Although many actions took place in 2009 to
support the international demand for the
immediate release of the Five Cuban anti-terrorists
fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United
States since 1998, activists are planning to
step up efforts during 2010.
Just
in the last few days, a new international
campaign was launched with 20,000 postcards sent
to President Barrack Obama, who having already
spent one year in office, still hasn’t said a
word regarding the case of the Cuban Five.
The
postcards include the request made by ten Noble
Prize laureates for the immediate release of
Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando
González, Antonio Guerrero and René González.
Solidarity organizations and friends of Cuba in
Argentina, Germany, Spain, Canada, Switzerland,
Guatemala and other nations joined this
initiative sponsored by the International
Committee for the Release of the Five.
The
International Committee points out that as Obama
himself is also a Nobel Prize winner he should
have respect for what the prize means.
Obama as president of the United States has the
legal authority to order the immediate release
of these five men, and he should feel morally
compelled to do it, thus ending long years of
suffering for these men and their families.
Although following a ruling by the 11th Circuit
of the Appeals Court in Atlanta, three of the
Five (Antonio, Fernando and Ramón) were re-sentenced
in 2009, the new sentences are as unjust as the
first ones; added to that is that two of the
Five, Gerardo and Fernando were not even given
the chance to seek a legal solution to their
sentences.
Every minute these men spend in prison is a
minute more of impunity for extreme-right-wing
anti-Cuban groups who have been protected and
encouraged by successive US administrations.
So,
for this year, Solidarity groups will step up
efforts with new actions including marches,
concerts, and lectures.
This
international movement has to grow to awaken
people around the world, and especially the
American people, for the US media has raised a
smoke screen around this case.
The
US government has already acknowledged that they
have felt international pressure regarding this
case. That is why the sentences were somewhat
reduced.
It
is illegal to keep these men in prison when it
has been demonstrated that they never did
anything that would have endangered the national
security of the United States. They only
infiltrated Miami-based anti-Cuba terrorist
groups.
And
the injustice is even more evident when we see
notorious terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and
Orlando Bosh enjoying federal protection even
though everybody knows that among other things,
they masterminded the 1967 mid-air explosion of
a Cubana passenger plane killing all 73 people
aboard.
