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[intensely pensive 80s synth instrumental]

[man] It's a disturbing case to know

that we and our institutions

are being spied upon, are being reported upon

and the information being transmitted back

to the director of intelligence over in Cuba.

We're not going to stand for it.

This spy ring was tasked by the Cuban government

to strike at the very heart

of our national security system

and our very democratic process.

These charges against these individuals

alleged actions for the Republic of Cuba

against the government of the United States.

♪

[narrator] Cuban history began when Columbus

discovered the island on his first voyage

to the new world.

The Spaniards built the Morro Castle

to defend the city of Havana from the pirates

who pillaged the islands of the West Indies.

[morose guitar instrumental]

[announcer] The tropical island of Cuba

is only 90 miles from the United States,

so near that the affairs of the two countries

have always been closely related.

[announcer] Cuba's beautiful beaches

and pleasant climate are among the attractions

that bring tourists from other lands,

many of them from the United States.

At night, the city takes on a new complexion.

Amid a blaze of lights, the cabarets come to life.

Any excuse is reason enough for a celebration.

[Keith] Havana was like Las Vegas.

It had a lot of casinos, nightclubs, prostitution

and it was all controlled by the American mafia.

[Ramsey] Vacationers who came down from the U.S.

weren't looking for a suntan.

They were looking for a high time.

It was attracting a different type of people

who wanted prostitution, people who wanted gambling.

Corruption was great. U.S. ownership was vast.

[music crescendos and fades]

[morose strings instrumental]

This gulf between the rich and the poor

is the stuff revolutions are made of.

[morose strings instrumental]

This revolution of Castro's

was the first in Cuban history to base

its policies and its power on the peasant.

They flocked to his support.

[uplifting synth instrumental]

[announcer] Joyous followers of Fidel Castro

sweep triumphantly through the Cuban capital

hours after their rebellion had toppled

the regime of Fulgencio Batista.

♪

[Keith] Those who stayed were the ones

who supported Cuban national sovereignty

and who were the lower classes,

who were not the beneficiaries

of the society that was controlled

by the United States of America, previously.

[intensely pensive 80s synth instrumental]

[Phil] Shortly after the Cuban revolution,

many people, especially the upper

and middle class of Cuba, left the country.

They lost everything they had:

Their homes, their property, their possessions.

And a large percentage of them came to Miami.

♪

[Phil] José Basulto, he thought

that his mission in life was to oust Castro

and change the regime.

He was... A fighter. Let's put it that way--

Against Castro and against the revolution.

A small force of invaders landed

at a semi isolated resort area on the south coast of Cuba

on a strip of beach called Playa Girón

at the Bay of Pigs.

[morose guitar instrumental]

[Keith] Fidel was able to say,

“The Americans are trying to overthrow us.

We've stopped them.” And so it actually helped

solidify the support for the revolution.

[announcer] The Bay of Pigs invasion

was a tragic experience,

both for the anti-Castro Cubans

and the United States.

♪

[Keith] The majority of those who left Cuba

after the revolution were peaceful.

There was a small percentage who had lost

their businesses, their homes and their influence

in Cuba that turned violently against the revolution.

This is [indistinct] in Miami.

Just five minutes away from Miami Beach's

lush multimillion dollar hotels,

men are training to fight Fidel Castro's armies in Cuba.

These men are bankers,

lawyers, former professional men.

There are even a couple of bakers in the group.

[Paul] You have militant exiles who formed groups,

militias and became an offensive weapon

trying to overthrow the government in Havana

by violent means.

[Phil] What we call today, IEDs,

the improvised explosive devices.

That's exactly what they were doing.

They were planting explosive devices

or bombs in order to create chaos.

[airplane engines hum]

A Cuban passenger jet en route from Barbados

to Havana, crashed into the sea

following an onboard explosion.

73 persons, 57 of them Cuban, were killed.

Cuban exile leader, Orlando Bosch,

and several other persons have been arrested

in Venezuela in connection with that crash.

