He graduated from Economy with Golden Title from the University of Havana. He is married to Elizabeth Palmeiro Casado. He has three daughters, Aily, 13 years old , from his first marriage, Laura and Lisbet (nine and five years old respectively).

Ramón is one of the five young Cubans that were taken prisoners in Miami on September 1998, accused of supposedly endangering the US national security and was condemned to life imprisonment and moved to a prison in Loreto, Pennsylvania after a fake trial in Florida.

His house is a common place in the Vedado area, small and cozy. His wife, Elizabeth Palmeiro, remembers the worried but happy family life surrounded, in the small apartment living room, by pictures of her with Ramón

THE MISSION

Ramón Labañino case, as that of the other four Cuban imprisoned in Miami accused of jeopardizing US national security, including other charges, is another Washington’s political vendetta against Cuban revolution.

Member of the Young Communist League (UJC) National Committee Randy Alonso stated before the delegates to the 2nd Youth Meeting Cuba-US that the five Cuban imprisoned as terrible spies in US prisons only had as mission to compile information on the terrorist plans of anti-Cuban groups operating from Florida.

He expounded that to understand the mission they carried out on US territory it was necessary to analyze the different administration’s indifference concerning denounces about criminal plans against Cuba.

Attacks and terrorist actions against Cuba since 1959 –year of the Revolution’s Victory—caused death to more than three thousand Cubans and injuries to a similar number, as well as damages estimated in around 100 billion dollars, he added.

Alonso, who also hosts a TV show about Cuban society’s interesting top themes explained the circumstances in which the five Cubans were arrested in September 1998 and denounced that the “political and manipulated” trial was actually against the Cuban revolution.

On that year 1998, added the youth leader, during a hearing in the Pentagon it was said that Cuba was not representing a menace to the USA. Even drug tsar (Barry) McCafrey stated that the Caribbean nation was no port of call for drug dealers due to the government actions to fight that problem.

However, added Randy, two months after (July 1998) Cuba delivered to Washington proofs of the terrorist activity organized by right wing groups settled in Miami, as the Cuban American Foundation, The FBI answered with the arrest of the five Cubans.

According to Alonso, The Cuban Ministry of Interior delivered enough material on the counterrevolutionary activity organized and financed in that country, together with recordings on similar plans, thanks in part to the work of these five arrested men.

Only in the past decade, when the island was going through its worst economic crisis after the triumph of the revolution in 1959, made even worse with the embargo from Washington, were stopped 170 terrorist actions, including plans to kill President Fidel Castro.

Alonso also said that the five Cubans arrested in Miami, three of which were given life sentences, did gathered information on terrorism towards their country, but never attempted against the US national security because, besides, they did not have access to classified information.

“They worked and lived the best they could, they did not receive a great salary and did not have access to strategic programs of that country” said the student leader.

ACCUSATION

The first accusation presented by the prosecutor was only nine pages long, where barely are found references to facts, adjectives and descriptions prevailing. It was a move to win some time until a second accusation was presented, in May 1999, eight months after the arrest. It is the moment when the charge on conspiracy to murder is presented, based on the alleged involvement of one of the accused, Gerardo, on the shooting down of the airplanes which violated Cuban airspace in February 1996.

The accusation, as it is known, had been the main issue of the terrorist mafia and of Miami’s press incessant and scandalous campaigns. To this point, the second accusation already counts on 40 pages, with charges to open a process and it is a little bit more documented, aimed to typify the alleged actions committed, but it has the flavor of the charge that has been “cooked” on slow fire, during 8 months, to please Cuba’s enemies. With it, it has been proved beyond objections that it is a political trial, clearly faked and manipulated.

To sum up, there are five charges: the first, conspiracy, which consists of an agreement to commit crime against United States or deceive this nation.

The second charge is espionage, that is, to compile information and send it out. But in that charge it is assumed that the information is something regarding the security of the United States or a supposed collaboration with a foreign country to harm the United States.

The third charge is conspiracy to murder. Premeditated conspiracy is an agreement to deliberately carry out the death of one or more people. This is what Gerardo was charged with, for the alleged crime of conspiracy on the shooting down of the airplanes.

The fourth charge is faking documents or issuing false statements before government authorities to get documents.

And the last charge, more formal than the other, the one of being foreign agent, consisting of acting as a foreign government’s agent without being diplomat or communicating it to US General Attorney. In the way the crime is typified on US penal code, the crime is not in being a foreign agent, but in being a foreign agent without being identified.

SENTENCE

Ramón Labañino was sentenced to life imprisonment and 18 years in a prison located in Beaumont, Texas.

The long, brutal and profoundly wrongful imprisonment has not intimidated him, the absence of his relatives and friends and the tortures and psychological pressures suffered by him have not weaken him. Nothing destroys his indomitable spirit.

Having nothing to organize his ideas and write them down he was capable of rising over the filth that tried to crush him and make a formidable defense statement that virtually turned him into an accuser instead of being an accused.

“We who have devoted our lives to fighting terrorism, to preventing atrocious acts like these from taking place; we who have tried to save the lives of innocent human beings not only in Cuba but in the United States as well, stand in this courtroom today to be sentenced precisely for preventing similar acts. Thus, this punishment could not be more ironic and unfair!” he said in his statement.

“Could it be that this "fight against terrorism" is pure rhetoric? No, common sense would say that it is not. And that is precisely why we are here today, because we do not want any of these things to happen, neither in Cuba, nor in the United States, or Miami, or any other part of the world. All that we have done is this: to try to save the lives of innocent human beings, by preventing terrorism and preventing a stupid war. “

“With our arrest, all they have attempted to do is to silence the source of information, to keep serious acts of terrorism like these from disclosure and to hide the truth that so brutally hits us today. Moreover, the FBI has conspired with the terrorists themselves and the extreme right wing in Miami to damage and obstruct any kind of rapprochement and cooperation between our two peoples and governments. Meanwhile, the criminals are happily walking the streets outside here today, laughing at this courtroom. There cannot be a greater offense or stain on these authorities, on the flag presiding this courtroom, and on that coat-of-arms representing the ideal of true justice”.

“If preventing the deaths of innocent human beings, defending our two countries from terrorism, and preventing a senseless invasion of Cuba is the reason I am being sentenced today, then, let that sentence be welcomed” he said.

Labañino silenced the auditorium when he said before his executioners: “I will wear the prison uniform with the same honor and pride with which a soldier wears his most prized insignia. This has been a political trial; therefore, we are political prisoners.”

THE PRISON

Ramón Labañino is serving a life sentence plus a 19 year sentence in Beaumont, a Texas prison. He is intentionally kept away from the rest of his fellow companions as if physical distance could destroy the union existing between people whose main link is their common ideas and patriotism.

During a roundtable in Cuban television, participants compared the conditions in which this fighter against terrorism lives to the luxurious prisons where self-confessed and proven terrorists as anti-Cuban Luis Posada Carriles receive in Panama visits from their mafia friends from Miami and plan new terrorist actions against Cuba.

The five young Cubans sentenced in Miami were first moved, under strong watch, to prisons in Atlanta and Oklahoma and from there taken to their final prisons in different and far apart states.

“Strongly handcuffed, with not enough clothes to protect them from cold weather, thirsty and hungry during the transfer and later suffering the harsh conditions of the hole (isolation cells), our five heroes keep their high moral and untouched honor. Nothing will make them surrender” stated journalist Randy Alonso, moderator at a roundtable broadcasted by Cuban Television.

President Fidel Castro stated on June 23 2001 that those five imprisoned Cubans are political prisoners.