By Andrés Gómez – September 4, 2013

Portrait of Fidel Castro by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban 5

With this discussion of lying, Andrés Gómez, Cuban journalist living in Miami, marks the 15- year anniversary on September 12 of the arrest and jailing of the Cuban Five political prisoners. U.S. lies put them in prison, he says, and are the reason four of them are still there. Excerpts from a recent contribution by Cuban writer Manuel Yepe appear below also. His survey of lies used to justify U.S. wars provides context for the observation by Gómez that lies are central to the U.S. way of governing. Andrés Gómez is director of Areítodigital.

It will be 15 years ago on September 12 that the U.S. government arrested and imprisoned the Five in Miami: Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando, and René. René is free, healthy and living with his own in Cuba after finishing his 13 year prison sentence and more than half his three-year term of probation. Arbitrarily, Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, and Fernando remain in prison.

As we know, this has occurred while terrorists of the extreme Cuban American rightwing live free in Miami. Over the course of decades, they carried out odious crimes that left thousands of innocent victims in Cuba and in other countries, all under the orders of U.S. intelligence agencies, or at least with the consent of those same agencies. Governments of the United States view this cruel and intolerable situation as justice.

There have been 15 long and, for the Five, interminable years. Yet each one of the Five knew very well the risks he was exposing himself to when he took on the noble task entrusted to them of trying to protect their people and save innocent lives. Ever since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 – that great process of restoring sovereignty, wealth, the inalienable right of self-determination, and other fundamental liberties to the nation – governments of the United States have never held back on their zeal to destroy Cuba. In reality from the very start, when the Cuban nation was forged, governments of the United States have never given up on their determination to destroy Cuba, that is to say, a Cuba fully sovereign and independent.

U.S. governments lie when they say the Five were involved in espionage jobs against the U.S. government. The federal prosecutor could offer not one single proof confirming the charge of spying or of conspiracy to spy during the trial held in Miami in 2001. They lied and they’re still lying when they say that.

U.S. governments lie when they accuse Gerardo Hernández of conspiring to commit murder. They did so in the case of airplanes of the terrorist Brothers to the Rescue organization being shot down in February, 1996 when they returned and violated Cuban air space. The federal prosecutor had no proof substantiating that charge. At the last minute he urged the court to withdraw it. They lied and they’re still lying when they assert that about Gerardo.

Moreover, we all know that for these U.S. administrations, the lie is an essential element of how they govern. They continue their politics of world domination that way. That’s how they begin and sustain their imperial wars. They still keep Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, and Fernando in prison that way. That was how they kept René a prisoner until he had finished the last day of his sentence.

It was U.S. government faithfulness to politics of state terrorism against the Cuban people and to Cuban-American rightwing extremists that made them imprison people who infiltrated those terrorist organizations here in Miami. The

Portraits of the mothers of the Cuban 5, by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban 5

terrorists were the ones carrying out their perfidious policies.

The current U.S. administration, the one Barack Obama presides over, remains faithful to a policy of state terrorism and to those terrorists that for decades have carried it forth. These obligations are what keep Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, and Fernando in prison. Their long sentences, severe beyond measure, are unacceptable.

Federal courts have also lied in the case of the Five. Having given way to requirements imposed by U.S. government lying, they ended up subverting the impartiality of judicial processes protected by laws and the Constitution. They thus prevented justice from being carried out.

The worldwide political movement that demands freedom for the Five is growing in breadth and intensity. It has done everything currently possible in these times, and will continue doing so, to achieve the immediate release of Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio and Fernando. Those of us who are committed to this extraordinary international effort are fully aware that 15 years is a whole lifetime. This truth speaks to us even more.

Manuel Yepe’s article appearing on August 31 is titled, “Lying and simulation as imperialist weapons” Excerpts follow:

Some say U.S. governing elites … often sweep trash under the rug and forget where they left it. The history of U.S. imperialism offers examples. U.S. government leaders have used manipulation of facts to justify initial aggressive actions in all U.S. conflicts aimed at imposing hegemony on a regional or planetary scale. It’s a fact that all the imperialist wars of the United States have begun with a big lie adjusted to internal superpower necessities… Top imperialist leaders characteristically use government resources and all the control they exercise over the mainstream media to back up these fabrications.

[Yepe cites lies about the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana in 1898 and about U.S. – driven United Nations attacks on the former Yugoslavia.] Justifications for aggressions against Iraq and Libya surely were as filled with lies as are present accusations against Syria. This time, would-be owners of the world claim the Syrian President – against whom they’ve directed bullets from their propaganda machine – has provoked a humanitarian crisis in his country using chemicals weapons … Of course with so many fresh antecedents, no one believes them. But everything suggests U.S. government leaders … are once more waiting for the information machinery they’ve set up throughout the world to breath life into their impunity.”

