The defense put in a case. The jury deliberated allegedly for 12 hours after a seven months trial.
[snaps fingers] The jury decided the case like that.Victoria Bassetti: And then the Cuba Five were sentenced.Martin Garbus: Cuba Five were sentenced. The guards, each time there was a national incident, the blame was put on the Cubans, so that the Cubans were specifically punished when 9/11 comes about, when the Iraq War comes about. Martin Garbus (www.martin-garbus.com) is one of the country’s leading trial lawyers.Mr. Want more to discover? So you had this base of right wing Cubans, sometimes supported by various rogue operations within the United States, who were killing not only sympathizers of the Left in Florida, but also destroying hotels, trying to blow up boats. And at one period of time, an aircraft was shot down, where about 70 people were killed by various terrorist groups who were trying to, again, create provocations. So there's an arrangement made whereby members of the Cuban government — spies — come into Miami, work out an arrangement with the FBI and try and infiltrate into the Cuban right wing.
It flew over Cuban airspace when it was not allowed to fly over Cuban airspace. Martin Garbus has four grandchildren and the oldest one is Alessandra Moreno, the youngest grandchild is Theodore Cogan. In other words, they don't have the ability to order MiGs from Havana to shoot down a plane, but nonetheless, they get, over a period of time, indicted, and ultimately there are convictions. The Brennan Center LIVE podcast is available on our website and wherever you get your podcasts. Speakers: Tayna Fogle, Jhody Polk, Taina Vargas-Edmond, Daniel Zeno, Sean Morales-Doyle I did a piece in Victoria Bassetti: Even as your legal representation was picking up ahead of steam and your investigation of the media, kind of in tandem, an effort to normalize relationships between the United States and Cuba was also kind of growing, and the Cuba Five became a very important part of that effort.
Marquez is kind of the communicator, and that's a whole separate story, where Cuban agents come over from Cuba because the American government cannot infiltrate into the Cuban right wing.Basically, the government of Miami — as I said, a separate state government, whether it be the federal government involved there or the state government itself — has very little inclination to do anything with respect to these acts of terror, which are being done by the right wing.
The jury deliberated allegedly for 12 hours after a seven months trial. You can go from a three-judge court to something we call an unbound court. About a year ago, I went to dinner with Rose Styron, and she told me that there had been a with Castro, where Castro said — quoting the Greek historian Heroditus — said that every great general makes one mistake. He has appeared before the United States Supreme Court as well as the highest state and federal courts in the nation. MARTIN GARBUS: What you see now… namely the selection of prosecutors and manipulation of judges, you saw all that in this Cuban case.MICHAEL WALDMAN: That’s Martin Garbus. Four people get killed.The case then that ultimately comes out of it is this particular case, the case of the Cuban Five, where there are allegations of, that these various Cubans were involved in the murder. And the jury was sort of swimming awash in incredibly hostile coverage towards the defendants, and the government was affirmatively paying —Victoria Bassetti: Stoking that fire, and so maybe no surprise that the jury convicted.Martin Garbus: It was a seven-month trial. I mean, one of the things that happened in this case — one of the lawyers, Joaquin Menendez, had his house bombed and had to move out of it as he was trying the case. Martin Garbus: It was a seven-month trial. He… More about Martin Garbus The legendary Martin Garbus is one of the country’s leading trial lawyers. To get a decision in 12 hours after a seven-month trial shows that the jury walks in with a heavy predisposition. They were great heroic figures and they were people who had not committed any criminal acts, and they were in jail for life.Victoria Bassetti: So the Cuban five had become kind of a cause célèbre in Havana, and kind of the reverse of it, obviously, was happening in Miami, where the Cuban Five were the kind of, the evil doers.Martin Garbus: Right, and the Cuban Five were, as I said, in jail for a long period of time. Now, Clinton knew about it.
After the shoot down, the same Cubans are blamed for the killing. He didn't. The American government tried to stop the plane. The government was paying for media coverage.
