U.S., worldwide actions: ‘FREE THE FIVE!’

On Sept. 12 and 13 around the world and particularly in Washington, D.C., voices rang out demanding freedom for the Cuban Five. On the tenth anniversary of their unjust arrests, the protests also condemned the U.S. government’s double standard that imprisons these five Cuban heroes for non-violent, anti-terrorist acts, but gives a get-out-of-jail-free card to a self-admitted and convicted terror bomber, Luis Posada Carriles, who walks freely in Miami today.

Washington, D.C., Sept. 13. PhotoS: Derek Grigsby

In Washington, loud chants from a spirited march attracted many interested bystanders who learned about the Cuban Five from leaflets and conversation. Marching through the Latin@ immigrant neighborhood of Adams-Morgan, past the Washington Post newspaper offices, the shouts and noisemakers were just as loud when the sun-scorched marchers arrived at the White House.

An indoor rally at the SEIU union hall followed the march. There Attorney Leonard Weinglass reviewed the remarkable history of injustice in the case of the Cuban Five that went from Miami to Atlanta courts and now is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. An appeal will be filed before Dec. 1 asserting the unfairness of the Five’s trial in Miami, which a three-judge panel unanimously called “a perfect storm of prejudice,” and overturned the convictions.

Gloria LaRiva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Five, stressed the Cuban Five must become known to everyone in the Washington, D.C., area as the appeal process moves into its final phase. On Sept. 12, she and four others, representing each of the Cuban Five, committed civil disobedience at the White House and were arrested. They attempted to deliver more than 102,000 petition signatures demanding freedom for the Five.

Recent hurricanes over Cuba caused the evacuation of nearly three million people. Cuban Ambassador Jorge Alberto Bolanos Suárez stated that although the hurricane devastated Cuba, it didn’t destroy the will and decision of the Cuban people to go forward. In the middle of the crisis the revolutionary people of Cuba sent food and doctors to Haiti. Bolanos explained, “We are lacking food and everything, but they are lacking more than us.”

Rev. Lucius Walker, founder of Pastors for Peace, announced a special hurricane reconstruction caravan to Cuba that will travel via Buffalo through Canada. Akbar Muhammad, international representative of the Nation of Islam, suggested reaching the Black and Latin@ communities that are the natural allies of the Cuban revolution through targeted media ads and a comic book style story of the Cuban Five.

On behalf of all five heroes, including Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, René González and Ramón Labañino, a written statement from Ramón Labañino said: “The biggest victory for all these years has been the strength and unity, the constant denunciation against terrorism and against war, while the greatest virtue has been the love that drives all our actions and the existence of each of you. With both, with the irrefutable truth of our cause, we will continue this battle until the final victory, convinced that—¡Venceremos! (We will win!)”

A “Five Stars, One Song Concert” for the Five in the Bronx, N.Y., on Sept. 13 was publicized with a full-page ad in the Spanish language daily El Diario/La Prensa. The San Francisco city and county governments declared Sept. 12 Free the Five Day.

A meeting for the Cuban Five was held in Miami on Sept. 14 without being attacked. More than 300 international solidarity groups are actively organizing support for the Cuban Five. Public events and newspaper articles demanded freedom for our five brothers from Kenya to Malaysia and from Canada to Chile.

In Lebanon, Samir Kantar, imprisoned for thirty years in the dungeons of Israel and who was released last July thanks to successful negotiations carried out by Hezbollah, led a demonstration at the U.S. embassy in Beirut where activists were arrested. (www.antiterroristas.cu) Demonstrations will continue throughout the month of solidarity with the Cuban Five, from Sept. 12 through Oct. 8.