Political Prisoner Radio - The Cuban Five

The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Rene González Sehwerert, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Fernando González Llort. They are sons, husbands, brothers, poets, pilots, college graduates and artists. Three of the Cuban Five were born in Cuba and two were born in the United States. Also three of them fought in Angola, during the war against apartheid. They are currently serving long prison sentences in the United States.

Since 1959, Cuba has been subjected to threats, sanctions, invasions, sabotage, and violent attacks on its soil, resulting in 3,478 deaths and another 2,099 wounded. It has thus developed vigilance against foreign attacks. In 1976, 73 people died when a bomb exploded aboard a commercial Cuban airliner, destroying the plane in mid-air. The masterminds behind the attack were two men of Cuban-origin, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, former CIA operatives currently living in Miami.

In the early 90s, following the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba was trying to establish a tourism industry. Soon after, the right-wing exile groups in Miami started a violent campaign targeting tourist hotels and resorts, buses, airports and other facilities to discourage foreigners from visiting the island nation. In 1997, as part of that campaign, a bomb exploded in the lobby of Havana’s Hotel Copacabana, killing Fabio DeCelmo, an Italian tourist. The Cuban authorities arrested Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, a native of El Salvador who confessed to having been paid thousands of dollars by anti-Castro exile groups based in Miami to plant the bomb.

Due to the lack of response from the FBI to stop such attacks, Cuba sent the Cuban Five to Miami to monitor the organizations perpetrating these acts of violence. The idea was to gather information about similar acts that were in the planning stages in order to derail them before they were carried out. The Five were able to establish evidence implicating specific Miami exile groups and individuals in the attacks. The government of Cuban sent a representative to Washington, DC in hopes that the U.S. government would help stop the acts of terror and turned over evidence implicating Cuban exile groups. Instead the FBI arrested the Cuban Five who were given kangaroo trials and convicted on trumped up charges.

On June 8, 2001, the Cuban Five were sentenced to maximum prison terms. Gerardo Hernandez received a double life sentence plus 15 year. Antonio Guerrero received life sentences plus 10 years and Ramon Labañino received life sentences plus 18 years. The remaining two, Fernando Gonzalez and René Gonzalez, received 19 and 15 years respectively.

Guests

Gloria LaRiva - Sign Petition to Free Cuban Five


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How To Make A Dollar Out of Fifteen Cents

Author Daniel Freeman joins us during the first half of the show to discuss his publication "How To Make A Dollar Out of Fifteen Cents". Mr. Freemen has been a life long entreprenuer since the time he sold candy from his pocket to selling a car as a teen to upgrade to a better one.

After graduating from college he took off from Los Angeles and headed to Baltimore, MD to start his life. He ended up in Philadelphia sleeping on floors in a row homes until he got accepted into Law School. After Law School he returned back to the east coast and started his own business in Jersey City, NJ. Although he was secure in business, he never forgot where he came from. He swore he would try to make something that could help make everyone who wanted to do for self easier by providing a simple way.

After years of study, he finally created How to Make a Dollar Out of Fifteen Cents so anyone, no matter their station, would know how to have it all and how to go about getting it.

News


Update: The Nation of Islam responds to Alderman's call for Stop & Frisk to fight violence in Chicago

Medicaid to be cut and fees increased for those least able to afford it, Economics or Politics?

Tea Party Leaders targets help for Americans while saying nothing about subsidies for Europe, Africa, Asia & South America.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg says cops should go on strike until gun control is passed, it would be nice to not see NYC cops beating, killing and terrorizing Black and Hispanic folks for at least one day.



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President Obama's push into Africa on the behalf of Europe

News

Examining the latest in U.S. Drug War madness under President Obama. Sign the Petition to Defund the Drug War!

Ron Paul refuses to endorse Romney, refuses to end campaign.

 Marco Rubio is being considered for Romney's VP and he has a book out An American Son. Everyone knows he is the son of Cuban exiles but how much does the American people know about this group?


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Political Prisoner Radio w/ Baba Herman Ferguson

Tonight we focus on the case of Political Prisoner Abdul Majid who is a native of Queens, New York and has been imprisoned on a U.S. plantation for two decades. In the 1960s, he worked in the Grass Roots Advisory Council which is an anti-poverty program. In the late 60s he joined the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and the Republic of New Afrika. Abdul was involved in many of the community-based programs of the BPP including the free health clinic, free breakfast program for children and efforts to decentralize the public schools and the police department.

Abdul was targeted by the FBI COINTELPRO program for his activities of uplifting and empowering the Black community. He was charged and convicted of murder and attempted murder. He and his co-defendant, Bashir Hameec were tried more than three times on the same charges.

The first trial ended in a hung jury divided along racial lines. The second trial was declared a mistrial by the judge immediately after the jury rendered a decision that acquitted Bashir on the murder charge. At a third trial, they were eventually convicted for murder. Brother Abdul Majid was sentenced to 33 years to life and is still a political prisoner of the corrupt system that targeted him and others who stood up to oppression.

Guest Speaker:

Baba Herman Ferguson was one the founding members of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity. He also helped to organize the Republic of New Afrika and was a member of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM). As a member of RAM, Herman was arrested for conspiracy. As a result, Herman was sentenced to 3 1/2 – 7 years, but he fled the country and surfaced in Guyana where he lived and worked for the next 19 years. In 1989 he returned to the United States where he was promptly arrested and imprisoned for seven years. Since his release he has served as a co-chair of the Jericho Movement, and as the chair of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee. 90 Years young, his autobiography is titled "The Unlikely Warrior".

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