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FreeThe5-Gerardo

Radio Havana Cuba Interview with Paul McKenna, Gerardo Hernandez's lawyer 10th August 2005


Paul McKenna, who was born in Chicago in 1955, is the state appointed lawyer for Cuban Gerardo Hernandez. McKenna, who has been practicing law for nearly 25 years, is a partner in the Miami law firm McKenna and Obrant.

Gerardo Hernandez, along with a group of other Cubans, was arrested in Miami, Florida in September 1998 and after a 17 month spell in solitary confinement was tried and convicted of crimes against the security of the United States in a highly flawed legal process in the federal court in Miami. Hernandez was also accused of conspiracy to commit first degree murder for which he was serving a double life sentence plus fifteen years.

His co-defendants, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and René Gonzalez, were also subjected to the same legal mistreatment before, during and after the trial.

The whole legal process up until now has been seen a complete miscarriage of justice as both legally and morally the men were innocent of the charges against them The only reason they were in Miami was to infiltrate the anti-Cuban terrorist groups that were carrying out acts of sabotage against Cuba with the support of successive US administrations.

As a result of an appeal that was lodged by the defense team in March 2004 to the 11th Circuit court of Appeals, Atlanta, a land-mark decision was handed down, August 9th this year, ordering a complete re-trial in a different venue.

Paul McKenna spoke by telephone to Bernie Dwyer, Radio Havana Cuba, August 10, from his office in Miami about his and his client's feelings after they heard the news about the appeal court's opinion. According to McKenna his client is an innocent man again.

"He is presumed innocent. All his convictions are vacated. They don't mean anything anymore".

McKenna is now going to fight for the right of Gerardo's wife, Adriana Perez, who has not seen her husband for seven year because of the US refusal to grant her a visa to enter the United States to make a prison visit, to come to Miami when Gerardo is moved back there to begin the legal process again.

INTERVIEW

[Bernie Dwyer (BD)]: This is really the most exciting news we have had about the case of the Five in seven years. How would you describe how you feel?

[Paul McKenna (PMK)]: Extremely excited and elated!! I have been a lawyer since 1982 and the greatest moment that I ever had was yesterday when I was able to call Gerardo Hernández at the prison where he is at and get him on the phone and tell him that we had won the appeal.

In my nearly 25 years of being an attorney that was my greatest moment.

[BD]: So you have actually spoken to Gerardo. Can you possibly get across to me his words and his reactions when he heard the news?

[PMK]: I have to tell you that he was very emotional. I have known him a long time and he never gets emotional but he was very emotional. It's understandable that he would be emotional.

The first question he asked me when I told him that his case had been reversed and sent back for a new trial was: "what about the others" and I told him not to worry that everyone's case has been reversed. As usual, the first thing that he thought about was other people and he told me that he was very much looking forward to talking to his wife, Adriana and telling her and talking to his mother and he thanked me. He asked me if I could mail him a copy of the decision. The final thing he said was "Paul, what next?" I said:" You know, we start all over again. Soon you will be coming back to Miami".

It was a short conversation because they don't normally allow conversations with lawyers like that and I had to call a counselor and make a special request. He was very, very emotional but very, very happy.

[BD]: Gerardo Hernandez has served seven years of his two life sentences plus fifteen years and during that time he has not been able to receive a visit from his wife Adriana. Is that going to change now?

[PMK]: I think the saddest part of Gerardo's case is that he has not seen his beautiful wife, Adriana, in seven years. I don't know a couple that is as devoted to each other or love each other as much as Gerardo and Adriana. They have a truly beautiful love. Adriana is such a strong person and she has been fighting for seven years to see her husband. She must be so happy with this news. And I am so happy for her.

And I think now that after seven years we have to re-dedicate ourselves to contact the highest people in the American government to just grant the basic humanitarian decency, the courtesy of allowing a wife to see her husband. That's a universal principle. It doesn't matter what country you are from, what religion or politics you have, that's a fundamental human right; a man can see his wife if he is in prison and we have to be able to get Adriana to come to the US now.

He is an innocent man again. He is presumed innocent. All his convictions are vacated. They don't mean anything anymore. As a free man, as an innocent man, as a man that is presumed not to have done any crime, he has a right to see his wife and we must contact the highest people in the US government to make this happen.

[BD]: Can you explain why it is that Adriana has not been able to go to visit Gerardo?

