Five Dreyfuses
Let
us multiply Émile Zola in the 21st Century
By
Guillermo Cabrera Álvarez
A
shameful episode for France — and for the world — in the late 19th
Century was the sentencing in 1894 of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus on
charges of espionage. The injustice lasted until 1906, 12 years of
harsh imprisonment on Devil’s Island, French Guiana.
A
shameful episode for the United States — and the world — in the
late 20th Century was the imprisonment in 1998 of five antiterrorist
fighters who, through political manipulation, were accused of
conspiracy to commit espionage. For the past nine years, they have
served unjust prison sentences.
The
evidence in the Dreyfus case: None. A handwritten note found by the
Intelligence Service in a trash can outside the German Embassy,
addressed to the military attaché and signed "D,"
was enough to condemn him.
The
evidence in the case of the five Cubans: None. In June 1998, the
government of the Republic of Cuba delivered to the United States
authorities — after mediation by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García
Márquez — numerous pages of compromising documents, and eight
hours of audio and video cassettes that told of hostile acts against
the United States.
Let
us multiply Émile Zola in the 21st Century
By
Guillermo Cabrera Álvarez Read Spanish Version
A
shameful episode for France — and for the world — in the late 19th
Century was the sentencing in 1894 of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus on
charges of espionage. The injustice lasted until 1906, 12 years of
harsh imprisonment on Devil’s Island, French Guiana.
A
shameful episode for the United States — and the world — in the
late 20th Century was the imprisonment in 1998 of five antiterrorist
fighters who, through political manipulation, were accused of
conspiracy to commit espionage. For the past nine years, they have
served unjust prison sentences.
The
evidence in the Dreyfus case: None. A handwritten note found by the
Intelligence Service in a trash can outside the German Embassy,
addressed to the military attaché and signed "D,"
was enough to condemn him.
The
evidence in the case of the five Cubans: None. In June 1998, the
government of the Republic of Cuba delivered to the United States
authorities — after mediation by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García
Márquez — numerous pages of compromising documents, and eight
hours of audio and video cassettes that told of hostile acts against
the United States.
The
evidence was so strong that it warned about terrorist groups in
Florida, at the same time that — in the same region — some of the
pilots who turned passenger airplanes into missiles to strike the
World Trade Center prepared for their mission.
The FBI
did nothing with the proof presented by Cuba. For years, the
Miami-based "feds" had been investigating the Cubans who
had infiltrated the terrorist groups and had no time to deal with
their own hirelings.
Almost
three months after Cuba sounded the alert, five revolutionaries were
arrested while looking for information to protect the lives of their
compatriots. None of them looked for or obtained military data. Their
only purpose was to find out the movements of the terrorists who
operate against Cuba from Miami, with impunity and complacence.
Nothing was done with the abundant information that was delivered.
For
their activities to be considered espionage, the government of the
United States must first acknowledge that terrorism against Cuba is a
matter of national defense and that the admitted terrorists in Miami
are following military instructions and are at the service of the
United States.
The five
Cuban Dreyfuses are serving impressive sentences: from 15 years’
imprisonment to two life sentences. The conditions of their
imprisonment are as brutal as those experienced by Dreyfus and can be
compared with the treatment meted out to prisoners in South Africa
during the apartheid period.
The
paradox is this: those who sound the alarm are arrested; those who
conspire to murder (and do murder) go free. The Cubans who are now in
prison worked for the benefit of the American people, in the war
against terrorism. The government of the United States, with a total
lack of ethics, ignored the revealing information provided by Cuba
and persecuted, jailed, tried and sentenced the informants.
The U.S.
government freed the Cuban-born terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and
Orlando Bosch, responsible (among other horrible crimes) of the
downing in 1976 of a Cubana de Aviación airliner carrying 73
passengers. In the Dreyfus case, the real spy, Capt. Esterhazy, was
absolved in a bizarre trial. One century later, the infamy was
repeated.
