Vol. 71/No. 38      October 15, 2007

Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González were tried and convicted in Miami in 2001 for “conspiracy to commit espionage” for the Cuban government, “conspiracy to act as unregistered foreign agents,” and, in the case of Hernández, “conspiracy to commit murder.”

The Cuban Five, as they are known, were in south Florida gathering information on right-wing Cuban American groups known to carry out violent attacks on Cuba in collusion with the U.S. government.

Below are reports on events in support of the Five that are part of an international month of solidarity which ends October 8.
 

“It has been impossible for the U.S. government to maintain Cuba in a cage,” he said. He pointed to the more than 100 countries that have diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the island’s collaboration with more than 120 countries in education and health programs. The foreign minister thanked those present for their support in the efforts to free the five Cuban revolutionaries.

Leonard Weinglass, one of the attorneys for the five Cubans, gave an update on the legal efforts to win their freedom. He reported that Fernando González has been moved from a federal prison in Wisconsin to another one in Indiana. “We don’t know whether a planned visit to Fernando, or the growing support for him in Wisconsin has anything to do with the move,” he said.
 

Fidel Ernesto Verdecia, a Cuban attorney, spoke on the trial of the five. During the discussion participants noted that relatives of the Five are on tour in Africa, having recently visited Angola. Three of the Five were among the 300,000 Cuban volunteer troops who fought alongside the Angolan army to defeat a U.S.-backed invasion by the South African army of the apartheid regime.

Present at the meeting were Cuban ambassador Víctor Dreke; Venezuelan chargé d’affaires Alex Holmqvist; José Nguema, president of the Association of Equatoguinean Graduates from Cuba; Francisco Edú, secretary general of the Socialist Party of Equatorial Guinea; and Daniel Sima Mikó, coordinator of the Cuban Five Solidarity Committee of Equatorial Guinea.
 

The Venezuelan-made film traces nearly five decades of violent attacks against Cuba by CIA-trained murderer Luis Posada Carriles. These include the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner over Barbados that killed 73 passengers, a deadly string of Havana hotel bombings in 1997, and a foiled attempt to assassinate Cuban president Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000.

Protests around the world have demanded that the U.S. government extradite Posada to Venezuela so that he can be tried for his crimes.

The film showing raised $450 toward an April 2008 speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand by Leonard Weinglass, the attorney for Antonio Guerrero. More than $9,000 has been raised.
 

Andrés Gómez, director of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, welcomed everyone and introduced Max Lesnik, a popular Radio Miami commentator.

Lesnik spoke about provocative air flights over Cuban territory by the Miami-based rightist group Brothers to the Rescue. In 1996, the Cuban air force shot down two of the group’s planes when they violated Cuban airspace. Gerardo Hernández was found guilty of “conspiracy to commit murder” for allegedly providing the Cuban government with flight plans of the rightists.

“The U.S. government knew what [Brothers to the Rescue] were planning and doing,” Lesnik said. “Their aim was to provoke a military confrontation between Cuba and the U.S.”

“It’s been almost 10 years since the five were arrested,” Gómez said. “The reason the five are in jail is that the U.S. government has not been able to overthrow the Cuban Revolution and seeks all ways to make the Cuban people pay. The fight to free the five will be a long one, and we will continue until they are freed.”
 

“These five men were in the United States to gather information about groups that have carried out terrorist attacks on Cuba,” said Carlos Barros, deputy chief of the Cuban Interests Section, who introduced the film.

Earlier that day 20 people attended a press conference and rally outside the Justice Department to demand the release of the five Cubans.

Ignacio Meneses, a coordinator of the National Network On Cuba, spoke at both events and urged people to attend a November 9-11 solidarity conference in Toronto, Canada, in which relatives of the five Cubans will participate.

Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez, wives of two of the imprisoned Cuban revolutionaries, have been trying for eight years to visit their husbands in jail. Washington has denied them visas each time they applied.  
 
 
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