Vol. 73/No. 22      June 8, 2009

Guerrero and Fernando González, along with Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, and René González, are known around the world as the Cuban Five. They had accepted assignments to keep the Cuban government informed of the activities of armed counterrevolutionary groups in south Florida that have a history of carrying out deadly attacks on Cuba.

In September 1998 they were arrested in Miami and later convicted in a political frame-up trial on charges including failure to register as foreign agents, conspiracy to commit espionage, and, in the case of Hernández, conspiracy to commit murder.

The youth conference called for international days of action June 6-8 to demand that the U.S. government release the five (see article in June 1 Militant).

Rodríguez gave a picture of the conditions at the “supermax” U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, where Guerrero is serving a sentence of life imprisonment plus 10 years.

“The prison has some unusual characteristics,” she said. “If Tony is in Unit Three, for example, and two prisoners in Unit Ten get in a fight, they punish everyone in all the units. The good are made to pay for the sinners. If it is a major problem, they can be in this situation for hours, days, weeks, even months.”

Rodríguez described an incident April 13 last year when she was at the prison to visit Guerrero. A group of fascists, part of a white-supremacist prison gang, staged a celebration of Hitler’s birthday in the recreation yard and taunted Black prisoners. This provoked a fight. Prison guards shot and killed two prisoners and wounded five others. Although Rodríguez had been able to visit Guerrero several times during her stay in the Colorado, after the fight no more visits were allowed prior to her April 28 return to Cuba.

In spite of the difficult conditions in the prison, Antonio has distinguished himself in the eyes of fellow inmates.

“The five are respected because they deal with people with respect,” Rodríguez said. “Tony gives classes in prison: Spanish, English, three mathematics classes, and literature. Ever since he arrived at the prison he has taught classes for those who have not graduated from high school.”

In her interview, Llort spoke about the importance of building solidarity for the case in the United States. Her son, Fernando González, is serving a 19-year sentence at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

“One example that demonstrated the power of solidarity was what happened when the war in Iraq started,” she said. “Each of the five was transferred to solitary confinement. They were thrown in ‘the hole.’ It was an order from the U.S. attorney general to isolate them.

“Thanks to the number of protests that were sent to the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice, they were released from those conditions after 28 or 29 days—this measure was originally set to last a year or more.”

Speaking at the conference, Llort emphasized the importance of bringing the campaign to free the five to university campuses.

“The universities are ideal places to build solidarity for this fight,” she said. “Young people are more receptive to these types of things. They are less tied to tradition, less timid, more open. They often communicate with many other young people in other universities and can rapidly help spread knowledge about this case.”

Jacob Perasso contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
Youth tribunal condemns attacks on Cuba
California campus meeting: End Cuba embargo
FBI wanted Cuban 5 to become traitors
Gerardo Hernández: Fear, intimidation didn’t work, so they put us in ‘the hole’  
 
 
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