Corruption Evidences Pile Up in Cuban 5 Case

May 9, 2011 escambray.cu

The website www.reportersforhire.org will reveal more evidence of the U.S. government´s payments to Miami journalists to create a atmosphere of hysteria and bias against the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned in that northern country.

The website, an initiative by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, will publish additional documents exposing the White House´s illegal propaganda operation and manipulation of the justice system.

Gerardo Hernandez and Antonio Guerrero, two of the Cuban Five, have filed habeas corpus appeals arguing that their constitutional rights to due process were grossly undermined by the government's media operation.

More than 2,200 pages of contracts between Miami journalists, including those from Radio and TV Marti, have been released thus far to Liberation newspaper through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) petition.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an official U.S. government agency, and its Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) have operated Radio Marti since 1985 and TV Marti since 1990, according to a Free the Five release broadcast on Monday.

With an annual budget nearing 35 million USD, the OCB and BBG put on their payroll domestic journalists to broadcast the same message inside and outside the United States on Cuba-related issues, effectively violating the law against domestic dissemination of U.S. propaganda.

A multi-year effort by the Liberation newspaper, the Committee and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund has uncovered those materials that saturated the Miami media and that was prejudicial to the Cuban Five.

The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which regulates U.S. public diplomacy abroad, prohibits funding activities to influence and propagandize domestic public opinion.

Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, detained on September 12, 1998 in Miami, are currently serving harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to double life terms.

The Cuban Five, as they are universally known, infiltrated terrorist organizations based in southern Florida to warn about their plans against Cuba.