The best
proof of the double standard in U.S. justice are the words of Judge
Joan Lenard, who, in the sentence for one of the five fighters,
wrote: "As a condition to his supervised release, this defendant
is forbidden to associate with, or visit terrorist groups or their
equivalent, or go to the places where these groups are known to be or
visit frequently."
What’s
dramatic about this document is not its impudence but the fact that
it was written three months after the fateful Sept. 11. While
acknowledging the work the defendant has done against terrorists, the
judge forbids him to associate with them, so the anti-terrorists can
no longer obtain information and the criminals may continue their
"feats" under the protection of the U.S. government.
Public
opinion
Whenever
someone studies the formation of public opinion, that someone quotes,
as an example, the argument presented by the legendary French writer
Émile Zola. That famous "J’accuse"
shook France at that time.
Now we need to shake the progressive world with a new "We
accuse."
The
author of "Germinal"
fused his life into
Dreyfus’. It is necessary to do the same with the five Cuban
Dreyfuses.
For
years now, efforts have been made to sensitize international public
opinion, but the doors of the major media are hermetically shut.
History repeats itself, as in previous injustices committed by U.S.
tribunals: Sacco and Vanzetti, the Rosenbergs, many others.
Facing
the spurious tribunal that sentenced him, Dreyfus said: "I have
not been stripped of all my rights. I reserve the right of every man
to defend his honor and proclaim the truth." One of the five
imprisoned Cubans, René González, told his tainted
tribunal: "We shall continue to appeal to the American people’s
vocation for the truth, with all the patience, faith and courage
instilled in us by the crime of being honorable."
The
French tribunal at that time refused to acknowledge its mistake.
Today, several American judges, honorable professionals all, ruled in
Atlanta with justice, yet their ruling was turned down.
The
United Nations’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, after
rigorously reviewing the trial documents, concluded that the gravity
of the violations committed against The Five made their deprivation
of freedom an illegal act.
Today’s
Miami resembles 19th-Century France in its perverse, uncontrolled
environment, darkened by the yellow journalism practiced by El Nuevo
Herald, many of whose writers collected (and still collect) money
from the government to write against Cuba.
As in
the days of Émile Zola, we must begin with his famous
"J’accuse" and
repeat: "My duty is to speak out; I do not wish to be an
accomplice."
The
world cannot be an accomplice or look calmly upon the crime. The
Miami press deserves the description given by Zola: "And it is
another crime to have relied on the filthy press." He added: "It
is a crime to misdirect public opinion, to use it for a lethal task,
to pervert it into a state of delirium."
‘La
vérité est en marche et rien ne l’arrêtera’
This
authentic declaration of principles — "the truth is on the
march and nothing will stop it" — coined by the author of Les
Rougon-Macquart is an expression of faith in the values of human
beings that will not permit injustice.
Interests
that cannot be revealed concocted the lie. Vileness does not change
with time; the same injustices are repeated. There was no fair trial
in Paris; none in Miami.
In both
cases, the detainees were kept isolated. No evidence was brought
forth in a trial where the court and the jury were biased. Lies were
told. Lies were told. Lies were told.
The
world has a collective responsibility and cannot act with
indifference toward this crime. The barbarity of the Dreyfus case,
now multiplied by five, must not be repeated.
Let us
think and act like Émile Zola and let these words of his spur
on our fight: "I have only one passion, the light, on behalf of
mankind, which has suffered so much and has a right to felicity."
Every
day these five Dreyfuses remain in prison is a stain on the civilized
world. Those who are in favor of innocence, rise! Rise, as Émile
Zola did. This trial, like Dreyfus’, will be won not in the courts
but on the streets.
Only by
closing our close ranks we can open the five cells that contain five
innocent men who are not prisoners on Devil’s Island but prisoners of
the Devil himself.
Guillermo
Cabrera Alvarez is the former director of the José Martí
Institute of Professional Journalism in Havana. This article was
written for “La Revue Commune.” Published in Paris, September
2007.
