• New Year's Message from Fernando

Dear friends:

Another year of struggle has concluded and through this means I wish to convey to as many of you as possible, my gratitude for your accompanying us in this battle, in which you play such an important role.

There have been many displays of solidarity and support that we have received for the cause of our freedom during this year, to which we are now bidding farewell. I thank each one of you for your efforts and personal contribution to the gains we have achieved.

During the recent court hearing in which I was resentenced, it was very moving to see how strong the Cuban Five solidarity movement is, represented as it was in the courtroom by a large group of friends of the United States and of other countries who found it possible—with much effort and sacrifice—to attend the hearing.

We welcome the new year with renewed strength to continue the battle for truth and justice, with the confidence of knowing that you are by our side, and that you will not stop in the effort to win our freedom and our return to the Homeland.

To everyone, in each of your respective countries, from where you are contributing to achieve these objectives, my deepest gratitude and wishes to you for a Happy New Year. May 2010 be another year of victories.

Happy New Year!
Venceremos!

Fernando González Llort
F.D.C. Miami

• Greetings from Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez

Dear friends,

With these two poems, I want to reiterate you that we, the Five, feel profoundly moved and grateful for the permanent solidarity that you give us, so crucial in this long battle for justice.

Doves

A big explosion frightens
A flock of harmless doves
As blinding smoke it mushrooms
In startled skies above

The screams of sirens scattered
Then saturate the air
While survivors stunned and listless
Burrow everywhere

Deserted streets are ashened --
Still pregnant with fresh fear
Only sanguinated thorns
Remain in gardens near

Dead bodies grace the vista
Souls walk groping in the fore
T'is a Dantesque scene
Of senseless hate and war

Truth is, this all could happen
In any urban space
As children leave from school...
Just pick the time or place

Unmanifest Apocalypse
In springtime comes unfurled
Spawned by wanton beasts whose unchecked greed
Consumed the world

What will we Humans do
Or the poets we endear,
If terrified, our doves abandon us
For other spheres?

(translated by Gregory James Cato)

There will be more poetry

There will be more poetry
Because the Truth
Is like a giant wave
Or a flying horse...

Because ascending over boundaries
Of time and prison bars,
I can contemplate
How a flower blooms,

Because far away
My solitary pain
Can transform itself
Into a bird, singing a song ...

Because I can still remember
The perfume and color
Of that brief morning
Of my last goodbye

Because to keep alive
More than what God could make
It is important to me
What you and I can make

Because as a whisper,
As a volcano with a voice,
Inspiration within me
Lifts, grows and burns ...

Because without freedom,
I have something better ...
That agitates ideas
From my soul to my heart

Something that in the struggle
Of light and Truth
Anoints me as the real Winner
I have what engenders real harmony
I have Love !

Together with you, we will continue until the final victory, which only will be
reached with the return of us to our Homeland.

Greetings to all our friends, with a big fraternal embrace from the Five.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010! Best wishes. !VENCEREMOS!

Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez
-December 23, 2009, FDC Miami

• A New Year's Message from Antonio Guerrero

Dear friends:

2009 is coming to a close. Time doesn't stop, still we stop to reflect and make a balance of things.

We meditate on personal things that we wanted to improve and achieved, at the same time that we make a list of those things that are left to complete.

We meditate today on the pluses and minuses in our beloved countries, analyzing how much more we can do each day to build a better society.

In the personal, as a Cuban, like millions of Cubans, with each Dec. 31, we think of the Revolution that gave us full independence, the Revolution which demonstrated to the world that a determined people can take the reins of its destiny and say no to brutal capitalism, which is only capable of generating more inequity, more exploitation of man by man, more individualism and more wars.

We think of socialism as a solution to the problems of the peoples, aware of its diversity, the complexities, of its richness and of its justice that we have to defend and perfect daily.

We meditate today on the world in which we live, of its grave problems, of those who are most responsible for its problems, and how they could resolve those problems. How different would our planet be, if each morning, as in this morning that I write you, we were to make as our own, the tragedy of 2.5 billion human beings who live in poverty, the more than 1 billion who suffer from hunger, those who have no access to potable water, and that we were to say with one voice, ENOUGH!

With respect to our own battle, 2009 was a very significant year. Our appeals process, rejected by the Supreme Court, finally yielded some results in which solidarity played a vital role. We could never call the new sentences justice. To resolve the brutal outrage against our brother Gerardo continues being the most important goal in the road ahead.

Happy New Year!

A better world is possible! The peoples will have the final word. Love and peace will conquer.

On behalf of the Cuban Five I send you a strong revolutionary and victorious embrace, wishing you success in your goals and much health and happiness.

Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez
December 31, 2009
F.D.C. Miami

• A Greeting from Gerardo Hernández

To you and to all our sisters and brothers of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, we wish a very happy holiday season and a peaceful and successful 2010, and express our deep appreciation for your continual solidarity and support. Muchas Gracias Hermanas! With the love of the Five and our families:

Gerardo Hernández Nordelo

¡Felicidades en el 51 Aniversario de la Revolución Cubana!