Biography
Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez was one of the Cuban Five. He was convicted in the Southern District of Florida in 2001; his life sentence was reduced on appeal to 262 months in 2009 and commuted in December 2014.
Biography
Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez was born in the city of Miami on October 16, 1958. His parents were both from Cuba and immediately after the initiation of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, they returned to Cuba. In 1983, Guerrero graduated as Airfield Construction Engineer in Kiev, Ukraine. The expansion of the Santiago de Cuba International Airport was the most important work in which he was involved. Guerrero is a poet and has penned a considerable number of poems, a selection of which has been published in English and Spanish under the title "Desde Mi Altura" (From My Altitude). Guerrero has become an accomplished artist and his art and poetry can be viewed on his website. He has two sons, 20 year old, Antonio, and 15 year old, Gabriel.
Case
Fore more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization of relations between the US and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans have died as a result of these terrorists' attacks.
Terrorist Miami groups like Commandos F4 and Brothers to the Rescue operate with complete
impunity from within the United States to attack Cuba -- with the knowledge and support of the FBI and CIA.
Therefore, Cuba made the careful and necessary decision to send the Five Cubans to Miami to monitor the terrorists. The Cuban Five infiltrated the terrorist organizations in Miami to inform Cuba of imminent attacks.
The aim of such a clandestine operation by the Cuban Five -- at great personal risk -- was to prevent criminal acts, and thus protect the lives of Cubans and other people.
But, instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI arrested the Cuban Five, ANTI-TERRORISTS, on September 12, 1998. The Five were illegally held in solitary confinement for 17 months in a Miami Jail.
The trail began in November 2000. With the seven-month trail based in Miami, a virtual witchhunt atmosphere existed. Defense attorneys' motions for a change of venue was denied five times by the judge, although it was obvious that a fair trail was impossible in that city.
In a blow to justice, the Cuban Five were convicted June 8, 2001 and sentenced to four life terms and 75 years in December, 2001.
Workers World reports the September 23, 2006 Washington rally for the Cuban Five and marks eight years since their September 12, 1998 arrests. The campaign report does not establish a new detention or alter the five men’s individually different sentences. Workers World, October 5, 2006, vol.48 no.39, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.workers.org/pdf/2006/ww100506.pdf#page=3
Birth-date correction sources
- United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention report — identifies Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez as born in Miami on October 16, 1958.
- International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 biography — independently gives October 16, 1958.
Individually signed clemency warrant
Guerrero’s warrant records the December 27, 2001 sentence, October 13, 2009 resentencing to 262 months, and continuous confinement since September 12, 1998. Its listed conviction statutes are 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 794(c) and 951, not the murder-conspiracy statute listed in Hernández’s separate warrant. President Obama signed the warrant on December 15, 2014, making the prison term expire December 17 and requiring departure that day. The signing date and ordered expiry are distinct from independent evidence of actual physical departure. Existing admission and release fields remain unchanged; no new custody episode is created.