[PMK]: The government claims that at one point they thought that possibly Adriana might be linked to some of the acts charged. But she wasn't and now so much time has passed that they couldn't even charge her even if they wanted to.

In the United States, you can only be charged with a crime within five years of having committed it. And she didn't commit any crime in the first place but they haven't charged her with any crime either. They shouldn't be using these accusations of denying her entry into the United States. I'm going to contact them and I'm going to suggest that she should be allowed to come to Miami when he has returned here.

She could stay with me if she wants to. I'll take her to the jail. I'll take her for her visits and when the visits are over I will take her to the airport. She is a perfectly decent honorable human being who only wants to see Gerardo after seven long years. I'm going to everything I can to make sure that happens.

[BD]: Do you think that the decision that came down from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and now this huge opinion from the 11th Circuit can make this fail-safe inasmuch as the US government will not overturn this decision.

[PMK]: The United States government could never overturn this decision. The only group that could is the US Court of Appeals and their opinion is so strong and so long and so full of detail that I don't see any way that that decision will ever be changed. I'm not concerned about that.

I feel very strongly that the Court of Appeal's decision reversing and remanding the case for a new trial will stand. I feel very confident about that. However, having said that, we still have a long road ahead of us. We have been given a fresh start. We have been given a clean slate but we still have a huge adversary that we must defeat.

We have a long way to go in this case and it's going to take a lot of work, good lawyering, good strategies and we are going to have to rethink how we are going to do this case. I think that if we put our minds and our hearts to it, we can accomplish anything.

[BD]: And what about the role of the solidarity groups? How will they continue their campaign?

[PMK]: I think that what they have done has helped to keep the spirits of the Five alive, and whenever I see that, it spurs me on. That encourages me. Their contribution is enormous and I would ask them to keep doing what they are doing because it does have an impact. It has an impact on me.

It has an impact on my client to know that there are people who support us because I have got to tell you that there were a lot of dark and lonely days when it didn't seem like we would get to where we got to yesterday. But those people were reason to keep going and those people that gave all that support are people who will keep fighting and I hope that they will keep doing it.

This interview is for broadcast on Radio Havana Cuba on Friday 12th August 2005

Message from 2006-09-26 - radio Habana Cuba - september 25

Message from Gerardo Hernandez

Dear compañeros y compañeras,

Eight years ago the Five were arrested. When I remember back on what happened that September 12 the first thing that comes to my mind are the words of the FBI agent, who in the middle of his efforts to try to turn us into traitors, said: "Cuba will do nothing for you. Nobody will do anything for you"

How far off were he and his fellow officials to imagine what has developed over these years in the struggle to free the Five (to be honest, not even we, the Five, could have imagined!) I really wish that now I could see his face again and show him the message that Fidel sent us recently, or mention to him the words from Alarcon about us in every event that he participates, or about the denunciation of our imprisonment by Cuban officials at all levels and the pleas from members of our own families in the most important international forums raising our case.

I would not have enough time to tell him about all the examples of support and affection that comes to us from the Cuban people, and from all our compañeros from all over the world. Perhaps he knows about the great number of letters that we receive every day, but I would tell him about Andy Daniel, a Cuban child that was born with his little hands deformed and that at his 6 years of age, writes and makes drawings for the Five. Or of the woman in that remote place in the mountains of France, that for years now sends letters to the Five every week. (She even received a response from the Pope's office, but not from Alberto Gonzales' office…) Or from the very old couple from London who sells flowers from their garden to raise funds for our cause, just as many other friends around the world have done, with similar sacrifice. These are just a tiny few examples of the love and solidarity that we receive from around the world

I am certain that that FBI agent has heard about the people in Miami who, despite the challenge of overcoming the terror imposed by the Cuban American Mafia in that city, have not stopped demonstrating in favor of our liberation. I would tell him about the hundreds of solidarity committees created around the whole world, about the protests in front of U.S. consulates and embassies, or about the compañero from Philadelphia, that despite his health problems has been able, due to his insistence, to publish his letters about the Five in several newspapers.

I am sure that I would still have many things to mention to him, but I would for certain tell him about the thousands of friends in the United States that, despite the pressure and intimidation of this administration against the progressive movements and those sectors that struggle for civil rights, that they are not afraid. I would point to those who will take their voices of protest for our freedom to the front door of the White House. I will tell him about all of you that are participating in the solidarity events on our behalf that has gave us so much encouragement.

