Meeting backs 5 Cubans imprisoned in U.S.
By Gery Armsby
New York City
Activists and supporters of the Cuban Revolution gathered
here Sept. 12 to show their solidarity with the island nation
by remembering the victims of anti-Cuban terrorism and vowing
to work for the freedom of five Cubans held in U.S.
prisons.
Speakers representing organizations that make up the New
York Free the Five Committee recounted terrorist activities
funded and launched from U.S. soil against the people of Cuba
throughout its revolutionary history.
They also explained how five Cubans--Gerardo
Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón
Labañino, Fernando González and René
González--made great personal sacrifices to protect the
Cuban people from U.S.-sponsored terrorism by infiltrating
organizations like the Cuban American National Foundation and
Brothers to the Rescue.
These Miami-based groups and others like them are notorious
for their efforts to destabilize the Cuban government.
The five were jailed in 1998 for their activities and later
sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 years to consecutive
life sentences.
The Sept. 12 event, held at the United Nations Church
Center, highlighted the need to organize for the freedom of the
five by painting a vivid picture of the terrorist aggression
that compelled Cuba's infiltration of groups in Miami.
Speakers included the Rev. Lucius Walker and Jennifer Wager
of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, Bob Guild of the Venceremos Brigade,
Luis Miranda of Casa de las Americas, Teresa Gutierrez of the
International Action Center and Ray LaForest of AFSCME Local
1707.
The five "did everything they could to defend their way of
life and to make sure that their society was protected because
Cuba has been freed from the kinds of policies and the kinds of
aggression that the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean
face every single day," said Gutierrez.
LaForest, a Haitian labor activist, elaborated on some of
the economic achievements of Cuba and the role played by Cuban
workers in the country's economic and social policies.
"When I travel to Cuba," he said, "I am so angry because, as
a Haitian, I can see that the suffering of the Haitian people
is so unnecessary and I just cannot separate them.
"I constantly compare between what exists in Cuba and what
should be in Haiti."
Women for Mutual Security and the New York Committee to Free
the Five sponsored the event. More information about the
campaign can be found on two new Web sites:
www.antiterroristas.cu and www.freethefive.org.
Reprinted from the Sept. 26, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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