[somber piano instrumental]

[applause]

[thunderous applause]

[intensely pensive 80s synth instrumental]

[upbeat pensive 80s synth instrumental]

This was a military operation from day one.

♪

I would consider them brave men.

I mean, it takes some balls to do what they did.

♪

[airplane whirring]

[somber piano instrumental]

[airplane buzzing]

[upbeat pensive 80s synth instrumental]

[airplane buzzing]

♪

♪

[announcer] Miami, one of the world's

hottest cities, welcomes you.

[upbeat pensive 80s synth instrumental]

In Miami, the world is your oyster.

[whistle blows]

So welcome to South Florida

and have a safe and pleasant stay.

♪

♪

[Guy] They used dead-- for the most part--

dead individuals, using their passports,

had scoured, sort of, the obituaries

"It's about my age.

Let's falsify his identification papers,"

just like what you see in the TV.

The Cubans were very good at their tradecraft.

I mean, they were very good at spying.

[Guy] Cuban spies were trying to get

in to anti-Castro organizations here in South Florida.

Who was doing what, reporting back to their government.

[Guy] Brothers to the Rescue in the early 1990s

was formed as a result of the influx

of Cuban rafters into the United States.

The Coast Guard couldn't find them all.

People were dying. People were drowning.

[Guy] They had a bunch of Cessna airplanes.

They had volunteer pilots, volunteer spotters.

They would radio the location of the rafters

to the Coast Guard, who at the time

would pick them up and bring them

into the United States safely.

[Paul] At that point in time,

they weren't being repatriated to Cuba.

They were being brought to the United States.

[Guy] If they were picked up on the sea or they made it

on to land in the United States, they were given

permanent resident status immediately.

Miami!

The number of Cuban rafters is on the rise.

Nearly two dozen picked up yesterday.

That's why Brothers to the Rescue

is stepping up search flights for rafters.

To refugees, they are heroes in the sky.

The Cuban exile group, Brothers to the Rescue.

It was intelligence gathering. That's all René really did.

He was good at it, too.

[upbeat pensive 80s synth instrumental]

[pager beeping]

[pager beeping]

[phone dialing]

[dial-up internet sound]

[Guy] Truly, it was a very sophisticated operation

that was being run, not just to provide protection,

as they would assert.

They were trying to get into US army facilities.

[Phil] Ramón, for a time lived in Tampa, Florida,

near MacDill Air Force Base.

And he had, we called it the box of war.

Time Life Magazine Company,

[indistinct] these little-- They’re like recipe cards,

And they have pictures of the planes on them.

This is what an F-16 looks like.

This is what an A-10 looks like.

Basically little flash flashcards for children

that are publicly available.

He watched planes take off

and identified the planes with the box of war.

[Paul] Sitting around counting planes

at MacDill Air Force Base up in Tampa.

That's all they ever did.

And down in Boca Chica, same thing.

[Guy] Tony was working at the Naval Air Station

in Key West, Florida. He was mainly employed

at the Public Works Department on the base.

[Phil] Planes can be seen from the public highway,

which runs perpendicular to the military base.

[Guy] I'm convinced that one of the goals

of this conspiracy was to exploit,

to better understand how our military would work--

Our assets, our capabilities, trying to count planes,

see what planes were at what Air Force bases.

[Paul] They would snoop around, you know?

“What are you doing? Where are your buildings?

You know? What are you doing here?”

And they snooped around this one building

that was going to be used to hold classified information.

Tony was working on that building as a laborer.

[Paul] The Cuban Directorate of Intelligence said,

“Tell us more about that stuff.”

[Guy] Who might have access-- In fact, more access

than the janitor who comes in sort of unpretentious,

without notice and is able to move around freely

inside a-- a base where classified information is?

All spies aren't James Bond.

You need those others that are available

and can get the job done.

It was illegal. It was in violation of our laws.

But was it meant to harm our national security?

No, I don't think so.

Is Cuba even a threat to the United States?

What are they going to do to us?

I think all the Cubans really were ever worried about

was, you know, would they ever be invaded

by the United States? It's all defensive, you know?

It's not offensive.

