Cuban 5 film tours U.S.

>Archive - PWW Print Edition Archive - 2005 Editions - Feb 12, 2005


 

“Mission Against Terror" is a 48-minute documentary directed by Radio Havana correspondent Bernie Dwyer and Cuban television producer Roberto Ruiz Rebo. Dwyer and Ruiz Rebo worked with the families and lawyers of the Cuban Five to make the film, which is touring the country this month.

This film exposes the facts of the decade-long struggle to counter U.S. terror against Cuba. It eloquently expresses the struggle of the people of Cuba to maintain their own government, free from U.S. interference. “Mission Against Terror” follows the case of the Cuban Five — men from Cuba who are being unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. for doing nothing more than preventing terrorism against the Cuban people. Terrorist acts in Cuba have caused more than 3,400 deaths and severely injured more than 2,000.

The FBI arrested the Cuban Five Sept. 12, 1998. The men, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, René González, and Fernando González, were sentenced in federal court in Miami to four life terms plus 75 years collectively. Their case is on appeal before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Mission Against Terror" features interviews with Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón, former CIA agent Philip Agee, attorney Leonard Weinglass, and family members of the five, among others.

Dwyer and Ruiz Rebo have made four documentary films together. “Mission against Terror” was featured at the 2004 Havana Film Festival in December. Dwyer is in the U.S. until March 1, touring with the film to 22 cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland. The film will be available through the National Committee to Free the Five. For more information about the film or about the campaign to free the five, visit their web site at www.freethefive.org.

– James Bradford