Author Discusses New Book: “The Real Story of the Cuban Five”
Feb 28, 2014
Posted in World News
By Post Staff
Canadian author Stephen Kimber will speak and sign copies of his newly released book, “What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five,” 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 2, at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley.
Also Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin will speak about their recent trips to Cuba. The ticket price is $10. The event is organized by International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5.
“What Lies Across the Water” recounts the events leading up to the 1998 arrest of the Cuban Five, five Cuban intelligence agents convicted of conspiring to commit espionage against the United States. The five agents – Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez – had been sent to Florida to infiltrate and report on the activities of Miami-based, anti-Cuban terrorist groups, who were carrying out deadly terrorist attacks against Cuba.
Cuba even passed on information its agents learned about those illegal attacks to the FBI. Instead of arresting the terrorists, however, the FBI arrested the Cuban Five. While the Cubans remain in jail, one serving a double-life-plus-fifteen-year sentence, the terrorists they tried to stop remain free.
The story of the Cuban Five exposes what the author considers the injustice and hypocrisy of the U.S. government’s supposed post-9/11 zero tolerance policy toward countries harboring terrorists.
He asks: Why were men who tried to prevent terrorist attacks against Cuba charged with espionage against the U.S.? Why does the U.S. continue to protect and harbor known terrorists?
For more information go to www.thecuban5.org or call (510) 219-0092.