Cuban spies: Guilty. The direct evidence on the shoot-down was horrifying

Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales and Mario de la Peña were shot down by Cuban MiGs over international waters of the Florida Straits on Feb. 24, 1996. Since that day we, their families, have gone through some grueling experiences. But the trial of the United States of America vs. Gerardo Hernández was by far the most intense.

For nearly seven months -- from last November's jury-selection process through the verdict on June 8 -- many lives were disrupted and placed on hold, including the jury's and our own. We shirked family and work responsibilities to attend the trial and related hearings every day. After five hours of court time, we vainly tried to reconnect with our lives ``before the spy trial.''

This wasn't the first time we went to court. In the first civil action under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, U.S. District Federal Judge James Lawrence King found that ``the government of Cuba, on Feb. 24, 1996, in outrageous contempt for international law and basic human rights, murdered Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.''

King's decision was a satisfying moral victory for us. It reaffirmed that Cuba's government was a terrorist regime and guilty of cold-blooded murder. But his ruling was not complete justice; for this we need criminal indictments in U.S. courts for those directly responsible for the murders. Criminal prosecution, however, was not within our reach and depended entirely on the U.S. government.

We appealed to President Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno, FBI Director Louis Freeh and Special Agent-in-Charge Héctor Pesquera, then-U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright and U.S. Attorneys Tom Scott and Guy Lewis and their prosecutors, among others. We repeatedly asked them for criminal indictments.

When the Second Superseding Indictment in the spy case was made public, it included a charge against Gerardo Hernández for conspiracy to commit murder on the Feb. 24 shoot down. This wasn't exactly what we wished for, but we saw it as a springboard to additional criminal action.

During the spy trial, we sat through a process that, in the interest of protecting the rights of the defendants, made the victims almost invisible throughout. One defense expert witness testified that he didn't recall any specifics about two of the dead men, but that in any case personal information was ``irrelevant.''

Only one photograph of each of the dead men was admitted into evidence so as not to elicit undue sympathy from the jury. Armando, Carlos, Mario and Pablo became nonpersons as the trial took a life of its own.

The direct evidence on the shoot-down was horrifying. We had never heard the audio of the Cuban MiG pilots' conversations with the air controllers as they shot down the planes. We were appalled at their euphoria. For the first time we saw a photograph of the MiG 29 directly responsible for shooting the missiles -- with two red stars painted on its side as proof of the pilots' ``prowess.'' To us, they were a reminder of the blood shed on Feb. 24.

It was very difficult not to make any mistakes that would violate the judge's gag order or jeopardize the trial in any way. At times the defense attorneys turned to look at us to assess our responses to the evidence. We learned fast not to react, and more often looked down than at the witnesses. We used an unoccupied court floor for breaks to limit accidental contact with the press, and we prayed a lot.

PROUD AMERICANS

As the trial ended, jury deliberations began and the verdict approached, we became apprehensive. We had pinned our hopes on the U.S. justice system, and based on the evidence presented, we believed conspiracy to murder had been established beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet numerous smoke screens had been presented to the jury. The guilty verdicts proved that the jurors were not fooled.

We rejoice in the process that uncovered the truth. We are proud to be part of a community where a jury that did not include a single American of Cuban background was able to convict based on the evidence and despite the defense's efforts to pit one part of the community against others.

Jury foreperson David Buker said it well: ``We're humans, we care about our country. I'm absolutely convinced that good people of any race, ethnicity or nationality can evaluate information.'' We are proud to be Americans.

Are we pleased? Very. Are we satisfied? Not yet.

Maggie Khuly is the sister of Armando Alejandre 
LaVozdeCubaLibre@aol.com

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