[confident horns instrumental]

[male reporter] The news from ITN.

[female reporter] The red flag came down

over the Kremlin tonight as President Gorbachev resigned

and brought to an end seven decades

of communist rule in the Soviet Union.

[Keith] The embargo places incredible

economic limitations on the Cuban population.

It's as harmful as any war. It kills innocent civilians.

People were desperate to get out of there.

So there was an uptick in the number of people

taking rafts and small boats to get out of Cuba.

[reporter] Rafters have, since 1991,

depended on being spotted by Brothers to the Rescue.

[reporter] Private donations keep the brothers flying.

Even airplanes have been donated.

It's a passion for founder, José Basulto.

They're coming out not because the United States

is here, but because Fidel Castro is there.

And until that is so, uh, they're going to continue

coming out of the island.

René’s role was to infiltrate Brothers to the Rescue

then report back to Gerardo so that that information

could be relayed to Cuba, so that they could, you know,

be ready to deal

with incursions by Brothers to the Rescue.

[upbeat pensive 80s synth instrumental]

[digitized Morse code sounds]

[digitized Morse code sounds]

Are you planning to try again to assassinate Fidel Castro?

They were doing it not for the money.

I mean, these were ideologues.

They were doing it for uh, what they thought were uh,

political and, and sort of reasons

associated with their government.

Gerardo and the others lived in simple apartments.

[Jack] Probably made more money

from the American government

working at Boca Chica than he did

from the Cuban government as an agent.

[Guy] We determined early on that there were

a group of Cuban spies

operating here in south Florida.

But you have to understand, initially,

the FBI treated this

as sort of a separate intelligence operation.

They were conducting sneak and peek warrants,

basically going in, looking, copying,

obtaining information, putting it all back--

[chuckles] Just like in the movies--

And then analyzing, exploiting

and continuing their investigation.

Uh, intelligence had been gathered.

People had been identified.

But really initially,

there was no contemplation of a prosecution.

[announcer] 4 News Now continues.

It is the start of Cuban rafter season

and today more were spotted.

[reporter] During the 1994 rafter crisis,

Brothers to the Rescue played a critical role,

directing the Coast Guard to thousands

of Cubans fleeing the island nation.

[Paul] What became known as “Wet foot, dry foot” policy

meant if you made it on to land in the United States,

you were given permanent resident status immediately.

If you were picked up at the sea,

you were sent back to Cuba.

Now, this change in policy

creates big problems for the Brothers to the Rescue.

They spot the rafters. They call the Coast Guard.

[Phil] There was no reason for Brothers to Rescue to fly.

[Phil] Then that policy changed. Their mission changed.

[Phil] They began to poke the bear, as they say.

[airplane whirring]

[female reporter] Well, a Brothers to the Rescue plane

flew right into Cuban airspace and over Havana.

[male reporter] The plane roared at rooftop level

through downtown, banking towards Havana Harbor.

[Phil] They threw leaflets trying to encourage

the people to overthrow the government.

[Man speaking foreign language]

[reporter] The Cuban government responded saying...

You do enter the airspace or territorial waters,

or territory of another country, you are subject

to the law enforcement agencies of that country.

Never would have been tolerated by our government.

If Cuba sent a, a light plane over Washington, D.C.,

it would been pulverized.

[Keith] The Cuban government repeatedly asked

the US government to stop the flights

from the Brothers to the Rescue.

The American government did nothing.

[reporter] 2 p.m. Saturday, three small Cessna Sky Master

aircraft took off from Opa-Locka Airport near Miami.

[reporter] At 2:57, one of the pilots

from the group, Brothers to the Rescue,

tells the control tower in Havana of their intention

to fly into airspace south of the 24th parallel.

The pilot is warned of possible danger--

[reporter] At 3:09, two Cuban military jets are airborne.

[jet engines screaming]

[jet engines screaming]

[reporter] Cuban fighter jets shot

two of Basulto’s planes out of the sky,

killing four people.

Flying a third plane, Basulto barely escaped.

This has been assassination in the high seas

The problem with the shoot down

is not so much that the shoot down occurred--

I mean, on a human level, of course it is.

Uh, uh, it's where it occurred.

One plane was definitely in Cuban airspace.

And I think that the Cuban government

and their pilots believed these aircraft

were in Cuban airspace.

Saturday's attack was an appalling reminder

of the nature of the Cuban regime.

Personally, I don't think it's ever justified

shooting down a civilian aircraft

unless that aircraft is posing,

like, an imminent danger.

After so many air incursions

and after so many incidents, the Cuban government

just felt that they had to enforce

their border and they did this.

Who's at the fault here?

I say it has to be, you know,

a combination of the US government

for not stopping these flights

and Basulto for undertaking these reckless acts

where people got killed.

I am not ruling out any further steps

in the future should they be required.

[digitized Morse code sounds]

Our top story, that confrontation with Cuba

over the downing of those two light planes this weekend,

planes carrying members of the Cuban exile group

called Brothers to the Rescue.

[reporter] In Miami today, a moment of silence

for the four missing pilots from Brothers to the Rescue.

They are the newest heroes in the exile community.

[Guy] When the shoot down occurred,

that's really when FBI walks into our office,

the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.

And says there is a potential criminal case

of the most serious magnitude.

We stepped in and said,

“Hey, we've got to stop this.”

They needed to have a scapegoat.

Somebody had to answer for this.

Good evening. President Clinton late today

announced a series of moves against Cuba

for the shooting down of two light planes.

But he stopped well short of ordering

any military action against Fidel Castro.

What did we do? You know, we passed some silly laws.

I will move promptly to reach agreement

with the Congress on the pending

Helms-Burton Cuba legislation

so that it will enhance the effectiveness of the embargo

in a way that advances the cause of democracy in Cuba.

[Keith] The Helms-Burton Act

tightened the noose against the Cuban government,

plunging the country into an even deeper economic crisis.

The Cuban government turned to tourism

for their economic salvation.

[glitzy 90s pop plays]

♪

[explosion booms]

[tense music]

[explosion booms]

- [glass shattering] - [people screaming]

[male reporter] A series of bombings in Havana.

[female reporter] Havana’s luxury hotels,

a vital source of foreign currency

have been hit by a spate of bombings.

The latest one claiming the life

of an Italian tourist.

[Paul] They were able to tie that explosive device

to the exile community in Miami.

- [explosion booms] - [people scream]

[Guy] There were people that were killed,

maimed and injured in these explosions.

[indistinct yelling ]

[man] Fire!

[reporter] 35 year old Jesus Hoyas

is military commander of Alpha 66.

He's led three raids on Cuba's beach resorts,

targeting the one and a half billion dollar

a year tourism industry

that is now Cuba's economic lifeline.

- What are you trying to do? - I’m trying to get uh,

tourism to stop going in Cuba,

trying to spend money uh, going there,

economy-wise, trying to stop that

so we can liberate Cuba.

This is aimed at the tourist business.

Do you think that's important? That's good?

That's a good target?

[Paul] Groups were coming in and setting off

bombs in hotels and restaurants.

You know, you can be damn sure that our country

is going to be, you know, sending spies

to figure out who's doing this, you know,

who's funding it. Who's behind this stuff.

[Jack] Everything that these agents were doing,

the FBI knew about.

There was a lot of the reports which were being transmitted

back to Cuba, which were all being intercepted.

[Guy] The investigation had been going on for years.

[Jack] There was a lot of surveillance.

[woman] Breaker, breaker, all units

subject is back in view at the bus stop, standing on it.

[upbeat pensive 80s synth instrumental]

♪

[indistinct radio chatter]

[man] ...Enter via a Wendy’s location.

[woman] Okay, all units,

subject is moving towards the Wendy’s.

[Keith] There was information sent back

to Cuba by the Cuban spies

regarding the activities of the anti-Castro

organizations based in Florida.

[man] Hut!

It's not something that our government

should have ever, you know, turned a blind eye to.

[radio host] The time now, 6:04.

[reporter] Reporting live from downtown Miami.

[weatherman] I got a beautiful sunrise

just around the corner here.

[radio host 2] One of those days you just want

to curl up with a good book--

[man over radio] Echo team to command,

echo team at location.

We have eyes on target.

[ominous instrumental]

[Keith] There was a series of raids

the United States government conducted

against the Cuban agents.

Guerrero lived here,

in this quiet neighborhood on Big Pine Key.

It was here where the FBI took him down.

♪

[instinct]

[man] We have invited you here today

to announce the arrest of 10 individuals

in the South Florida area.

These charges against these individual allege actions

for the Republic of Cuba,

against the government of the United States.

It was the front page, the lead story.

"Castro is infiltrating the United States."

"He's sending spies to Miami."

You know, my, my initial reaction

when upon reading it was,

“Oh, God, these guys are screwed.”

[chuckles]

These charges include conspiracy,

espionage, operating illegally

in the United States as a foreign agent.

[Guy] It's a disturbing case to know that we

and our institutions are being spied upon,

are being reported upon, and the information

being transmitted back to the director

of intelligence over in Cuba.

♪

♪

♪

[Paul] The trial took place in Miami

against the objections of the defense lawyers

who wanted to move the trial outside of the Miami area.

[Phil] This was the wrong place to try the case.

We had a virulent exile community

who wanted to just put all of these guys away

for the rest of their life. Forget the allegations,

forget the fact that they're presumed innocent.

We always, uh, suppose that Castro

will have uh, a-- Agents in the groups

[indistinct] are trying to neutralize our activities.

- Hi. How are you-- - [man] How are you, sir?

- Good. - Ah--

I-- I can't. I'm-- No comment.

I can't comment on the case.

[indistinct chatter]

Cuban spies connotes you're spying.

They were never charged with spying.

There's no such crime as being a spy, doesn't exist.

Failure to register as a foreign agent.

In other words, this country requires

all foreign agents, be they spies or friendly, to register.

That’s not being a spy.

There was no question

they were unregistered foreign agents.

We didn't really care too much

about that because that only carried

a maximum of five years.

♪

[rapid typing]

[Phil] Conspiracy to commit espionage.

It is a rare charge.

They were charged with not stealing military secrets.

Not actually doing so, but agreeing to do so.

That's not being a spy.

♪

Conspiracy to commit murder has nothing to do with spying.

They were never charged with being spies.

There’s no such crime.

[Guy] The shoot down. February 1996.

Clear and compelling evidence

that a foreign government had conspired

to murder one or more of our own.

The only one that was ever charged

with anything to do with the shoot down was Gerardo.

[Phil] Government's evidence was Gerardo's reports

and they used these reports to show that Gerardo

had ordered René not to fly

with the Brothers to the Rescue.

[Paul] The government argued that that had

to make Gerardo 100% aware that they were

going to shoot the planes down.

My argument to that was, where does it say that?

[Phil] Conspiracy is basically just an agreement

to commit an illegal act.

Nobody knew what exactly they were going to do.

There was nothing written that they were

going to shoot these planes down.

There was no, like, smoking gun against my client.

It was an extremely circumstantial case.

This happened because people were reckless

and people did things that were illegal.

And the US government turned a blind eye to it.

[Phil] The trial really took a change when they started

to call some of the Brothers to the Rescue members.

[reporter] Lawyer McKenna detailed

Basulto's exploits as a CIA operative.

The jury and defense listened as the defense

labeled Basulto as a CIA trained saboteur.

I needed to show the jury who this guy really was

and what he had been up to.

[reporter] Today in federal court,

things got very heated between José Basulto

and defense attorney, Paul McKenna.

After, like, two hours of questioning, he said to me--

“Stop the trial!” You know, “Take the jury out.”

[reporter] Defense lawyers stunned,

the judge reprimanding Basulto.

[reporter] Another defense attorney accused Basulto

of red baiting, saying if the jury

found the accused not guilty,

they'd be accused of being communist.

The circus without the elephants.

That's exactly what it was.

There it was, you know, that was part of the trial.

We just kept going.

The rest of them were just agents of a government.

[Phil] We had put forward a defense of necessity.

[Paul] To gather intelligence so that there won't be a 911,

so there won't be a terrorist attack.

That's what the Cubans were doing.

When do we try foreign spies? We send them back.

Do you know how many agents we have all over the world,

gathering information for us?

Like Castro once said, “In industrial quantities.”

[Paul] Under normal circumstances,

reasonable doubt protects Americans

and non-Americans alike in a US courtroom

from a conviction.

[Guy] That jury sat through

months and months of evidence.

[upbeat pensive 80s synth instrumental]

This afternoon, the jury returned

guilty verdicts as to all counts,

as to all defendants.

The jury found them guilty of all 26 counts,

including conspiracy to commit espionage,

conspiracy to commit murder.

I think the jury got it wrong.

[Guy] This shut down an entire cell

that had tentacles throughout South Florida.

And so it was, without doubt in my mind,

a successful prosecution.

I hope sincerely that today's verdict

provides some sense of justice.

I'm shaking my head and René Gonzalez

looks at me and says, “Paul, what did you expect?

This is Miami.” And I was like, “Yeah, he's right.

This is Miami.”

[reporter ] Fernando and René González

have got 19 and 15 years.

[reporter] Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino

got life in prison.

[reporter] Gerardo Hernandez received two life sentences

to be served consecutively.

I mean, it was effectively a death sentence

um, and I thought that was appropriate.

[Phil] 2002, they were finally moved

to various federal prisons

and they were separated

by hundreds and thousands of miles.

He never seemed to lose his belief

that everything would be okay.

[indistinct] “I can't wait to see my wife again.”

And when I saw his wife, the same thing.

I used to go away thinking, don't these people

realize he's never going to get out?

He's going to serve the rest of his life in a US penitentiary.

♪

[Keith] The plight of the Cuban Five

was becoming more and more known internationally.

Though the efforts of international

Cuban solidarity groups,

the efforts of the Cuban government,

there was pressure put on the American government

to either re-try the Five or release them outright.

[chanting “Release the Five!”]

How could we convince the Court of Appeals

to undo this thing?

And then, miracle of miracles, we did.

[Phil] The case was argued for the U.S. Court of Appeals

in 2004. In 2005, they issued

a 90 plus page opinion agreeing

with the defense position, saying that the venue

was improper so that they could not--

the Five could not have gotten a fair trial in Miami.

And the events surrounding the trial formed a perfect storm.

[Paul] I got to tell you, though, that when

that Court of Appeals reversed the verdict,

I had kind of a renewed faith

in the entire federal system of laws.

I was like, “What an amazing country.”

When the unbound court reversed it

that kind of like, all washed out of me.

[chuckles] And I was back to,

“Well, I guess, you know,

it's not the way I thought it was.”

♪

[Phil] René was released in October of 2011.

One of the Five is finally back in Cuba

after 13 years in jail. His name is René González

and he is embraced by the Cuban people

as a national hero.

♪

And a second member of the Cuban Five spy ring

was released today from a U.S. prison.

50 year old Fernando González--

♪

Today, the United States of America

is changing its relationship with the people of Cuba.

Earlier today, a prisoner swap

between the United States and Cuba

set off the most significant warming

in relations between our two countries

in over half a century.

Completely shocked.

I-- I couldn't believe it.

[reporter] President Obama made his decision

to release three Cuban spies convicted

of espionage on American soil.

[upbeat pensive 80s synth instrumental]

[Guy] Are they heroes? No.

The answer clearly is no, from my perspective.

I think they should still be in the United States

uh, serving their, their time.

♪

You can take people that are true heroes,

[chuckles], that have done something

extraordinary to advance humankind.

That's not who these five individuals were.

♪

That meeting was, first, a celebration of a big victory.

One of the last victories

that Fidel claimed against the United States government.

♪

I haven't lost a night of sleep

on account of any of the things that I have done

throughout my involvement since the beginning

to this day with Cuba.

♪

♪

♪