Without any doubt, on September 12th 1998 that FBI agent was wrong. He was wrong just like the prosecutors in our trial and all the others who lied about our mission and that underestimated you and us.

Sisters and brothers: some people may say that our struggle has not been effective because the Five are still in prison, or that we are in a very bad moment because we lost an important point in our appeals. Nothing could be further from the truth. We never thought that this battle for justice was going to be easy, or short. We believe-on the contrary-that the current moment is good, and because of that we should re double our efforts. A year ago we were complaining about the strong wall of silence imposed over our case by the corporate media. In recent months that wall has been opened little by little and nobody should think that it is due to some spontaneous interest coming from the media about the Five. We owe this shift to the work that all of you have been doing and to the solidarity efforts of each one of you from all over the world.

On a recent occasion a dear compañera made an observation to us that in all the messages from the Five we always repeat the words "gratitude", "appreciation", "thanks". and suggested that it wasn't necessary. Because I knew she was right about that I borrowed a dictionary with synonyms to find other words, but it was in vain. We do not have any other way to express how we feel about your support. We are immensely honored and proud for the solidarity of all of you, and we express our most profound THANKS for everything you do for us.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

With the revolutionary embrace of the Five

Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo
U.S.P. Victorville
California, September 2006

MUM I´M PROUD OF YOU


By Hugo Garcia Fernandez           (from:www.tribuna.islagrande.cu)

At first sight, the compact vegetation in front of the house, leaves no doubt that the inhabitants are nature lovers. Ferns and other ornamental plants recreate the beauty of a landscape that, though beautiful, can not heal the deep wound caused by the absence of a son, brother, husband, uncle, neighbor: Gerar as they friendly call him.

And the fact of sitting on the red-leader sofa where Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo used to lay in shorts, without shirt, to play with any of his five nephews, brings me closer to the family environment of one of our Five Heroes Prisoners of the Empire.

"He was always very tender, healthy, though he was allergic to aspirin", Carmen Nordelo Tejera tells us with very low voice, every detail of the story of her only boy, while she balances in one of the two rocking chairs where he balanced someday too.

As we talk about her younger child , I notice her more willing to revise periods of life that usually pass unnoticed and one doesn’t give them importance till one day, when they come to mind for a special situation.

Gerardo’s eye is malicious. Did he give you headaches when he was a child?

Not at all. He was quite responsible, he liked to study. Furthermore, when he was born, I already had a ten year daughter and an eight year one. People used to say that the boy was going to be spoiled, because after raising two girls it wouldn’t be easy at all to raise a boy.

"For example, my husband worked in the garden and Gerard took the grass to a near place in a wagon. Then a neighbor commented me: Carmen, this is abusive because the boy is too little; and I told her, it is his will, nobody forces him or asks him to do so.

"When fell, he used to get up and say: ‘Men don’t cry’. He practiced Karate, he played baseball, domino and billiard. He was always active, he draw caricatures and took part in contests, and when he won a prize once, his drawings began to be published in magazines and newspapers."

Kind, humble, Carmen was born on July 15th, 1933. Casually Gerardo married Adriana on the same month and day. From that moment on 15 became his favorite number.

-People say that boys are always more attached to their mothers?

He is very tender to everybody. And with me, imagine. Now he is far and he is telling me all the time mum take care, the worst thing that can happen to me is to know that something bad happened to you.

"When we saw each other in the United States, I don’t know where I got strength from. He said: ‘Mum, I’m proud of you because I see you on first line’. That encouraged him , because in these conditions, if he sees me crying he will get more afflicted. In all his letters he is concerned about my health, as he was with his father when he lived."



He has a reputation as a baseball player...

(Smiling) There were two old teachers who lived close to our hose and one day one of them told me: There is no boy like yours in this neighborhood, because all of them were playing and said hello to me and went on playing, but Gerardo came, took my bag and accompanied me to my house. Later he told me as a joke: Mum, my friends say that I’m bad at baseball because instead of playing I carry people’s bags.

"Few days ago Adriana (Gerardo’s wife) told him on telephone that the Girón and Juventud Rebelde journals had published an interview with a friend of his, from Cienaga de Zapata, and he didn’t let her finish. He answered immediately that it was his brother Urbano Bouza Suriz, just like that, with last name and everything, even though they haven’t seen each other since 1990. He was happy to know about his friend and to be able to communicate with him. I think that proves how much he cares for friendship."

What happened in this house, any day, when Gerardo was here?

