On Friday, October 7, René González will become the first member of the Cuban Five to be released from an American prison. In 2001, the Five were convicted in Miami of spying for Cuba. Cuba insists they were—justifiably—trying to prevent anti-Castro exiles from launching terrorist attacks against their homeland. The Five have since become heroes […]

An open letter to the FBI about a certain meeting that took place in Havana in June 1998 and why they now claim to have no records of it… Dear David M. Hardy, Thanks for your letter of January 25, 2011, in which you inform me that “a new search of the indices of our […]

Fifteen years after Cuban MiGs blew two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft out of the sky, the Cuban government continues to insist the planes were inside Cuban airspace when they were brought down. Ricardo Alarcon In an interview in Havana last week, Cuban President Ricardo Alarcon told me his government is “considering suing” one of […]

The interview is now available online.

Luis Posada Carriles A legal argument Thursday over whether prosecutors should be permitted to tell the jury that Luis Posada allegedly talked with an FBI agent while in prison in Panama in 2000 may have inadvertently opened a new, if small window on what we know about a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro. Posada and […]

El Paso Federal Court House If you are inclined to conspiracy theories, you might conclude—based on the evidence of the first few days of testimony in the immigration fraud trial of alleged terrorist Luis Posada Carriles—that the U.S. government is doing its damnedest to lose the case. While the notion that prosecutors don’t want to […]

Laying the groundwork for what sounded very much like a Bill Clinton “I-did-not-have-sex-with-that-woman” defence, Luis Posada’s lawyer insisted today his client “told the truth… told substantially the truth on the major questions” that U.S. prosecutors insist he lied about. During opening arguments at Posada’s trial on charges he lied during his 2005 immigration application, Arturo […]

EL PASO, Texas–Luis Posada Carrile’s long-awaited, much delayed trial stuttered–almost literally–out of the gate Monday. Anti Posada demonstrators outside court house Judge Kathleen Cardone spent a long day bulk-questioning 130 potential jurors about everything from whether they’d read or heard anything about the case–42 had–to whether they, or their friends or family, had any connection […]

Cuba’s Granma newspaper says Luis Posada Carriles’ lawyers are trying to use a legal loophole to prevent the court from hearing key evidence in his case. Posada, the alleged mastermind of both the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 and also the 1997 Havana hotel bombing campaign, is scheduled to go on trial at […]

If you’re interested in understanding the broader context of the story behind the Cuban Five and the reasons Cuba sends spies to Florida to infiltrate and disrupt militant anti-Castro exile groups, you should read Keith Bolender’s new book, Voices From The Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba (Pluto Press). Cuba has publicly […]