Cuban leader says ‘Obama must free the Five!’

“Please tell President Obama that if he wants you to believe in his promise of change, then he must free the Cuban Five!” Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban Parliament, told members of the 20th Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan when they arrived in Havana this summer from the U.S.

“We need millions of people in the U.S. to tell Obama that, ‘Yes, you can! ¡Sí, se puede!’ He can free the Five and he must free the Five. He has a moral obligation to free them NOW!”

Irma Sehwerert WW photos: Gloria Rubac

Speaking at the William Carey Church in downtown Havana, Alarcón, along with the Rev. Raúl Suárez, pastor of Havana’s Ebenezer Baptist Church; Kenia Serrano, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP); and representatives of the Cuban Communist Party and the Young Communists officially welcomed more than 140 caravan members who had collected and brought 130 tons of humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba.

With urgency in his voice, Alarcón stressed: “Make sure the people in the U.S. know what is happening to the Cuban Five. Obama wants us to believe he will make a change in the U.S. government’s attitude to Cuba. But while the Pastor’s caravan was traveling across the U.S., the U.S. again denied a visa to Adriana Pérez, the wife of Gerardo Hernández, one of the Five. Pérez and Olga Salanueva, wife of René González, have not seen their husbands for over 10 years.”

Roberto González with Adriana Pérez.

The Cuban Five are Hernández, González, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and Antonio Guerrero. Sept. 12 marked 11 years that they have been political prisoners of the U.S.

The Five were legally monitoring anti-Cuban terrorist groups in Miami in order to report back to Cuba about these groups’ criminal plans. They were arrested by the FBI in Miami on Sept. 12, 1998, and held for the next 17 months in solitary confinement. They were tried and convicted in a Miami court in 2001 on trumped-up charges and given sentences ranging from 15 years to a double life sentence.

Since being convicted, the Five have been locked up in separate prisons around the U.S. and have been denied visits by their families in Cuba. Even the families of the three who are allowed visits often wait for months and years for visas.

Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban Parliament.

The Five won an appeal before a three-judge panel at the Federal Circuit Court in Atlanta in 2005, but the victory was reversed and their sentences have remained intact. On June 15, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review their case. Labañino, Guerrero and Fernando González are now in Miami, awaiting a resentencing hearing which could significantly reduce their prison terms.

Throughout the island nation, there is information about the Cuban Five everywhere—in photo displays, on billboards, on petitions for workers to sign at the job, in museums and at the beaches. There is a coordinated general information campaign about the Five, known in Cuba as Los Cinco Héroes. In schools, hotels, churches and restaurants, displays educate and update Cubans on the political prisoners being held by the U.S.

Alarcón emphasized that Cuba’s people will not rest until their five comrades are home where they belong. “Adriana was denied a visa because they say she is a security threat. ... She doesn’t want to travel around the U.S. She doesn’t want to live in the U.S. She wants to see her husband. So I say to the Obama administration, ‘Just let Gerardo come home and the threat of Adriana will go away!’

“The solution is that Gerardo and the other four should be set free if there is going to be any new change with Cuba. Their freedom is fundamental to any change in relations with Cuba and with Latin America.”

Alarcón continued, “The whole case against the Five can only be explained as a relationship between the previous U.S. administration and the terrorists in Miami. President Bush admitted into the U.S. a terrorist named Luis Posada Carriles who should be in prison in Venezuela. Obama should extradite him to Venezuela. There are several international treaties that are clear about fighting terrorism.

“The Montreal Agreement, Article 7, allows that Posada Carriles be extradited or else tried where he is now. But he has been enjoying U.S. hospitality for four years now. Obama has been in office for seven months and he must look at this case. The day that the Supreme Court refused to review the case of the Five, I saw Posada Carriles in Miami, in public, celebrating this ruling!

“I say to Mr. Obama, ‘We’re talking about the present, not the past. Stop collaborating with terrorists and stop punishing those who should not only be free but receiving the homage of the American people.’”

In a joint meeting of the Caravan and the Venceremos Brigade hosted by ICAP, several family members of the Five spoke.

Attorney Roberto González, René’s brother, gave a legal update on the case. “We thought we would win because the facts and the law were on our side. The facts were with us, so we were disappointed. We still have some legal options, but we also need your solidarity and help. The lawyers can’t win on their own. We aren’t pessimistic. We will be strong and we will continue to fight legally, but we are counting on you to help.”

Pérez told of a recent meeting between the families of the Five and the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus. “They were mainly interested in the human issues, our denial of visits,” she said. “They left with the conviction to help us but so far their actions have had a negative response from the government. ... It is important for us that you approach your Congress and President Obama.”

Many U.S. activists took the floor to discuss ideas to build solidarity for the Five, including visits with Congress, public meetings, demonstrations on the 11th anniversary of their imprisonment and the creation of committees on high school and college campuses.

After much discussion and brainstorming, Irma Sehwerert, René’s mother, told the crowd: “We thank you for sharing your time and your solidarity with us. Do not abandon us. Take all the ideas and initiatives you have discussed today and make them happen.”

The earlier event with Alarcón ended with the Rev. Lucius Walker, leader of Pastors for Peace, proclaiming: “Whenever the Pastors for Peace Caravan arrives in Cuba, something special happens. You share with us a special love and joy. In the midst of your struggle with the evil empire to the North, the struggle to free the Five, you are not only able to live with dignity but you exude a sense of pride and nobility which sends us away even more ashamed of our government. When we return home, we will not only carry your message about the Five but we will put it into action. May your gift of gracious living under communism be your gift to the world. ... As Fidel said about the Cuban Five, ‘¡Volverán! They will return!’”