We like to think when we argue we want the truth to appear, rather than gain the upper hand. This thought is also a good Jesuit motto. However, when we tackle the war in Iraq, Social Security reform or Cuba, we seldom reach that ideal.
In the Feb. 22 edition of the Tribune, Alexander Parets contended that the truth had been obscured by the movie "Mission Against Terror," produced by Ireland's Bernie Dwyer, and shown at Marquette by University Ministry's Soup With Substance. As a Cuban-American from Miami, he claimed that the film glorified convicted felons, agents of a Communist government, whom he called "spies" and "murderers." He felt that University Ministry should not sponsor such programs.
There couldn't be a greater divide.
The thesis of this film is that for 40 years our country has hosted a network of terrorism directed at Cuba from Florida. We know that in 1959, President Eisenhower, at a meeting of our National Security Council, agreed that the Castro government had to be replaced. The 1961 debacle known as the "Bay of Pigs" is the best known example of the CIA trying to overthrow Cuba's popular revolution by military invasion.
The Cuban revolution fulfilled its pledge to wipe out illiteracy. Young students lived with and taught elderly peasants to read and write. But our CIA funded assassination squads to kill these students and thus defeat the literacy campaign. While the revolution advanced, some 3,000 Cubans died as a result of such terrorism, and many more were permanently injured. United States government sponsorship hopefully has stopped, but CIA-trained terrorists have continued — with sponsorship from extremist exile groups in Florida.
Cuba complained that the FBI failed to stop these illegal attacks. It asserted its right and duty to defend its population by monitoring these terrorist groups based in theUnited States.
In 1998 the Cuban government invited top representatives of the FBI to Havana, where three volumes of documented evidence were presented to prove on-going military harassment against Cuba coming from Miami. Sadly, the United States government responded by arresting the informants, rather than those who were plotting and carrying out attacks on Cuban civilians and foreign tourists.
Fernando Gonzalez is one of the "Five," convicted in Miami of working for Cuba and serving a 19-year sentence in the federal prison at Oxford, Wisconsin. According to the documentary, he was assigned to monitor Orlando Bosch, who in 1976 was responsible for bombing a Cuban civilian airliner, killing all 73 people aboard. The U.S. Justice Department determined that his group orchestrated at least 16 bombings, assassinations and attempted assassinations. It stated: "For 30 years Bosch has been resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence …He has repeatedly… demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death." Despite all of this, the first Bush administration released Bosch from prison and allowed him to remain in the country. The New York Times editorialized on July 20, 1990: "The release from jail of Orlando Bosch … (won) cheers from local politicians — and squander(ed) American credibility on issues of terrorism."
While Bosch operates freely, Fernando Gonzalez and other "Cuban Five" remain in prison. No evidence was presented of them having any classified U.S. documents, and top U.S. military officers (retired) testified that the Five posed no threat to U.S. security. Nor was it asserted that they committed any violent act.
The Miami judge denied all requests to move their trial, and then gave them maximum consecutive sentences. Three have life sentences, and Amnesty International twice protested the conditions of their imprisonment, including denial of family visits. All served 17 months in solitary before their trials even began, and they are now serving their seventh year in prison, for nonviolently attempting to thwart terrorism. Their appeals are now before the Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
It is proper for University Ministry to present information which challenges members of the Marquete community to learn about and act on issues of social injustice, especially when the United States media have failed to give us basic information, as in the case of the "Cuban Five." For more information see www.wicuba.org, www.freethefive.org or call (414) 273-1040.
The Rev. William Brennan is assistant pastor at St. Patrick's, a Spanish-speaking congregation on Milwaukee's south side.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 19 2005.,”The Rev. William Brennan”
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