More Evidence of Violations in the Cuban Anti-terrorist Case

WASHINGTON. - The Reporters on contract digital site will reveal more evidence of payments that the U.S. government gave journalists in Miami to create a hostile atmosphere against the Cuban Five.

The website, an initiative of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five (Free the Five), will release additional documents that have surfaced in which it argues that the operation of propaganda from the White House was illegal and the manipulation of the justice system.

Gerardo Hernández and Antonio Guerrero, two of the five, have filed for habeas corpus on the grounds that their constitutional rights to due process were undermined by the government media.

The newspaper Liberation has reported more than 2,200 pages of contracts between journalists from Miami, including Radio and TV Marti, through a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The BBG (Broadcasting Board of Governors) and its Office of Transmissions to Cuba (Office of Cuba Broadcasting-OCB) have operated Radio Marti from 1985 and TV Marti since 1990, according to a statement from the Free the Five, released on Monday.

With an annual budget of about $ 35 million, the CBO and BBG put on the payroll informants to convey the same message inside and outside the country, on issues related to the Caribbean nation, which violates the known laws against the dissemination of propaganda.

The multi-year effort, conducted by Liberation, the Committee and the Foundation of the Association for Civil Justice, has resulted in the discovery of these materials, which saturated the media and prejudiced the Miami Five Case.

The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which regulates the U.S. public diplomacy abroad, prohibits financing activities to exercise influence and disseminate propaganda directed at public opinion.

Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and René González were arrested in Miami on September 12, 1998, and are serving harsh sentences of up to two life sentences.

The Five, as they are called internationally, infiltrated terrorist groups based in southern Florida to warn of their criminal purposes against Cuba. (PL)

GRANMA