[NYTr] Cuban 5: BBC Interviews Wife of Gerardo Hernandez

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

NOTE: The July 3, 2007 BBC interview with Gerardo Hernandez has already
been distributed by NY Transfer. See this link, which also contains
links to the BBC Audio PodCast:
http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070702/065154.html

sent by mart

National Committee To Free The Cuban Five Bulletin
web: http://www.freethefive.org

July 19, 2007

BBC interviews Adriana Pérez

After the interview earlier this month with Gerardo Hernández, the first
interview by a major media outlet with any member of the Cuban Five,
the BBC has now broadcast a shorter interview with Gerardo's wife,
Adriana Pérez. Along with the broadcast interview, the BBC published an
article highlighting the criminal decade-long denial of visas to
Adriana and Olga Salanueva, wife of René González, by U.S. authorities.

The BBC article includes a link to the website of the National
Committee to Free the Cuban Five. Hundreds of visitors to the BBC
website have already clicked on that link to learn more about the case
of the Five in just the first few hours that the article has been
posted on the BBC website.

We've posted the complete article, along with the video interview of
Adriana, on our website, and a link to Gerardo's interview.

[BBC News story about the interview, and links to the video, follow.]
                      ***

Click here to view a BBC video interview with Adriana Perez which forms
the basis of the article below http://tinyurl.com/2ehk6v

Or watch a lower-resolution YouTube version here:
http://tinyurl.com/2poq94

BBC News - Jul 19, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2lpvbw


BBC Interview with Adriana Pérez

Cuban wives fight US jail visit ban

by Michael Voss

Two Cuban women, whose husbands are serving long sentences in the United
States for conspiracy to commit espionage, are campaigning to be
allowed to visit them in jail.

It is not that the Cuban authorities are refusing them permission to
travel but that for some 10 years the American authorities have
repeatedly refused to grant them visas.

They are among the wives of the so-called Cuban Five who were arrested
in Florida in 1998 as part of an alleged spy ring known as the "Wasp
Network".

Earlier this month the BBC broadcast an interview with the group's
leader, Gerardo Hernandez, from his prison cell in California.

He is currently serving two life sentences for conspiracy to commit
espionage and murder.

It was the first interview with any of the five and made front-page
headlines in Cuba, which is adamant that the men were wrongly convicted
and has long campaigned for a retrial.

Visits not allowed

 From his maximum security penitentiary in California, Gerardo Hernandez
described life behind bars.

"The worst part of my treatment has not to do with the prison but the
fact I haven't been able to see my wife for the past 10 years because
the US government doesn't give her a visa."

"I am told I could be a danger to the security of the United States, a
possible terrorist or even an illegal immigrant"

Adriana Perez, Gerardo Hernandez's wife

I met his wife Adriana at an office in central Havana, a softly spoken
yet determined and articulate woman.

She came armed with dozens of pamphlets and books written about the
case of the Cuban Five.

I had my laptop with a downloaded copy of the BBC interview plus a
transcript in Spanish.

"Seven times I have applied," she told me, "and each time I get a
different reason for being refused. I am told I could be a danger to
the security of the United States, a possible terrorist or even an
illegal immigrant."

Adriana, who does speak regularly to her husband by phone, sat silently
as I played the interview, concentrating intensely on her husband's
voice, the occasional flash of emotion crossing her face.

"It was like a ray of light," she told me afterwards. "It gives me hope
of seeing
 him face-to-face again. Even though we couldn't touch, just looking
into each others eyes would mean so much."

Controversial trial

The five Cubans were convicted in a Miami court in 2001 on a range of
charges including lying about their identities, trying to obtain US
military secrets and spying on Cuban exile groups.

It was a highly controversial trial particularly as it took place in
Miami, the centre of anti-Castro Cuban exile activities in the US.

The five are national heroes in Cuba

The Miami Herald newspaper recently described it as "one of South
Florida's most politically-laden criminal cases."

Of the five, Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labanino got life, with 19
years for Fernando Gonzalez, and 15 years for Rene Gonzalez.

Gerardo Hernandez was also charged with conspiring in the deaths of four
Cuban exiles, whose two light aircraft were shot down by the Cuban air
force over the Straits of Florida in 1996.

This is why he is currently serving two consecutive life sentences.

Three of the wives have been allowed to visit their husbands in jail.
But Adriana Perez along with Rene Gonzales's wife, Olga Salanueva, have
consistently been denied visas to enter the US.

I asked her about the conspiracy to murder charges and the families of
the four Cuban exiles who had died in the small planes shot down by the
Cuban fighter planes.

"Unfortunately they also had families who have suffered the loss of
their love ones. But Gerardo had nothing to do with it," she says.

"That was a decision taken by the Cuban government on the grounds of
national defence.

"The government had informed the US that exile groups were repeatedly
violating Cuban air space," Adriana Perez told me.

National heroes

In Cuba the five men are national heroes. There are giant posters of
them prominently displayed throughout Havana and across the country.

They are also the focus of regular rallies and demonstrations.

The authorities here say they were not sent to Miami to spy on the
United States, but to infiltrate and monitor militant anti-Castro exile
groups which the Cubans describe as "terrorists."

The year before their arrest there had been a series of bomb attacks on
tourist locations in Havana in which an Italian man died and several
Cubans were injured.

The Cuban Five have attracted sympathy from a range of supporters
worldwide, with a Free the Five web page being produced in San
Francisco.

On 20 August, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral
arguments in their case on claims of insufficient evidence.

Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva are also planning to appeal against the
refusal of their visa application, in the hope of being allowed visit
their husbands in jail.

[The article above and the interview with Adriana refer to the earlier
BBC interview with Gerardo [already distributed by NY Transfer].

Photos:

Photo 1) "Billboards are on display in Cuba calling for the five to be
freed" http://tinyurl.com/322wmt

Photo 2) " 'I am told I could be a danger to the security of the United
States, a possible terrorist or even an illegal immigrant' - Adriana
Perez, Gerardo Hernandez's wife" http://tinyurl.com/3cabwm

Photo 3) "The five are national heroes in Cuba"
http://tinyurl.com/2wpd4e