by Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
December 11, 2003
While the President of Cuba's National Assembly of People's
Power, Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada was leading the island's
delegation at the world information summit in Geneva, an
event also of historic significance took place in a United
States federal court in Florida.
Alarcon explained that an information society can only be the
bitterest mockery if human beings cannot read, cannot write,
and suffer hunger, discrimination and ignorance. It doesn't
have to be, Alarcon explained, ending in the words of the
anti-globalization, "A better world is possible".
Meanwhile, in the United States, a similar message was sent.
In a stunning setback for the ultra-right Cuban exile militants,
six MORE Cuban hijackers were convicted by a Florida jury today
of a range of charges. They now face a mandatory minimum jail
times of TWENTY YEARS and could face life behind bars.
Considering the defiant tone which the defense lawyers brayed
at the jury to release the six hijackers, it's clear that their
efforts to present the violent acts of their clients as totally
justified "freedom flights" fell completely flat. Indeed, it's
possible that the jury decided to send a message back to both
the hijackers themselves, and to anyone else who might hear it,
that hijacking, whatever excuse, won't cut it in a post 9-11
United States of America.
We now have a situation where SEVEN CUBAN HIJACKERS HAVE BEEN
TRIED AND CONVICTED BY FLORIDA JURIES. Federal prosecutors who
are part of the administration of George W. Bush, filed formal
charges, proceeded through court and won successful convictions
against a gang of Cubans claming their terrorist act was a
"freedom flight" in the great state of Florida. The US sought
and received the cooperation of the Cuban government who aided
the prosecution by sending Cuban witnesses to Florida to give
testimony as to the events which had transpired.
Add this to a third set of Cuban hijackers who were returned to
the island earlier this year after the administration of George
W. Bush negotiated an agreement with the Cuban government which
is headed by Fidel Castro. There, the US government negotiated
with the government of Cuba, a government which the US is, of
course, COMMITTED BY LAW [Helms-Burton] TO OVERTHROW.
Washington politely asked and Havana agreed to file charges
of a less severe nature against this third group of hijackers.
Washington's decision in the year 2003, to cooperate with the
Cuban government by for the first time in history, returning
hijackers to the island means that Cuban hijackers are now in
jail in both Florida and in Cuba as a result of the practical
cooperation between the otherwise contentious governments.
Steps like these, unremarkable had they occurred between any
to other nations, give just a glimpse of what could happen if
Washington's blockade of the island were lifted and relations
between the two countries were to move toward normalization,
as they certainly should.
Also recall that these things occurred in the same year
that Cuba tried, convicted and sentenced seventy-five paid
US agents to long prison terms, and executed three OTHER
hijackers, moves which garnered widespread international
criticism, including from some on the political left.
The US government welcomed hijackers to come to the United
States from 1959 to 2003 where they were greeted as heroes
and "freedom fighters". That now came to a screeching halt
this year with the start of a series of federal prosecutions,
each of which has been successful. Seven all together, so far.
Please take the time to read over some of the statements made
by the Cuban right-wing exile lawyers for the convicted men.
A few years ago, and in a Miami courtroom, their histrionics
would have succeeded in getting such criminals off scot-free.
They might not even have been necessary. But not this year.
The Bush administration acted behind the backs of Congress
to retain regulations restricting the freedom of US citizens
(and residents) to freely travel to Cuba. Passengers going
to Cuba in compliance with Washington's restrictive policies
are harassed at the airport, their money counted by federal
marshals demanding they document their right to travel. A
Bush-appointed "free Cuba" commission met last week and
issued a press release.
So we're seeing mixed signals by the Bush administration on
Cuba as the ultra-right in Florida are going more and more
apoplectic as their world evaporates from under them.
The blockade is far from over and it's easy sometimes get
enthusiastic ahead of the pace of developments, but these
convictions today point in a very positive direction, and
they fly in the face of everything the Miami rightists are
trying to do. I think in the days and months ahead we're
likely to see the exiles, and their friends within the Bush
administration try still more wild and crazy things.
Who can predict what's likely to happen?
PLEASE READ THE WORDS OF THOSE DEFENSE LAWYERS first, and
then see what happened in the courtroom afterwards.
======================================================
The Sun-Sentinel
Attorneys ask jury to clear clients of hijacking charges
By Ann W. O'Neill
Staff Writer
December 11, 2003
As children in the 1960s, the three defense attorneys
accompanied their families on "freedom flights" from Cuba
to the United States.
On Wednesday, Reemberto Diaz, Israel Encinosa and Ana
Jhones passionately asked a federal court jury in Key West
to give freedom to their clients by acquitting them of
hijacking charges.
