Vol. 73/No. 33      August 31, 2009

Twenty-five of Guerrero’s works, painted from inside the maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado, lined the walls of La Peña Cultural Center where the solidarity event was held.

Alicia Jrapko, national coordinator for the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, the group that organized the benefit, chaired a program held at the opening. In her introductory remarks Jrapko said that Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González, known as the Cuban Five, were in the United States to monitor the activities of counterrevolutionary Cuban American groups in Florida that had carried out violent attacks on Cuba, including the bombing of hotels.

The five were arrested in 1998 in Miami and convicted in 2001 in a frame-up trial on charges that included “conspiracy to commit espionage.” Hernández was also convicted of “conspiracy to commit murder.”

“Because the United States has never forgiven Cuba for regaining its sovereignty, the Cuban Five were given long sentences in U.S. jails,” Jrapko said. Hernández was sentenced to a double life term, Labañino and Guerrero to life in prison, René González to 15 years, and Fernando González to 19 years. “As an additional punishment,” she added, the U.S. government has prevented Adriana Pérez, wife of Gerardo Hernández, and Olga Salanueva, wife of René González, from visiting their husbands.

“We’re here to celebrate their courage and continue the struggle so justice will prevail,” she said.

The keynote speaker, award-winning novelist and poet Alice Walker, read from the book Letters of Love and Hope: The Story of the Cuban Five. Walker wrote the introduction to the book, a collection of correspondence between the Cuban Five and their families. Describing the injustice of their incarceration and the appallingly long imprisonments meted out by the U.S. government, Walker called for all to stand with the five and their families until their release.

Gayle McLaughlin, mayor of Richmond, California, also spoke. The Richmond city council unanimously passed a resolution April 7 calling for the release of the Cuban Five and for the U.S. government to grant visitation rights for their families. McLaughlin told the audience that she will soon be leading a delegation from Richmond to its sister city Regla, Cuba.

Carlos Cartagena, a Bay Area artist from El Salvador, read a letter from Antonio Guerrero thanking everyone for their support. Also speaking were Melanie Langlois of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, who announced upcoming activities including a national media campaign, and Francisco Torres, the only remaining defendant in the “San Francisco Eight” Black Panther Party frame-up case.

Rafael Manríquez, a local singer, guitarist, and composer from Chile, performed. A portion of the video Against the Silence, on the repeated denials by Washington to allow Adriana Pérez to visit her husband, was also shown.

The exhibit will continue through August 29.
 
 
Related articles:
How Cuban workers defeated U.S.-backed invasion  
 
 
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