The Murder of Fabio Di Celmo

Havana, September 4, 1997, 11:00 a.m. Fabio Di Celmo was apologetic. Another day perhaps, he suggested into the telephone. The person at the other end of the line was a representative of Biconsa, a division of Cuba’s Ministry of Domestic Trade with whom he hoped to make a deal. But not today. Their appointment was for noon, […]

Day in The Five: Heroes of the Republic

On December 29, 2001, the Cuban Parliament unanimously voted to declare five Cuban intelligence agents—who had been sentenced in Miami earlier that month to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life—“Heroes of the Republic of Cuba.” It is Cuba’s highest honour. The five—Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez, Fernando Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero—were part […]

12/29/2010
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Day in the Five…Whose fair trial?

On December 8, 1998, after a 14-day trial, jurors in Puerto Rico acquitted five anti-Castro exile militants of plotting to kill Fidel Castro. Afterwards, two of the jurors told reporters the verdict was intended to send a “message to the Cuban people that we’re with you.” The jurors then left the courthouse, singing the Cuban […]

12/08/2010
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Day in the Five… The trial begins

Ten years ago today—on December 6, 2000—five Cuban men finally went on trial in a small chamber on the seventh floor of the Miami court building. They were charged with everything from the relatively minor offence of failing to register as foreign agents all the way to conspiracy to commit murder. In his opening statement, […]

12/06/2010
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Day in the Five: CANF leader dies

On November 23, 1997, Jorge Mas Canosa, the most powerful anti-Castro exile leader in America, died. Mas Canosa with Bill Clinton Though he didn’t accomplish his ambition of returning to Havana in triumph as its new American-backed, post-Castro leader, Mas Canosa’s public creation—the Cuban American National Foundation—did become one of the most effective lobbying machines […]

11/23/2010
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Day in the Five: Luis Posada arrested in assassination plot

On November 17, 2000, Luis Posada Carriles and three accomplices—including one affiliated with the powerful Cuban American National Foundation—were arrested in Panama in connection with a planned attempt to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Officials seized 200 pounds of explosives. All were found guilty and sentenced to prison but then, in August 2004, the country’s […]

11/17/2010
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Day in the Five: The terrorist disconnect

United Nations November 10, 2001 “Some governments still turn a blind eye to the terrorists, hoping the threat will pass them by,” U.S. President George W. Bush admonished his fellow world leaders in a speech to the United Nations on November 10, 2001, two months after 9/11. “They are mistaken,” he declared. “The allies of […]

11/10/2010
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Day in the Five: The tortured tale of a terrorist

On September 27, 2005, an American immigration court turned down alleged Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles’ request for political asylum in the United States. Blood on the floor at the Copacabana. The following day, however, the same judge ruled Posada couldn’t be deported because he might face “torture” in Venezuela, which had requested his extradition […]

09/25/2010
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Day in the Five: America war-games the 'Cuba Scenario'

After attending a briefing from the Cuban Five’s lawyer, Leonard Weinglass, Lawrence Wilkerson, who had served as a military aide and later senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, wrote in The Havana Note on September 19, 2007: “As a military officer for 31 years, I occasionally encountered Cuba. In exercises, I recall […]

09/19/2010
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Day in the Five: Meet Orlando Bosch, Havana's terrorist, Miami's hero

On September 16, 1968, Orlando Bosch was arrested for firing a bazooka at a Cuba-bound Polish ship in Miami harbour. Orlando Bosch Convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, the onetime pediatrician—who, more significantly, was trained in using explosives by the CIA—was paroled in 1974. He then fled the country rather than answer questions […]