He draw, he gave his caricatures a lot of time. He watched a lot of TV. In the afternoons he practiced karate or went for a walk. He went to sleep late and he slept few hours. He devoted a lot of time to take care of his plants and animals. He had everything from a turtle to a dog.

What can you say about his spirit in the difficult conditions of the unfair confinement?

I saw him better now than the first time I traveled to the United States. He works as a computer operator and he is allowed to take a little sun; fortunately because he was so pale before... I think he is quite recovered.

In what circumstances could you see him now?

The visits are on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. We arrived a little late on Friday and we had to see him on Saturday. We met in a big salon, where there are tables and chairs. We sat one in front of the other. When he entered the room, dressed with the beige-colored uniform, I stood up and hug him very strong. I took his hands on the table, I caressed them when the guards made signals to indicate me to let them go. We talked about everything. He asked for everybody.

When was the last visit?

On April 19. We were ten days there. The first week we saw him once and on the next we could see him Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was five visits.

" The place is more ancient than the one where he was before. He manifested me that he feels better, that he likes his work with the computer and that he is keeping the statistics in a factory of electronic connectors."

How long does a visit last?

The hours for each day are divided according to the points they accumulate. The last time he had three ours left and they gave us an extra hour. He also has the choice to make phone calls.

This Sunday millions of Cubans will have you and the other mothers in their hearts. What do you remember from the last time you spent Mothers Day together?

He was always concerned with me. On my birthday, on Mothers day, he always brought me some present. I saw him many times writing congratulation cards for that date. I couldn’t precise what happened the last time, but he normally spent that day here. He congratulated the mothers of the neighborhood, his mother in law, maybe he went out. I will miss him of course but he will be very present in my heart that day.

If you had a real chance to publish a message for the North American mothers in the American Media, what would you tell them?

First I would congratulate them for such a beautiful day, as I would congratulate all Cuban mothers. I would ask them to cooperate to have justice done. When I went to Miami I wondered about the reaction of people there on considering them spies, and nevertheless, we found solidarity everywhere, the members of the Antonio Maceo Brigade visited us in the Hotel.

"I have to admit that there was no one who didn’t behave that way with us. That time I told Gerar: ‘In Cuba everybody thinks about you and they send you their regards’, and he said: Mum, it is not only there, I had a card from San Francisco, California, with 40 firms of solidarity with us’.

"And his lawyer commented that he felt admired with the attitude of these five young men, because despite the conditions in which they are confined, they stand firm, they don’t surrender and they make caricatures, poems and keep their dignity".

Despite your sorrow, are you proud of your son as a mother?

Of course I am, and Fidel with us. Every time we meet he kisses us and says: "They will return!". Every body is pendent to that. Few days ago Melba Hernandez asked me to send them a kiss, and I imagine it was on behalf of all Cuban mothers.

Letter from Adriana Perez, Gerardo's wife

Letter from Adriana Perez, Gerardo's wife

To all our friends who are insolidarity with us:

To live with the daily anguish and uncertainty that the future offers us is the life sentence that I share with Gerardo.

I was not condemned in a federal court like he was, I was not even close by. Yet, we received the cruelest punishment: psychological torture and definitive isolation.

By the United States government denying Gerardo my visits as his wife, as a prisoner condemned to two life sentences his rights are being violated. They are preventing the joining of two people who love each other, not even under restrictions that the Bureau of Prisons establishes.

The repeated denial of a visa has forced us into a major separation, to suffer the constant violation of human rights and international law. It increases our anxiety and the perpetual punishment of not being able to see each other.

With almost 15 years of marriage, I ask myself: When will we be able to look into each other’s eyes?

Who has the right to violate international law?

When will there be justice?

The confidence that we have in the U.S. people, in its noble values and as defender of family traditions, keeps us hopeful of a better future where truth and justice raise their voices. Please join forces to protest this situation.

Adriana Pérez O'Connor, wife of Gerardo Hérnández

The Days of Gerardo in the United States Federal Prison at Lompoc

FOR millions of Cubans, the living conditions of the Five Cuban Political Prisoners being held in U.S. prisons is one of their greatest preoccupations. (...)

Defense Statement

Your Honor:
I would like first of all to express a few words of thanks to a number of federal government officials who worked throughout our long and complex trial, both inside and outside this courtroom. I am referring to the translators, stenographers, marshals and other assistants, who showed a high professional ethic (...)

Gerardo Hernández Nordelo

Gerardo Hernández Nordelo.

