René González of Cuban 5 released

René González

René González, one of the Cuban Five, was released from prison in Marianna, Fla., on Oct. 7 to his daughters Ivette and Irma, his father, his brother and his attorney. Once again the U.S. government violated internationally recognized human rights standards by denying a visa to Olga Salanueva, his spouse.

The Cuban people and government, international parliaments, unions, media personalities and Nobel laureates have demanded freedom for all the five Cubans unjustly held in U.S. prisons for monitoring U.S.-based paramilitaries who planned and committed violent acts against Cuba.

In a Sept. 16 letter, the original trial in the case, Judge Joan Lenard, denied a defense motion asking that González be allowed to return to Cuba after his release. Within her written denial of this motion lies a damning admission of U.S.-based terrorism. Judge Lenard ordered that González remain in the U.S. for three years of “supervised release” but “is forbidden to visit places frequently attended by individuals or groups of terrorists, members of organizations that encourage the use of violence and organized crime elements.”

The International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 stated on Oct. 7: “René González will only be free when he returns to Cuba. … We have to ask [President Barack] Obama to identify and put a restraining order on terrorist groups and individuals who operate freely in Miami so that they cannot come near René. After all, part of Judge Lenard’s conditions for his release was that René could not associate, or be in the vicinity of terrorists — the very people he was monitoring. During René’s ‘supervised’ probation the question has to be who will be supervising the terrorists?

“One of the excuses being used to keep René González in the U.S. is that he could be a danger to the United States. They could remedy that easily by sending him home. This morning Olga summed up how ridiculous this argument is by saying, ‘If they say that he is a danger to that society, what is the reason to keep him there?’

“Now is the time to focus our efforts to move the sky and the earth to demand that Obama immediately release René González to his family and his homeland.”