(Sources of articles by Andrés Gómez and Manuel Yepe are, respectively, http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=173477&titular=mentiroso…di-la-verdad–

and http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/a172668.html.  W. T. Whitney Jr. translated.)

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Mentiroso…di la verdad

Che painted by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban 5

By Andres Gomez – 05-09-2013

Hará 15 años el próximo 12 de septiembre que el gobierno de Estados Unidos arrestó y encarceló en Miami a los Cinco: Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando y René. René está libre y sano con los suyos en Cuba después de cumplir su condena de 13 años de prisión más la mitad de su sanción de tres años de probatoria. Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio y Fernando continúan arbitrariamente en prisión.

Como sabemos esto ha ocurrido mientras que terroristas de la extrema derecha cubano americana, quienes durante décadas han cometido odiosos crímenes que han ocasionado miles de víctimas inocentes en Cuba y en otros países bajo las órdenes de agencias de inteligencia de Estados Unidos, o al menos con la anuencia de esas mismas agencias, viven libres en Miami. Justicia le llaman los gobiernos de Estados Unidos a esta cruel e intolerable situación.

Han sido quince largos, y para los 5, interminables años. Aunque cada uno de los Cinco al asumir la noble tarea que les fue encomendada para intentar proteger a su pueblo y salvar vidas inocentes bien sabían a lo que se arriesgaban. Porque desde el triunfo de la Revolución en enero de 1959 — magno proceso que recuperó para la nación su soberanía y sus otras libertades fundamentales, sus riquezas y su derecho inalienable de autodeterminación– los gobiernos de Estados Unidos no han cesado en su afán por destruir a Cuba. En realidad los gobiernos de Estados Unidos desde el mismo principio de la forja de la nación cubana nunca han cesado en su afán por destruir a Cuba; a una Cuba plenamente soberana e independiente.

Mienten los gobiernos de Estados Unidos cuando mantienen que los Cinco estaban involucrados en tareas de espionaje contra el gobierno de Estados Unidos. Ni una sola prueba pudo presentar la fiscalía federal que corroborara el cargo de espionaje o de conspiración para cometer espionaje durante el juicio celebrado a los Cinco en Miami en 2001. Mintieron y siguen mintiendo cuando lo aseveran.

Mienten los gobiernos de Estados Unidos cuando acusan a Gerardo Hernández de conspirar para cometer asesinato en el caso del derribo de los aviones de la organización de terroristas Hermanos al Rescate que en aquella ocasión volvieron a violar espacio aéreo cubano en febrero de 1996. La fiscalía federal no tuvo prueba alguna para substanciar ese cargo y a última hora instó al tribunal retirarlo. Mintieron y siguen mintiendo cuando lo aseveran.

Mas, como sabemos, para estos gobiernos la mentira es consustancial a sus gestiones de gobierno. Así gobiernan; así mantienen su política de dominio mundial; así inician y sustentan sus guerras imperiales. Así han mantenido encarcelados a Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio y a Fernando. Así mantuvieron preso a René hasta que cumplió el último día de su condena en la cárcel.

Es la fidelidad de esos gobiernos a su política de terrorismo de estado en contra del pueblo cubano y a sus terroristas de la extrema derecha cubano americana, los ejecutores de esa pérfida política, los que los obligó a encarcelar a aquellos que infiltraron a esas organizaciones terroristas aquí en Miami.

Es la continua fidelidad del actual gobierno de Estados Unidos, el que preside Barack Obama, a esa política de terrorismo de estado y a esos terroristas que por décadas la han ejecutado, lo que obliga a ese gobierno a mantener a Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio y a Fernando presos cumpliendo improcedentes y desmesuradas condenas.

Han mentido también los tribunales federales que en el caso de los Cinco se han doblegado a las exigencias de las mentiras de los gobiernos de Estados Unidos, subvirtiendo la imparcialidad de los procesos jurídicos protegidos por las leyes y la Constitución, impidiendo así que se haga justicia.

El movimiento político mundial que exige la libertad de los Cinco crece en alcance y se robustece. Hará, como ha venido haciendo, todo lo posible para ahora, en este tiempo, lograr la inmediata libertad de Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio y Fernando. Los que estamos comprometidos en este extraordinario esfuerzo internacional estamos plenamente conscientes de que quince años es toda una vida. Esta verdad nos obliga aún más.–