a change of venue,
even to Ft. Lauderdale, 25 miles away. Yet one year after prosecuting the Five in Miami, the same U.S. attorney’s office argued in another federal trial that Miami was not suitable for a case linked with Cuba.
The world demands freedom for the Five
In May 2005, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions declared the Five’s detention illegal and arbitrary, and their sentences a violation of the International Convention on Civilian and Political Rights.
In August 2005, the Five won a sweeping victory:
A federal appeals court overturned their convictions and ordered a new trial, declaring that a “Perfect Storm” of Miami prejudice and the prosecution’s misconduct denied the Five a fair trial. But the Bush administration appealed the decision and a year later, their convictions were upheld. In January 2009, defense counsel filed a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a hearing on the Five’s case.
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