Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez

Civil engineer in construction of aerodromes.

Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez was born in Miami on October 18, 1958, in the midst of a humble family that  returned to Cuba in the first days of January, 1959, after the victory of the Cuban Revolution.  

 "Tony", as his friends call him, left prints of his firm and affable character in all the schools where he studied. His vegetarian habits and his liking for yoga won him the humorous nickname of "The Fakir" among his prison partners

After returning to Cuba with his parents in 1962, he began his school life. He received part of his junior high education and all of his senior high   "Vladimir I. Lenin" Senior High School in Havana.

In 1974 he entered  the Union of Communist Youths, and in 1983 he graduated finished with honors of the major of Engineering in Construction of Aerodromes in the formerly Soviet Union. 

In all the places they remember him after the soccer ball, as a poet and as an excellent student. In 1989 he entered the Communist Party of Cuba. 

While he worked in Cuban of Aviation, he got married with a Panamanian citizen and  traveled to that country. There he had a son, but finally he got divorced and moved to Miami, where he worked and  lived austerely. There he the American Margaret Bécquer, Maggy, with whom he got married in 1998. His mother’s name is Mirta Rodríguez Pérez. 

THE MISSION  

The case of Antonio Guerrero, as that of the other four  Cubans detained and accused in Miami of attempting against the national security of the United States, among other charges. 

Randy Alonso, member of the National Committee of the Union of Communist Youths of Cuba (UJC) asserted, before the delegates to the II Cuba-USA Encounter of Youths, that the five Cuban prisoners only had the mission of gathering information on the terrorist plans of the Anti-Cuban groups   that operate in Florida.  

He said that to understand the mission that they carried out in the American territory it was necessary to analyze the indifference of the different North American governments with regard to the accusations of criminal plans against the Island.  

The attacks and terrorist actions against Cuba from 1959--year of the Victory of the Revolution – have  caused the death to more than three thousand Cuban and lesions to a similar number , as well as material losses calculated in about 100 thousand million dollars.  

Alonso who also hosts a television program on topics of interest of first order for the Cuban society, detailed the circumstances in which the five Cubans were arrested in September ,1998, and he denounced that this political and manipulated  trial was rather against the Cuban Revolution. 

In 1998-- the juvenile leader added-- it was said in the Pentagon that Cuba didn't constitute a threat for the United States. And even the antidrug  czar (Barry) McCafrey assured that the Caribbean nation  was not a point of drug traffic due to the government actions to combat that  lash. 

However-- Randy related-- two months later (July, 1998) after Cuba handed in to Washington tests of the terrorist activity organized by ultraright  groups that reside in Miami, like the  National Cuban-American Foundation , the Federal Bureau  of Investigations (FBI)  responded with the arrest of the five Cubans. 

Alonso stated that the Ministry of the Interior of Cuba gave abundant material on the counterrevolutionary activity organized and financed in that country, as well as audio recordings on similar plans, thanks partly to the work of these five arrested collaborators. 

Only in the last decade, when the Island went through its worst economic crisis after the revolutionary victory of 1959, worsened by the blockade of Washington, they were able to prevent 170 actions terrorists, even attack plans against President Fidel Castro. 

Alonso reiterated that the five Cubans detained in Miami, three of which were condemned to life imprisonment,  gathered information about  terrorism toward their country, but they never attempted against the American national security because they didn't have access to classified information. 

"They worked and they lived like they could, they didn't receive a millionaire wage, nor had they  access to strategic programs of that country." 

ACCUSATION

The first accusation  presented by the office consisted of only 9 pages, where  there are barely references to facts, and where adjectives and epithets prevail. It was a maneuver to earn time until a second accusation was presented, in May, 1999, eight months after their arrest. It was then when the charge of conspiracy to assassinate was presented. It was  based on the supposed relationship of one of the accused, Gerardo, in the bringing down of the light planes that violated the Cuban air space in February, 1996. 

This accusation  had been a main topic of the terrorist Mafia and of the scandalous and unceasing campaigns of the Press of Miami. That second accusation had  40 pages, with charges to open the process, this is a more documented proposal, with the intention of characterizing the supposed actions that they had made, but it had the taste of the charge that is  "cooked" to slow fire for 8 months to please the enemies of Cuba. It unquestionably proves that we are in presence of a political, clearly faked and manipulated trial. 

There are, in summary, five charges: The first one, the conspiracy consists of an agreement to commit crime against the United States or to deceive that country. 

The second charge is that of espionage, that is to say, to gather information and to transmit it. But, in that charge it is taken for granted that such information  concerns  the security of the United States or collaboration with a foreign government in damage of the United States. 

The third charge is conspiracy to commit murder. It is premeditated conspiracy, an agreement to deliberately carry out the death of one or several people. This is the charge that they impute to Gerardo for the supposed crime of conspiring in the bringing down of the light planes. 

The fourth charge is the forgery of documents or to make false declarations in the face of government authorities to obtain documents. 

And the last charge is more formal than the other ones—being a  foreign agent. It involves acting as a foreign government's agent without being a diplomat nor  communicating it to the Attorney General of The United States. According to  the  American Penal Code,being a foreign agent is not the crime, but being a foreign agent without being identified. 

THE SENTENCE  

Guerrero, 42 years old, was imposed life imprisonment and other two five-year terms. 

Dr. Julio Fernández Bulté,  professor of Law at the University of Havana, stated that there was not any demonstrated evidence of the crimes imputed in the case of Guerrero whose sentence to life imprisonment  qualifies as a "terrible artificial violation." 

Three of the five Cubans were sanctioned to life imprisonment, one to a 19-year term and another to 15 years; however, in Cuba they are considered innocent since  they only gathered information.

As well as his comrades, Guerrero didn't regret his mission in the United States, and he reiterated the right of the Island to defend itself, after being attacked and slandered for over four decades by the sectors of the ultra right based in Miami.  

The criminal acts reported in Cuba for 43 years, as he said in defense statement, are organized and financed  in  the United States, with the tolerance of the authorities of that country. 

 “Practically nothing has  been made to avoid them and the aggression has not ceased, while people responsible for these acts walk along the streets of Miami, “Guerrero pointed out when going to the tribunal.

THE JAIL  

Antonio Guerrero  serves a life imprisonment term and two additional  5-year terms in Florence, a prison of the State of Colorado, far from the rest of his comrades, as if  physical distance can destroy the union among people whose fundamental bond is their ideas and common patriotism. 

During a panel in Cuban television, the participants contrasted the conditions of this fighter's confinement against the terrorism with the luxurious jails where proven and confessed terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles the visit of their Mafiosi friends from Miami and to plan new terrorist acts against Cuba. 

The five condemned Cuban youths were transferred first, under severe surveillance, to prisons of Atlanta and Oklahoma, and of from there they were taken to their definitive penitentiary centers in five different and distant States. 

“Tightly handcuffed, uncovered in the cold weather, thirsty and hungry during the transfer and later subjected to the harsh conditions in the hole (isolation cells), our five heroes remain with high morals and intact honor.

On June 23, 2001,  President Fidel Castro assured that those five Cubans imprisoned in United States are political prisoners.

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