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Spy retrial brings out Cuban exiles' restraint

Five overturned convictions disappoint in Miami, but newfound patience has prevailed.

By DAVID ADAMS
Published August 15, 2005

MIAMI - Fidel Castro doesn't win many legal battles in the United States.

On the few occasions he has emerged victorious, the usual reaction from Miami's Cuban exile community comes fast and furious. In the bitter 2000 custody battle over 6-year-old Cuban rafter boy Elian Gonzalez, court rulings were greeted with howls of protest.

Not surprisingly, the airwaves on Miami's Spanish-language talk radio bristled with outrage last week after a federal appeals court overturned the 2001 convictions of five accused Cuban spies.

But times have changed. Unlike in the past, the exile community's rage this time has gone no further than angry chatter on talk radio. Tuesday's ruling came as a bitter blow to Miami's Cuban exile community, but it also revealed a growing maturity among a group not historically known for its restraint.

"The wheels of justice may be slow, but people are confident this will play out in due course," said Joe Garcia, former director of the Cuban-American National Foundation, which once led the exile hard line but has since adopted a more moderate stance.

In a 93-page opinion the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ordered a new trial, citing "pervasive community prejudice" in Miami against the Castro government, exacerbated by intense media coverage and improper comments by U.S. attorneys handling the case.

The seven-month-long trial of the spy ring was big news in Miami at the time. Cuban exiles had long denounced the presence of Castro's agents in their midst. The so-called Wasp Network appeared to provide the final proof. All five men were found guilty, and three were sentenced to life.

The case caused a stir in Havana, where the spies have become the subject of a massive publicity campaign to "Free the Five," highlighting alleged U.S. double standards in the war on terrorism.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami has not decided whether to challenge the appeals court ruling. Experts say the detailed nature of the opinion will make it tough to reverse. Most likely the case will be retried in another Florida city next year.

Former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, whose office spent an estimated $20-million to prosecute the case, said he was baffled by the ruling.

"I don't see any evidence that the jury had in fact been contaminated in any way, shape or form," said Lewis, now in private practice. No Cuban-Americans sat on the jury, he noted.

Defense attorney Paul McKenna said the ruling vindicated his repeated requests to move the venue for the 2001 trial.

The appeals court opinion cited "massive" evidence in support of the change of venue, including polls revealing the climate of hostility in Miami.

The judges also cited a study by Cuban-American sociologist Lisandro Perez, who found that "the possibility of selecting 12 citizens of Miami-Dade County who can be impartial in a case involving acknowledged agents of the Cuban government is virtually zero."

During closing arguments, the prosecutor attacked the spies as tools of the Cuban government bent on destroying the American way of life. The judges found such language to be excessive and "only served to add fuel to the inflamed community passions."

Still, the judges did not question the evidence in the trial, fueling optimism among anti-Castro exiles.

"The evidence is overwhelming," said Jose Basulto, a CIA-trained Bay of Pigs veteran and head of the exile pilots organization Brothers to the Rescue. "The result will be the same if the retrial is held in Timbuktu or Miami."

In the 2001 trial, defense attorneys acknowledged their clients were Cuban agents. But they argued the Wasps were on a legitimate counterterrorism mission to infiltrate Miami exile groups.

In the mid 1990s several Cuban exile groups openly boasted of paramilitary-style raids into Cuba. This culminated in a series of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997, in which one foreign tourist was killed.

But evidence in court also painted a darker picture of the Wasp Network, including links to the 1996 shoot-down of a Cuban exile plane over international waters.

One of the Wasps, Gerardo Hernandez, was convicted of murder for his role in the incident.

Trial evidence also highlighted how the Wasps made anonymous death threats and used disinformation tactics to sow discord in the community. They also sought to infiltrate U.S. military installations in South Florida, including MacDill Air Force Base.

"We know they are spies, and they were sent here to do us harm," said Ramon Raul Sanchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, an anti-Castro group that advocates nonviolent protest.

He urged understanding from non-Cubans, stressing that the exile community had learned the lessons of Elian Gonzalez and respect for the rule of law.

"It's just a bit harder when you have seen your country destroyed, you have lost everything and been forced to leave. That kind of person doesn't react in the same way as someone who grew up in freedom."

Active in the battle over Elian, Sanchez said the exile community has changed. "Today the idea of nonviolence is much stronger than armed struggle."

When anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles was jailed in May on charges of entering the country illegally, there was little discord in the community.

Posada is accused by Cuba of a long career of terrorism against the island, including the 1976 bombing that killed 73 people.

He has also bragged of his role in the Havana hotel bombings.

Some Cuban exiles still consider Posada a freedom fighter, but the spotlight on terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001, has dimmed his cause.

While some of the passion may have gone out of Cuban exile politics, hard-liners still enjoy considerable influence in Miami.

Critics of the spy case have suggested it was politically motivated to mollify Cuban exiles bruised after the Elian saga.

In researching her book, Cuba Confidential , about the long feud between Miami and Havana, journalist Ann Louise Bardach spoke to FBI agents investigating the Wasp Network. She says they were upset at the money and resources wasted on the trial.

"The agents told me they were stunned because these were low-level people at the bottom of the food chain. They thought they would be sent home," said Bardach, director of the Media Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The Atlanta ruling was an important reminder that political tolerance was still lacking in Miami, said Francisco Aruca, a Cuban-American morning radio show host critical of the spy case.

"It's a very important lesson that the environment of fear still persists," he said. "Until we face up to that, we will never really change."

--David Adams can be reached at dadams@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 15, 2005, 02:30:20]