"He lived in slavery for 24 years," Encinosa said of client
Alvenis Arias-Izquierdo. "I want for you to break those
chains of slavery. I want you to put him out on the street
so he can be free for the first time in his life."
Arias-Izquierdo and five others -- Alexis Norneilla
Morales, 32, Eduardo Javier Mejia Morales, 27, Yainer
Olivares Samon, 21, Neudis Infantes Hernandez, 31, and
Miakel Guerra-Morales, 26 -- are accused of using knives,
rope, tape and threats to divert a Cuban DC-3 carrying 31
passengers to Key West on March 19.
If convicted of air piracy, interfering with a flight crew
and conspiracy, they could spend the rest of their lives in
a U.S. prison. A jury of seven men and five women, none of
them Cuban-Americans, deliberated for three hours Wednesday
before retiring for the night.
Referring to his client, Olivares Samon, as "this kid,"
Diaz told jurors: "This was not a hijacking plan, but
rather a freedom flight, a flight that gave freedom to more
than half the passengers on that plane."
"Please give him his freedom," Diaz said with emotion.
Jhones told the jury her client, Guerra-Morales, used his
knife to open bags of candy for the passengers. "There was
no violence. No one was hurt. There was jubilation on that
flight."
A fourth lawyer, Mario Cano, is a second-generation
Cuban-American. He told jurors that unlike in Cuba, U.S.
citizens control the government "by forcing them to adhere
to the burden of proof."
His client, Mejia Morales, and the others "came here simply
seeking liberty," Cano said. He urged jurors to tell the
government with their verdict that "seeking liberty is not
an indictable offense."
Some of the defense attorneys have said the crew members
participated in a staged hijacking, then lied about it on
the witness stand.
"Their story is everybody was in on it back then, and
everybody is lying about it now," said Assistant U.S.
Attorney Harry Wallace. "I still don't understand what the
crew gets out of this," he added, pointing out that
everyone on the flight crew returned to Cuba.
Ann W. O'Neill can be reached at awoneill@sun-sentinel.com
or 954-356-4531.
Copyright C 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
====================================================
Six Cubans convicted in plane hijacking; jury rejects
`freedom flight' defense
KEY WEST, Florida, Dec 11, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX)
-- Six Cubans were convicted Thursday of hijacking a
passenger plane to Florida, after failing to convince a
jury it was actually a "freedom flight" undertaken with the
crew's cooperation.
The federal hijacking charges carry a mandatory 20 years in
prison, with a possible life sentence.
The March 19 hijacking was the first in a string of air and
boat hijackings that strained relations between Havana and
Washington. The communist country accused the United States
of encouraging the seizures.
One of the six men bowed his head when the verdicts were
read, and another had tears in his eyes.
"Our clients are extremely heartbroken and disappointed,
but they still have faith in the system and that the
appellate process will carry them through," defense
attorney Mario Cano said.
Prosecutor Harry Wallace said the verdict "sends a clear
message that although we're sympathetic to people wanting
to come to the United States, we will not tolerate the use
of violence or threat of violence to do it."
According to testimony, the hijackers broke down the
cockpit door, held a knife to the throat of the DC-3 pilot
and directed the Cuban domestic flight to the United States
with 37 people aboard. Fourteen people besides the
hijackers opted to stay in the United States after it
landed at Key West.
The alleged ringleader, Alexis Norniella Morales, and his
brother Miakel Guerra Morales testified that everyone on
board was in on the plot, with five knives used only as
props.
They said it was a "freedom flight" staged in such a way
that the crew members could cooperate and still return home
to Cuba without coming under suspicion.
The pilot took the stand and denied he knew about the plot.
The prosecutor called the "freedom flight" explanation
"laughable" and denied the trial was about Cuba, Fidel
Castro or communism.
Havana has blamed the string of hijackings on the United
States, saying it encourages people to risk their lives by
granting them asylum if they reach U.S. shores. Cuba
executed three men who hijacked a ferryboat in April.
The Cuban government cooperated with U.S. investigators in
this case and blocked defense efforts to explore the Cuban
portion of the flight.
Three of the defendants pursued a different line of defense
than the "freedom flight" claim. They argued that
prosecutors did not have enough proof to tie them to a
crime after their confessions were thrown out because FBI
agents had not told them they had the right to remain
silent.
Convicted along with the two brothers were Neudis Infantes
Hernandez, Alvenis Arias Izquierdo, Yanier Olivares Samon
and Eduardo Mejia Morales.
Family members stood somberly outside the court following
the verdict, and some shed tears.
Angel Norniella Morales, a brother of two of the convicted
men, said he was "destroyed" by the verdicts.
