06/01/2019
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
07/15/2019
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)
Praise for North of Havana:"Dramatic history and memoir. . . . This fearless and essential contribution to understanding relations between Cuba and the U.S. will enlighten readers."—Publishers Weekly"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."—Library Journal"In this quick and impactful read, Garbus tells the story of [the Cuban Five's] odyssey through the U.S. legal system. . . . 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."
—Booklist"[Garbus's] impassioned book is both an indictment of the legal system and a plea for prison reform. A harrowing chronicle of a fight for justice."—Kirkus Reviews
"Perfect for an audience that may not be familiar with the Cuban Five (or may have only viewed the trial through the media coverage that Garbus lambasts), North of Havana parses this complicated saga with incredible clarity while providing insight into one of America's great legal minds."—Survival: Global Politics and Strategy
"Martin Garbus is not only a First Amendment champion but a natural storyteller. This is a remarkable, Kafkaesque tale of a veteran lawyer's efforts to win freedom for his Cuban spy client, who is serving two life sentences for a murder he did not commit. Suspenseful and moving and infuriating. "
—Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Judgment "Martin Garbus's natural habitat has always been the courtroom. But this riveting story of one of Garbus's most difficult cases—his effort to free a Cuban spy serving two life sentences for murder—takes places far from the court room as we follow one of America's great legal minds trying to piece together evidence to show that his client was the victim of a political show trial. Garbus's powerful and poignant story of political demagoguery and media manipulation in southern Florida is a masterly portrait of the strengths and weakness of the American legal system."
—Gay Talese "This book reminds us why the world needs courageous lawyers who will challenge state abuse and fight for justice. Martin Garbus represents the best of the legal profession—brilliant and scholarly, principled and fearless, his fight for his clients is always his highest priority. An inspirational account."
—Baroness Helena Kennedy QC "Marty Garbus, one of the nation's greatest trial lawyers, tells the tale of one of America's greatest show trials, of the Cuban Five—and of his efforts to achieve justice in a case thoroughly corrupted by politics and international intrigue."
—David Cole, national legal director, ACLU, and author of Engines of Liberty: How Citizen Movements Succeed "Shines a light on the seamy interaction between American politicians, the Cuban government, and hard-line Cuban emigrés in Florida."
—Burt Neuborne, Norman Dorsen Professor of Civil Liberties and founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School "A revealing tale of politicized 'justice,' inhuman prisons and backdoor diplomacy. A fascinating read which is key for understanding U.S. relations with Cuba from Clinton to Trump."
—Peter Winn, Tufts University, author of Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean "This haunting story of Cuba-U.S. relationships takes us into the deepest parts of today's American security system and exposes our pseudo-legal judicial process. Today, more than ever, every American must hear what Martin Garbus says."
—Charles Nesson, William F. Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
"[A] meticulous and fascinating account."—José Manuel Prieto, The New York Review of Books
2019-03-17
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 men—none of whom had been in Cuba at the time—were arrested, tried, convicted for spying, and imprisoned in the United States. One of them, Gerardo Hernández, 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 Hernández 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 Hernández'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 Hernández, 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.