The Five Heroes

In the 1990s, as the Cuban state endeavored to build up tourism to fill the economic void left by the disappearance of Soviet supports, enemy exiles began a terrorist campaign targeting tourists. Cuba deployed counterterrorists to infiltrate South Florida groups and uncover criminal plots to bomb the island’s tourist facilities. The US caught and, in 2001, convicted five Cuban agents for conspiracy. Since then the “five heroes” have become widely celebrated in Cuba as revolutionary martyrs. The emphasis on their espionage as counterterrorism co-opts the terms of the US “war on terror” to wage a moral struggle for their release from US prisons. Currently, the US Supreme Court is deciding whether to hear their appeal, which contends that the trial venue of Miami did not ensure an unbiased jury. The case is the only judicial proceeding in US history to receive condemnation from the UN Human Rights Commission.