Price of U.S.-Cuba deal: Releasing a murderer
The deal President Barack Obama announced Wednesday setting in
motion the most significant warming in U.S.-Cuba relations in half a
century comes with an American concession that may be a tough sell for
the White House: releasing from a U.S. prison a Cuban spy serving a life
term for murder.
One of the three Cubans whose sentences Obama commuted Wednesday as part of the groundbreaking agreement between Washington and Havana is Gerardo Hernández, who was convicted in 2001 of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes over Cuba in 1996, in which four Cuban émigrés aboard the aircraft were killed.
Hernández and the two others released were members of the so-called “Cuban Five” — a group of Cuban nationals convicted in 2001 of acting as what amounted to a spy ring known as “the Wasp Network.” The group used shortwave radios to receive direction from Cuba, including demands for information on Cuban exile groups in Florida and U.S. military activities in the Caribbean.
(VIDEO: President Obama: A 'new chapter' for Cuban relations)
White House officials declined to answer questions Wednesday morning about the release of Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero or whether Obama granted them formal commutations. All three were arrested in 1998. Labañino and Guerrero originally got life sentences on espionage charges, but later were resentenced by a court to 30 years and about 22 years, respectively.
In remarks Wednesday, Obama simply referred to the three men released as "Cuban agents" and noted they'd served more than 15 years in prison. He did not mention the murder conviction.
A Justice Department spokesman confirmed the releases came following commutations granted by Obama under his executive clemency powers.
"We can confirm that, prior to the President acting to commute the sentences of three former Cuban intelligence agents, Justice Department lawyers reviewed the proposed clemency orders for these prisoners," spokesman Brian Fallon said. "In accordance with the President's decision, these three individuals have now been formally released from the custody of the Bureau of Prisons. Their transfer to Cuba is complete, and was carried out without incident by the U.S. Marshals Service."
(VIDEO: Alan Gross arrives in the U.S. from Cuba)
The Cuban Five were eventually acknowledged as agents by the Cuban government and became a cause célèbre for the regime as well as some left-wing activists in the U.S. At one point, a federal appeals court overturned the convictions of the men due to the atmosphere surrounding their trial, but a broader panel of judges reversed that decision.
The two other members of the Cuban Five had already been released from prison, one in 2011 and the other earlier this year.
U.S. officials insisted Wednesday that the three Cuban agents serving time in the U.S. were not swapped directly for US Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross, who had spent more than five years in Cuban custody on espionage charges.
Instead, American officials said the three Cubans released Wednesday were swapped for another person who had aided U.S. intelligence services and had been in a Cuban prison for more than 20 years. That person was not named.
Prisoner swaps involving the release of convicted criminals or those facing criminal charges are not unusual in the world of espionage. However, release of a person serving a life term murder charge is uncommon, at least in the U.S.
Read more about: Executive Clemency, Murder, Cuba, Commutation
One of the three Cubans whose sentences Obama commuted Wednesday as part of the groundbreaking agreement between Washington and Havana is Gerardo Hernández, who was convicted in 2001 of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes over Cuba in 1996, in which four Cuban émigrés aboard the aircraft were killed.
Hernández and the two others released were members of the so-called “Cuban Five” — a group of Cuban nationals convicted in 2001 of acting as what amounted to a spy ring known as “the Wasp Network.” The group used shortwave radios to receive direction from Cuba, including demands for information on Cuban exile groups in Florida and U.S. military activities in the Caribbean.
(VIDEO: President Obama: A 'new chapter' for Cuban relations)
White House officials declined to answer questions Wednesday morning about the release of Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero or whether Obama granted them formal commutations. All three were arrested in 1998. Labañino and Guerrero originally got life sentences on espionage charges, but later were resentenced by a court to 30 years and about 22 years, respectively.
In remarks Wednesday, Obama simply referred to the three men released as "Cuban agents" and noted they'd served more than 15 years in prison. He did not mention the murder conviction.
A Justice Department spokesman confirmed the releases came following commutations granted by Obama under his executive clemency powers.
"We can confirm that, prior to the President acting to commute the sentences of three former Cuban intelligence agents, Justice Department lawyers reviewed the proposed clemency orders for these prisoners," spokesman Brian Fallon said. "In accordance with the President's decision, these three individuals have now been formally released from the custody of the Bureau of Prisons. Their transfer to Cuba is complete, and was carried out without incident by the U.S. Marshals Service."
(VIDEO: Alan Gross arrives in the U.S. from Cuba)
The Cuban Five were eventually acknowledged as agents by the Cuban government and became a cause célèbre for the regime as well as some left-wing activists in the U.S. At one point, a federal appeals court overturned the convictions of the men due to the atmosphere surrounding their trial, but a broader panel of judges reversed that decision.
The two other members of the Cuban Five had already been released from prison, one in 2011 and the other earlier this year.
U.S. officials insisted Wednesday that the three Cuban agents serving time in the U.S. were not swapped directly for US Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross, who had spent more than five years in Cuban custody on espionage charges.
Instead, American officials said the three Cubans released Wednesday were swapped for another person who had aided U.S. intelligence services and had been in a Cuban prison for more than 20 years. That person was not named.
Prisoner swaps involving the release of convicted criminals or those facing criminal charges are not unusual in the world of espionage. However, release of a person serving a life term murder charge is uncommon, at least in the U.S.
Read more about: Executive Clemency, Murder, Cuba, Commutation
No comments:
Post a Comment