Free the Five!

Reprinted from the Agencia Cubana de Noticias (Cuban News Agency), Sept. 5.

The head of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcón, said the possibility of having the five [Cuban] men imprisoned in the U.S. released earlier depends very much on the support they receive from the American people.

“The first step is to let that people know the truth. This is what we need to keep on demanding,” said the Parliament president.

In the daily TV Round Table show, Alarcón gave legal and ethical details of the Five’s case, showing the double standards of the U.S. policy and its hostility towards Cuba. The statements were the continuity of an interview he gave Aug. 27, also broadcast on Cuban TV.

The president of the Cuban Parliament said the American government is aware of the effect that the support of the American people could have on international opinion. For that reason the media has been instructed to refer to the Cuban men only as “spies.”

Alarcón said the American government has refused to see news releases that show Washington’s political bias against the Five. He mentioned the articles posted by London’s BBC and the New York Times, which were very objective, but they are not willing to follow the case.

It will be nine years on Sept. 12 since Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and René González were sent to American jails.

That day in 1998, the five Cuban men were arrested and later subjected to a politically biased trial in Miami. The judicial process ended in 2001 with the judge handing down harsh sentences on the men, whose only crime was to infiltrate Miami-based extreme right groups that operated with Washington’s consent, organizing and conducting terrorist actions against the Cuban people.

Alarcón pointed out that the U.S does not have evidence proving that the Five were conspiring to commit espionage or murder. However, they are serving outrageous terms in jail.

All the evidence is available online to all news agencies willing to report on the issue, Alarcón said. ...

Alarcón said on one occasion the American government decided to remove the second charge, conspiracy to commit espionage, from the files of three of the defendants—Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio—as long as they pleaded guilty to other crimes. However, the third charge would not be taken to the negotiating table. Instead, seeking to please the Miami-based Cuban-American community, a charge of quadruple first-degree murder was added to the case.

The U.S government ended up recognizing in writing, before the Court of Appeals of Atlanta, that the charges had been manipulated. Now we have to wait until the court overrules such allegations, explained the Cuban official.

The head of the Cuban Parliament went on to say that the Cuban Five acted under the principle of “state of necessity,” comparing the case with that of former U.S President Jimmy Carter’s daughter, who was arrested in the late 1980s for taking over a building to protest against the CIA. Eventually, she was released on the grounds that she and the other 14 people accompanying her had committed minor crimes to avoid a greater one.

Likewise, Alarcón mentioned the case of Zacarias Musagüi, accused of being involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. He noted that the mother of Moroccan-born Musagüi was allowed to visit her son. Meanwhile, the mothers of the five Cuban men are patiently waiting in line to get an entry visa to the U.S. to be able to see their sons. “It is the right of any prisoner, irrespective of the crime they committed, and in this case the Five did not even threaten nor shoot anybody, nor did their relatives,” Alarcón stressed.

Alarcón concluded the interview by saying that no one should think that they are doing too much for the Five. “We are not even doing a fraction of what they are doing themselves, with their constancy, resistance and leading the battle for justice and for their release.”  ν

Free the Cuban 5 Month

Sept. 12 will mark the ninth anniversary of the arrest of the Cuban 5. In honor of this anniversary, the month of Sept. 12 through Oct. 12 has been declared “Free the Cuban5 Month.”

Countries that have announced actions as part of this international campaign include Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Ukraine and Uruguay. For information on actions in the United States, contact [email protected].