Young Cubans Call for End of US Blockade
BY Katia Siberia García and  the Cuban News Agency

Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon spoke at demonstration held by young Cubans to protest the nearly 50-year US blockade of Cuba at the headquarters of the Communist Youth League (UJC) in Havana.

"Never have so many people been the victims of a policy of genocide for so long," said Alarcon.

"The failure of the US Blockade is obvious. It has been awful, but it has not succeeded in dividing us or making us give up our values, our Revolution. With the courage of our youth, we will continue to take on the enemy," said Alarcon.

The Cuban National Assembly President said that a good example of the commitment of young Cubans is that of the Cuban Five who have spent more than ten years behind bars in the US for their efforts against terrorism.

In a trial plagued with irregularities and held in a highly biased Miami court, the Cuban Five —Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González— were given harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to consecutive life terms plus 15 years. The five Cubans were working to uncover information about terrorist activities being planned and carried out against Cuba by ultra-rightwing organizations based in southern Florida with a long record of terrorist actions against Cuba and the Cuban people. When they turned their information over to authorities they were arrested and have been in jail ever since.

A UN Working Group reviewing the case determined that the trial did not take place in a climate of objectivity and impartiality, which is required in order to conclude on the observance of the standards of a fair trial. The UN report also charges that the Cuban Five were wrongfully held for seventeen months in solitary confinement after their arrest, and that their lawyers were deprived of the opportunity to examine all of the available evidence before the government invoked the Classified Information Protection Act.

Shortly following the UN ruling, on August 9, 2005, a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta issued a 93-page reversal of the initial conviction as well as nullified the sentences. In response to the reversal, the Bush administration and Attorney General Gonzales vehemently pushed for the US Solicitor General to appeal the verdict of the three-judge panel’s decision before all twelve judges of the 11th circuit in Atlanta. This time the court bowed down to pressure from the Bush administration and reversed the previous pro-Cuban Five ruling by a vote of 10-2.

The misguided arrest of the Cuban Five in 1998 and the subsequent travesty of justice lead to their convictions on multiple unsubstantiated charges in 2001. The Cuban Five were dedicated to uncovering plots by ultra-rightwing Cuban-American organizations based in Miami with a long record of terrorist actions against Cuba and the Cuban people.

Alarcon said that the example of the Cuban Five should be emulated by all of us, especially in the determination of the Cuban people to resist US attacks and to build a better society.

With Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla also attending the demonstration, Alarcon expressed his full confidence that the UN General Assembly would, for the eighteenth time, vote overwhelmingly in favor of the Cuban resolution to end the US blockade against Cuba.

UJC National Bureau member Osnay Miguel Colina read the Cuban Youth declaration against the blockade and called on the US government to keep their promise and put an end to 50 years of genocide against the Cuban people.