THE Cuban-Americans who today, after 40 years, continue to engage in acts of terrorism against Cuba are clearly linked to the darkest episodes in recent U.S. history: the assassination of President Kennedy, the Watergate scandal, the murder of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit, and the clandestine supply of weapons to the Nicaraguan contras, in violation of legislation passed by the U.S. Congress.

These charges are part of the statement presented by Fernando González Llort, sentenced in Miami to 19 years’ imprisonment at the close of this edition, in a trial during which the accused became the accusers, by demonstrating the long chain of terrorist activities against Cuba committed by right-wing groups created, trained and financed by the CIA.

Utilizing documents declassified by the U.S. government, articles in major U.S. newspapers and interviews broadcast on Miami radio stations, Fernando described the genesis of hardcore extreme right within U.S. politics.

He stressed that those who believe that Cuban-American radio stations in Miami and extremist Cuban-American organizations in that locality represent the ideas of the majority of Cuban Americans in that city are falling into precisely the same trap laid by that small but economically powerful sector, in its attempt to present an image of unity and of representing the sentiments of hundreds of thousands of Cubans living there, when this is not the case.

Joaquín Méndez, Fernando’s lawyer, refuted prosecution lies and theories designed to have him sentenced to more than 29 years in prison. The lawyer stated that in 10 years of practice in Miami, he had never seen sanctions for state crimes receive the maximum term established for a first offense, as has already been the case with the other three Cuban compatriots whose hearings preceded Fernando’s.

Joaquín Méndez’s professional conduct had already provoked the rage of Miami extreme-right groups, who organized demonstrations outside the lawyer’s home, calling him a traitor.

In his statement, Fernando commented that one of the documents declassified by the U.S. government in 1997 and 1998 referred to a meeting that included Richard Nixon, then vice president in the Eisenhower administration, which approved a covert plan of action against the Castro regime. In a memorandum of that meeting, General Goodpaster commented that the president stated that he couldn’t think of a better way of handling the situation, but the problem was leaks and lack of security. Thus everybody would have to be ready to swear that Eisenhower knew nothing about it... and that none of those attending the meeting should be seen to be connected in any way with that plan.

The accused asked in his statement: "What can we expect in 30 to 40 years, when it is decided to declassify the documents on what is happening today?"

He cited the cases of Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, both of whom have an extensive history of links to the CIA, and who masterminded the sabotage of a Cuban commercial airliner in mid-flight on October 6, 1976, causing the deaths of 73 innocent persons.

Orlando Bosch, Fernando pointed out, is living freely in Miami, thanks to the parole granted by former president George Bush, in spite of being considered a dangerous and a notorious terrorist by authorities in the U.S. Justice Department.

He charged that the influence and pressure exerted by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican congresswoman from Florida and protector of terrorists, was behind the presidential parole granted to Bosch.

The evidence presented by Fernando’s defense confirms that Orlando Bosch continues conspiring in Miami to commit acts of terrorism against Cuba. The FBI is aware of documents concerned and nobody has arrested him.

On August 22, The Miami Herald published a full-page advertisement in which the so-called Cuban Patriotic Front stated that it had established as one of its principles the recognition of and support for the use of any method to fight against Cuba. Fernando stated that Bosch’s signature appears on the list, and that he is acting with total impunity.

The Cuban defendant noted that the case of Posada Carriles is even more shameful. After escaping from a Venezuelan jail where he was being held for his participation in the sabotage of the Cuban commercial airliner in 1976, he surfaced in Central America under an assumed name, on the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a military aide to the National Security Council during the Reagan administration, and involved in an illegal activity, the Iran-Contra scandal, subsequently investigated by a special prosecutor.

All of that is documented, Fernando stressed in his statement, and the U.S. security services are aware of it. They also know that it was the Cuban American National Foundation that financed and organized Posada Carriles’ escape from a Venezuelan prison.

He affirmed that Posada Carriles and a further three Cuban-Americans living in Miami, with a long history of acts of terrorism against Cuba and also on U.S. territory, are currently being held in Panama for their role in a conspiracy to detonate C-4 explosives in Panama City’s university auditorium, in which Fidel Castro would have been addressing thousands of Panamanian students.

Under the noses of U.S. authorities, funds for Posada Carriles’ defense are being collected publicly in Miami, and the legal defense of those terrorists is being coordinated, while the conditions are being created for springing them from jail, Fernando commented.

After demonstrating further proof of complicity between the CIA and the terrorists, Fernando asked, "What other option is open to the Cuban people to defend their sovereignty and security?"

He denounced the prosecution’s attempt, with a total display of hypocrisy, to employ throughout the trial the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO (passed over 20 years ago by the U.S. Congress to combat organized crime and never applied to any terrorist group in Miami), against defense witnesses, so as to prevent the exposure of criminal activities in which the Miami mafia had participated.

Fernando argued that the acts of terrorism against Cuban tourism facilities, at a time when the island’s economy was recovering in the ’90s were financed and organized by CANF. Luis Posada Carriles, the principal executor of those actions, admitted to The New York Times his responsibility in planning them and said that they were funded by that Miami-based organization. In the same interview, Posada Carriles affirmed that U.S. authorities had not made any effort to interrogate him on the terrorist attacks against hotels in Havana.

A few days after that interview, the anti-Cuba press in Miami took it upon itself to erase Posada Carriles’ confessions from the community memory and keep these serious statements from appearing in the local press, by alleging that President Fidel Castro was ill, thus pandering to one of that community’s obsessions.

In the final part of his statement, after revealing other overwhelming evidence, Fernando stated: "It is the authorities of this country who must decide to act on a principled basis and shake off the pernicious influence of a small but economically powerful group of mafiosi and extreme right wingers within the Cuban community in Miami.

"In these years of imprisonment," he emphasized, "the dignity I have learned from my people and their history will always be with me."