"I'm in a state that I can't talk about it right now," she
said.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved
While the President of Cuba's National Assembly of People's
Power, Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada was leading the island's
delegation at the world information summit in Geneva, an
event also of historic significance took place in a United
States federal court in Florida.
Alarcon explained that an information society can only be the
bitterest mockery if human beings cannot read, cannot write,
and suffer hunger, discrimination and ignorance. It doesn't
have to be, Alarcon explained, ending in the words of the
anti-globalization, "A better world is possible".
Meanwhile, in the United States, a similar message was sent.
In a stunning setback for the ultra-right Cuban exile militants,
six MORE Cuban hijackers were convicted by a Florida jury today
of a range of charges. They now face a mandatory minimum jail
times of TWENTY YEARS and could face life behind bars.
Considering the defiant tone which the defense lawyers brayed
at the jury to release the six hijackers, it's clear that their
efforts to present the violent acts of their clients as totally
justified "freedom flights" fell completely flat. Indeed, it's
possible that the jury decided to send a message back to both
the hijackers themselves, and to anyone else who might hear it,
that hijacking, whatever excuse, won't cut it in a post 9-11
United States of America.
We now have a situation where SEVEN CUBAN HIJACKERS HAVE BEEN
TRIED AND CONVICTED BY FLORIDA JURIES. Federal prosecutors who
are part of the administration of George W. Bush, filed formal
charges, proceeded through court and won successful convictions
against a gang of Cubans claming their terrorist act was a
"freedom flight" in the great state of Florida. The US sought
and received the cooperation of the Cuban government who aided
the prosecution by sending Cuban witnesses to Florida to give
testimony as to the events which had transpired.
Add this to a third set of Cuban hijackers who were returned to
the island earlier this year after the administration of George
W. Bush negotiated an agreement with the Cuban government which
is headed by Fidel Castro. There, the US government negotiated
with the government of Cuba, a government which the US is, of
course, COMMITTED BY LAW [Helms-Burton] TO OVERTHROW.
Washington politely asked and Havana agreed to file charges
of a less severe nature against this third group of hijackers.
Washington's decision in the year 2003, to cooperate with the
Cuban government by for the first time in history, returning
hijackers to the island means that Cuban hijackers are now in
jail in both Florida and in Cuba as a result of the practical
cooperation between the otherwise contentious governments.
Steps like these, unremarkable had they occurred between any
to other nations, give just a glimpse of what could happen if
Washington's blockade of the island were lifted and relations
between the two countries were to move toward normalization,
as they certainly should.
Also recall that these things occurred in the same year
that Cuba tried, convicted and sentenced seventy-five paid
US agents to long prison terms, and executed three OTHER
hijackers, moves which garnered widespread international
criticism, including from some on the political left.
The US government welcomed hijackers to come to the United
States from 1959 to 2003 where they were greeted as heroes
and "freedom fighters". That now came to a screeching halt
this year with the start of a series of federal prosecutions,
each of which has been successful. Seven all together, so far.
Please take the time to read over some of the statements made
by the Cuban right-wing exile lawyers for the convicted men.
A few years ago, and in a Miami courtroom, their histrionics
would have succeeded in getting such criminals off scot-free.
They might not even have been necessary. But not this year.
The Bush administration acted behind the backs of Congress
to retain regulations restricting the freedom of US citizens
(and residents) to freely travel to Cuba. Passengers going
to Cuba in compliance with Washington's restrictive policies
are harassed at the airport, their money counted by federal
marshals demanding they document their right to travel. A
Bush-appointed "free Cuba" commission met last week and
issued a press release.
So we're seeing mixed signals by the Bush administration on
Cuba as the ultra-right in Florida are going more and more
apoplectic as their world evaporates from under them.
The blockade is far from over and it's easy sometimes get
enthusiastic ahead of the pace of developments, but these
convictions today point in a very positive direction, and
they fly in the face of everything the Miami rightists are
trying to do. I think in the days and months ahead we're
likely to see the exiles, and their friends within the Bush
administration try still more wild and crazy things.
Who can predict what's likely to happen?
PLEASE READ THE WORDS OF THOSE DEFENSE LAWYERS first, and
then see what happened in the courtroom afterwards.
======================================================
The Sun-Sentinel
Attorneys ask jury to clear clients of hijacking charges
By Ann W. O'Neill
Staff Writer
December 11, 2003
As children in the 1960s, the three defense attorneys
accompanied their families on "freedom flights" from Cuba
to the United States.
On Wednesday, Reemberto Diaz, Israel Encinosa and Ana
Jhones passionately asked a federal court jury in Key West
to give freedom to their clients by acquitting them of
hijacking charges.
