Gerardo Hernández Nordelo
Biography
Gerardo Hernández Nordelo was the leader of the Wasp Network (La Red Avispa), the Cuban intelligence cell that operated in South Florida from the early 1990s gathering information on right-wing Cuban-American exile groups including Alpha 66, Brothers to the Rescue, and Omega 7 — groups that Cuba accused of carrying out attacks on Cuban tourist infrastructure. Arrested in Miami on September 12, 1998 along with four other agents. Tried in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He was convicted in June 2001 of conspiracy to commit espionage, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, and conspiracy to commit murder for his alleged role in providing intelligence that allowed the Cuban Air Force to shoot down two Brothers to the Rescue Cessnas on February 24, 1996, killing four. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 15 years and held at USP Victorville and later USP Lompoc. He was released on December 17, 2014 in the U.S.-Cuba prisoner swap brokered by President Barack Obama and Pope Francis, and returned to a hero's welcome in Havana.
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
Individually signed clemency warrant
Hernández’s separately signed warrant records the December 12, 2001 sentence and continuous confinement since September 12, 1998. Its conviction statutes are 18 U.S.C. §§ 794(c), 1117 and 1546(a). The warrant’s shorthand “total effective sentence of life imprisonment” is not used to replace the more detailed original sentencing description already recorded here. 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.
