FREE THE CUBAN FIVE NOW!

Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez have already spent eleven years in US prisons, away from their wives, children, families, friends and country. Yet they are languishing in prison away from their country not for committing any crime but for exposing and fighting the most heinous and dangerous crime in the world today, terrorism.

The Cuban5 were arrested in Miami Florida in September 1998 and charged with 26 counts of violating the Federal Laws of the United States, 24 of those charges were relatively minor and technical offences, such as the use of false names and failure to register as foreign agents. None of the charges involved violence in the US, the use of weapons or property damage.

The Cuban5 had come to the United States from Cuba following years of violence perpetrated by a network of terrorists made up of armed mercenaries from the Cuban exile community in Florida. For over forty years these groups have been tolerated, and even hosted, by successive US Governments. Cuba suffered significant casualties and property destruction at their hands. Cuba´s protests to the United States Government and the United Nations fell on deaf ears. Following the demise of socialist states in the early 90s, the violence escalated as Cuba struggled to establish a tourism industry. The Miami mercenaries responded with a violent campaign to dissuade foreigners from visiting. A bomb was found in the airport terminal in Havana, tourist buses were bombed, as were hotels. Boats from Miami travelled to Cuba and shelled hotels and tourist facilities.

The mission of the Five was not to obtain United States military secrets as was charged, but rather to monitor the terrorist activities of those mercenaries and to report their planned threats back to Cuba. The arrest and prosecution of these men for their courageous attempt to stop the terror was not only unjust, it exposed the hypocrisy of the United State%u2019s claim to oppose terrorism wherever it surfaces. It must be remembered that it is common practise in the world for Governments, more so the United States, to send their people abroad with the task of ensuring the security of their countries, especially from terrorism.

The Cuban5 were arrested without a struggle and immediately cast into solitary confinement cells reserved as punishment for the most dangerous prisoners, and kept there for 17 months until the start of the trial. When their trial ended they were sentenced to maximum prison terms, with Gerardo Hernandez receiving a double life sentence and Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labanino getting life.

As a people from a country that has suffered from international terrorism and where tourism is an important sector of the economy, we are concerned that the Cuban5, who were dedicated to exposing terrorism and safeguarding the lives of innocent people, Cubans, Americans and the world, can continue to suffer imprisonment for the noble task they undertook. Also, as people from a country that knows the pain of torture, political imprisonments and violations of human rights, we appreciate the plight of the Cuban5 and share with them what they and their families are undergoing. Even while we are calling for their release, we also demand their right as prisoners to be visited by their families, relatives and friends without the inhibitions the prison authorities often impose.