"He lived in slavery for 24 years," Encinosa said of client
Alvenis Arias-Izquierdo. "I want for you to break those
chains of slavery. I want you to put him out on the street
so he can be free for the first time in his life."
Arias-Izquierdo and five others -- Alexis Norneilla
Morales, 32, Eduardo Javier Mejia Morales, 27, Yainer
Olivares Samon, 21, Neudis Infantes Hernandez, 31, and
Miakel Guerra-Morales, 26 -- are accused of using knives,
rope, tape and threats to divert a Cuban DC-3 carrying 31
passengers to Key West on March 19.
If convicted of air piracy, interfering with a flight crew
and conspiracy, they could spend the rest of their lives in
a U.S. prison. A jury of seven men and five women, none of
them Cuban-Americans, deliberated for three hours Wednesday
before retiring for the night.
Referring to his client, Olivares Samon, as "this kid,"
Diaz told jurors: "This was not a hijacking plan, but
rather a freedom flight, a flight that gave freedom to more
than half the passengers on that plane."
"Please give him his freedom," Diaz said with emotion.
Jhones told the jury her client, Guerra-Morales, used his
knife to open bags of candy for the passengers. "There was
no violence. No one was hurt. There was jubilation on that
flight."
A fourth lawyer, Mario Cano, is a second-generation
Cuban-American. He told jurors that unlike in Cuba, U.S.
citizens control the government "by forcing them to adhere
to the burden of proof."
His client, Mejia Morales, and the others "came here simply
seeking liberty," Cano said. He urged jurors to tell the
government with their verdict that "seeking liberty is not
an indictable offense."
Some of the defense attorneys have said the crew members
participated in a staged hijacking, then lied about it on
the witness stand.
"Their story is everybody was in on it back then, and
everybody is lying about it now," said Assistant U.S.
Attorney Harry Wallace. "I still don't understand what the
crew gets out of this," he added, pointing out that
everyone on the flight crew returned to Cuba.
Ann W. O'Neill can be reached at awoneill@sun-sentinel.com
or 954-356-4531.
Copyright C 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
====================================================
Six Cubans convicted in plane hijacking; jury rejects
`freedom flight' defense
KEY WEST, Florida, Dec 11, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX)
-- Six Cubans were convicted Thursday of hijacking a
passenger plane to Florida, after failing to convince a
jury it was actually a "freedom flight" undertaken with the
crew's cooperation.
The federal hijacking charges carry a mandatory 20 years in
prison, with a possible life sentence.
The March 19 hijacking was the first in a string of air and
boat hijackings that strained relations between Havana and
Washington. The communist country accused the United States
of encouraging the seizures.
One of the six men bowed his head when the verdicts were
read, and another had tears in his eyes.
"Our clients are extremely heartbroken and disappointed,
but they still have faith in the system and that the
appellate process will carry them through," defense
attorney Mario Cano said.
Prosecutor Harry Wallace said the verdict "sends a clear
message that although we're sympathetic to people wanting
to come to the United States, we will not tolerate the use
of violence or threat of violence to do it."
According to testimony, the hijackers broke down the
cockpit door, held a knife to the throat of the DC-3 pilot
and directed the Cuban domestic flight to the United States
with 37 people aboard. Fourteen people besides the
hijackers opted to stay in the United States after it
landed at Key West.
The alleged ringleader, Alexis Norniella Morales, and his
brother Miakel Guerra Morales testified that everyone on
board was in on the plot, with five knives used only as
props.
They said it was a "freedom flight" staged in such a way
that the crew members could cooperate and still return home
to Cuba without coming under suspicion.
The pilot took the stand and denied he knew about the plot.
The prosecutor called the "freedom flight" explanation
"laughable" and denied the trial was about Cuba, Fidel
Castro or communism.
Havana has blamed the string of hijackings on the United
States, saying it encourages people to risk their lives by
granting them asylum if they reach U.S. shores. Cuba
executed three men who hijacked a ferryboat in April.
The Cuban government cooperated with U.S. investigators in
this case and blocked defense efforts to explore the Cuban
portion of the flight.
Three of the defendants pursued a different line of defense
than the "freedom flight" claim. They argued that
prosecutors did not have enough proof to tie them to a
crime after their confessions were thrown out because FBI
agents had not told them they had the right to remain
silent.
Convicted along with the two brothers were Neudis Infantes
Hernandez, Alvenis Arias Izquierdo, Yanier Olivares Samon
and Eduardo Mejia Morales.
Family members stood somberly outside the court following
the verdict, and some shed tears.
Angel Norniella Morales, a brother of two of the convicted
men, said he was "destroyed" by the verdicts.
"I'm in a state that I can't talk about it right now," she
said.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved