"I have felt all along that this was a shameful blot on the record of U.S. justice," Wayne Smith, Hopkins political science professor and former chief of the U.S. Interest Section in Cuba, said.
Smith, who has been teaching in between the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the Homewood campus since 1984, has submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court in defense of five Cuban nationals convicted of spying for the Castro regime in 2001.
The result of their conviction has been a worldwide response in support of the convicted, who are commonly known as the Cuban Five. The Center for International Policy (CIP), of where Smith is the founder and director of the Cuba Program, has not been alone in advocating overturning the convictions. The United Nations Commission for Human Rights has also submitted an amicus brief, stating that the defendants have been deprived of the right to a fair trial.
Additionally, 10 different Nobel Prize winners have submitted similar briefs to the Supreme Court. In total, a record 12 separate amicus curiae briefs have been sent in support of the Cuban Five.
In his brief Smith outlines the organization's position on the case. The Cuban Five were convicted on counts of conspiracy to commit espionage, and in one case, conspiracy to commit murder. But that should only stand, according to Smith, if they were obtaining information on the U.S. government.
"The only thing they're guilty of is being unregistered agents of a foreign power. They had no material belonging to the U.S. government," Smith said.
Smith has followed the case closely since the Cuban Five were first indicted in 1998. At one point, their lawyer had asked him to testify before the Supreme Court, which he says he would have gladly done, but this was later deemed unnecessary. Since then, his involvement with the CIP Cuba program, as well as with the research group Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), has led him to take a greater interest and contribute his opinion to one of the amicus briefs currently in the possession of the court.
The Cuban nationals in question, Ruben Campa, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez and Luis Medina, entered the United States with the intention of infiltrating groups of exiled Cubans centered in Miami, some of whom were engaged in what the Cuban government deemed terrorist activities.
"Now, some of these terrorist activities were flying planes over, dropping leaflets," Smith said. "But there was also always the possibility of small bombs or incendiaries, and they had boats pulling up and firing rockets on the island and so on. Nothing major, but still."
While the defendants in this case were not the only such spies sent to the U.S., they were the only ones who were arrested and tried, according to Smith.
"Cuban officials even invited representatives of the FBI and the U.S. government to come receive this material brought out by their agents ... and the Cubans waited for the Americans to do something about it. But the Americans took no action; instead they arrested the Cuban Five, using the information the Cubans had given them to determine who had penetrated these exile cells."
The Cuban Five were tried in Miami, a city that is home to many Cuban exiles and anti-Castro regime sentiment. This also occurred shortly after the Elian Gonzalez case, raising tensions still further.
"The judge was urged to change the venue of the trial but refused to do so," Smith said. The U.S. government's opposition briefs are due to the Court by April 6, and the decision to either grant a new trial or let the Miami ruling stand is expected to be released before the Court recesses in June.
In the meantime, Smith is continuing with his work at CIP and COHA, as well as his teaching at Hopkins, an experience he describes with enthusiasm.
"It's been very satisfying and very productive. We even had an excellent academic exchange with Cuba until 2004, when the Bush administration cut off that program."
He described his work at the University and in the diplomatic arena as "very complementary."
All of Smith's work has been enhanced by his experience as a diplomat in Cuba. In 1958 he was first sent to the island as a Foreign Service officer and witnessed the revolution that brought Castro to power. He remained there until the U.S. cut off all diplomatic relations in January of 1961.
From 1978-82, he served as the Chief of the U.S. Interest Section in Cuba, an established method of continuing some communication without official diplomatic ties.
"It's an embassy in all but name. It does everything an embassy would do," he said.
However, he resigned from the Foreign Service in 1982 as a form of protest at the continued lack of progress in U.S.-Cuban relations.
Ten years later he was invited to start the CIP's Cuban Program and since then has worked towards improved relations in both his capacity as the program's director and as a professor. Despite the years of problems, he has expressed some optimism.
"I'm hoping that under the Obama administration we can get students going there again and bring Cuban students here, and finally make some progress."
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