Review by Booklist Review
The Cuban Five were part of the Avispa/Wasp network set up to spy on extremist Cuban exile groups in Miami. In this quick and impactful read, Garbus tells the story of their odyssey through the U.S. legal system after being charged in connection with the shoot-down by Cuban MiG jet fighters of two planes piloted by members of the Brothers to the Rescue group that had been flying over Havana dropping anti-Castro propaganda. The Cuban Five were convicted in 2001, their trial taking place right around the contested presidential election of 2000, in which Florida played such a crucial role. A seasoned and well-known trial lawyer not afraid of taking on unpopular cases he worked on the Pentagon Papers and defended César Chávez Garbus is nonetheless reluctant to defend the Cuban Five. He explains in fascinating detail the challenges inherent in the case brought about by the insidious and outsized influence exercised by the Cuban exile community in Florida, which illicitly leveraged the resources of the federal government. A lively narrator, Garbus provides explanations of dense legal procedure and precedent that are thoroughly documented yet easily digestible as he fleshes out all the players, exiles and spies alike, to achieve three-dimensional humanity.--Sara Martinez Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this dramatic history and memoir, trial lawyer Garbus expertly lays out the context surrounding his clients, the Cuban Five. They were part of the Wasp Network, a group of 14 Cuban intelligence officers who set out to penetrate the cohort of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Florida shortly after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, an event which, Garbus recounts, fueled activity by the right-wing Cuban element in Miami. Working ordinary jobs in Miami by day, the Wasp Network's members exchanged intel during rendezvous in fast food joints. In 1998 their cover was blown; three months later, the FBI took action to break up the network. In 2001, five of them were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, among other crimes, and sentenced to varying lengths of time in prison; in 2014, three were released as part of a prisoner exchange with Cuba. Garbus contextualizes the arrests and trial of the five, introducing powerful Cubans in exile, such as millionaire Jorge Mas Canosa, who had direct access to President Clinton; exploring American politicians' "obsession" with Fidel Castro; and explaining his belief that the five's "prosecution was politically motivated." This fearless and essential contribution to understanding relations between Cuba and the U.S. will enlighten readers. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Readers of international intrigue and diplomatic history such as Giles Whittell's Bridge of Spies will appreciate this survey of the fascinating and often bizarre case of the Cuban Five, as retold by attorney Garbus, who joined the proceedings on appeal. The Cuban Five were a group of Cuban spies arrested and charged in the 1996 shooting of four anti-Castro activists and pilots who had purposely invaded Cuban airspace, flying from Florida. The five were quickly charged, convicted, and sentenced. Garbus arrived on the case in an attempt to appeal the rulings and here relates a twisted tale of legal drama, prisoner exchange negotiations, and conspiracy moving forward in time all the way to the Obama administration. What begins as a riveting account of a thrilling, cloak-and-dagger espionage case ends with personal and political observations about current U.S.-Cuba relations. VERDICT This is a quick and vivid read, brimming with political intrigue and lessons about what can happen when law and public opinion are used for political ends.--Philip Shackelford, South Arkansas Community Coll., El Dorado
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An account of the anti-Castro hatred that infected 1990s Miami.In 1996, a Cuban jet fighter downed a plane flying over Cuban airspace dropping anti-Castro leaflets, a mission sanctioned by Miami's right-wing Cuban exiles. Immediately, the enraged Cuban community called for justice, and five mennone of whom had been in Cuba at the timewere arrested, tried, convicted for spying, and imprisoned in the United States. One of them, Gerardo Hernndez, received 2 life sentences. Ten years later, eminent trial lawyer Garbus (The Next 25 Years: The New Supreme Court and What It Means for Americans, 2007, etc.), after reading more than 20,000 pages of trial transcript and "a mountain of connected documents," decided to represent Hernndez to reverse his conviction, convinced that his client was innocent and had been denied a fair trial. By the time he took the case, Garbus already had a distinguished career defending prominent dissidents, including Daniel Ellsberg, Cesar Chavez, and the Cuban poet Heberto Padilla. Although he realized that Hernndez's case was "nearly hopeless," he admits that "by psychology, instinct, and training, I respond to injustice by running toward it, to see what I can do to correct it." The trial of the Cuban Five, as the defendants came to be known, was rife with misconduct: an inexperienced judge who rejected six motions for a change of venue, forcing the trial to proceed in a community "actively organized against the defendants"; inflammatory pre-trial publicity that amounted to a "propaganda crusade"; ineffective defense strategy; and an inevitably biased jury. Garbus chronicles his efforts to win justice for Hernndez, a combination of dogged work, luck, surprising new evidence, and an evolving political climate in which a thaw in Cuban-U.S. relations seemed possible. He movingly portrays the pain, degradation, and hardship his client experienced as well as his own frustrations with prison officials who "complicated and interfered" with his work in every way possible. His impassioned book is both an indictment of the legal system and a plea for prison reform.A harrowing chronicle of a fight for justice. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
