The Hemisphere: Back to the Wall

After one of those short-order trials that pass for justice in Castro's Cuba, five members of the defeated invasion force that landed last April were sentenced to death and quickly executed; nine others got 30-year sentences. Technically, the 14 were tried for crimes they committed before the invasion. Ramon Calvino, a police corporal during the regime of Dictator Fulgencio Batista, was accused of killing and torturing prisoners: George King Yun, was accused of killing a port guard last year while he was stealing a boat. Nine hours after the trials began, verdicts were in, sentences pronounced, and appeals denied.