Graduate from the Raul Roa Superior Institute of International Relations.

Gerardo Hernández Nordelo was born on June 4, 1965, in the midst of a humble family. He was the third of three siblings. Since he was a child, he devoted himself to study and self-preparation. His mother says that two of his son’s teacher, who recently visited her, commented that Gerardo was different from the rest of the children. While his classmates played ball, he would come to help the carry their bags.

From childhood he liked the cartoons, he participated in competitions, and people asked to his mother how was it possible that being so serious, he had such a sense of humor.

Gerardo was very dear to his classmates and professors. They remember his sense of responsibility. He went out with his friends, he played ball, he went to the countryside with the school, and when he finished. High School he got the major in International Relations.

At University, Gerardo was an integral member of the University Student Federation. He was a member the school theater, he practiced karate, he published a bulletin, he made his cartoons and published them in a national humorous newspaper; at the same time he continued his superior studies and became a member of the Union of Communist Youths After he graduated, he went to the People’s Republic of Angola as an internationalist fighter.

Ten years ago, when his father dad died, he was in Cuba, but when his elder sister passed away in an plane accident, his was already abroad completing the assigned mission.

He has been married for 16 years with Adriana Pérez Oconor, who is at the 32 years old at the moment. Because of Gerardo's tasks, she has postponed several of her individual projects as the one of being a mother and the possibility of sharing their life like a normal couple. Her husband, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, remains imprisoned in United States, after being condemned by a court in Miami without any evidence to support the charges.

Adriana has been alone in Havana, while her partner remains behind the bars of a prison in Lompoc, California. She, however, has decided to continue their couple relationship because she is convinced that he is not a terrorist, and if he went to the United States, it was not harm anybody, but to make good things for the two countries.

"A person who person that hates that type of actions cannot be a terrorist. He is always surrounded by people who love him, and he has a great number of true friends. He doesn't speak loudly, though he might disagree with the outlined ideas, he/she takes pains so that the others are able to conquer their grieves, so that they are", Adriana remembers.

Once he was at a family party at Adriana’s home and suddenly she saw him talking cheerily with a neighbor that suffered from certain psychic disorders. The woman invited him to smoke a cigarette and Gerardo, without having that habit, consented very naturally.

In the jail of Miami, Gerardo met a Cuban whose relatives had died in that country and he was suffocated – that’s the way they call those who can hardly maintain a psychic and emotional balance -, and, through Gerardo and Adriana’s family in Cuba he was able to recover the contact with a sister who no longer lived in the island and had migrated toward United States in the last years.

"Finally, the man could communicate with his sister, and later he came to where Gerardo was, and he had no words to thank him; he even brought him gifts that he didn't want to accept, simply because it was natural in him to behave this way, but the saddest thing, he told me, is that he showed him the marks that he had in his arms of the times that he tried to commit suicide, as he did not have any reason to live."

"He considered Gerardo as the biggest happiness in those years, and said that God had placed him on his way so that he helped him. Other prisoners came to thank him the for such a humane act, and I know that he did it because he is accustomed to those things.”

Adriana is convinced that her husband is not a murderer, like the American Press has manipulatively divulged. "Not only because she is his wife and because she is Cuban, but because those men went to that country to protect the Cuban to and the American peoples, and they would have done the same with any other one that was threatened."

In fact, she shared with Gerardo the two years of his stay in the People’s Republic of Angola, where he went ” to fulfill a patriotic duty”.

Adriana believes that it was not only the feeling of being useful to the society what made him accept the mission of gathering information about terrorists plans against Cuba, but also his quality as a human being, his personal experience, his all-around preparation as an individual. All these features made him accept the mission without giving it a second thought.

"As much for him as for me there are facts in the history that you/they marked our lives, like it was the attack to the air ship of Cuban of Aviation in 1973 in that 73 people died on board. In their allegation him expressed that he/she had even given their own blood to avoid the death of thousands of Cuban for actions terrorists along 43 years of Revolution."

There are historical events that marked his life as well as mine. One of them was the bombing of a Cuban aircraft in 1973, where 73 people died. He expressed in his statement that he would have given his own blood to avoid the deaths of thousands of Cubans who have died in terrorists actions along these 43 years of Revolution.”

"He has always been willing to do that, he says in his letters, and in fact he did it, because that is a form of helping the country, of maintaining what has been achieved in this society with so much sacrifice, in exchange for nothing.”