The following is a letter sent to the World Socialist Web Site by Minerva Vasquez, the wife of Narseal Batiste. Batiste, along with six other young men from the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida, has been charged by the US government with plotting to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago. The WSWS wrote about the case in “Miami ‘terror’ arrests—a government provocation” and “The Miami indictments: Manufacturing ‘terror’ as a means of intimidation”.

Lawyers for Batiste and his six co-defendants are arguing that the men were the victims of entrapment by a paid FBI informant, who was the source and main promoter of the alleged terrorist plot.

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for your article on behalf of Narseal Batiste’s four children and myself. I am confident the truth will prevail. Continue with the articles you are writing. We are the voice of these young men now.

You know, as I sit sometimes and just see how we as citizens are manipulated by some of the media it makes me want to cry to just think how many other families are victims of the same or worse. Some families never see their loved ones come home from this war that is going on.

The FBI found us not at the “6260 address.” We were at a job location in Miami with my two younger children. One is seven and the other is ten years old.

Let me just tell you, the scene was not what they paint it to be. The only thing I remember my seven-year-old saying was, “Mama, get down and do as they say.”

I was paralyzed. They held us at gunpoint while working at a job in Miami. One of the young men was pressure-washing the building, and my husband was applying stucco to the wall. The time has come for me to let all who will listen hear the truth!

The government basically left my family and me homeless, and I am still in search of a job. They plastered our construction company all over the media. I do not even get any more calls for the construction company, so now I do not have a job or a home for my four children and me.

Please understand, this is exactly how “they” wanted it. This is the silent cry of a woman who only wanted to see the good in Liberty City. My husband and I took people in our home and fed them.

These two informants were paid well for lies against these young men. These young men need our help! They are holding my husband in the shoe for 23 hours of the day. Please, this cannot be the US. There has to be justice in this somewhere.

Thank you for listening,

Minerva Vasquez

Liberty City, Florida

30 August 2006