The World Demands Freedom for the Cuban Five

Elio Delgado Legon

HAVANA TIMES — The Eighth Colloquium for Freedom for the Cuban Five and Against the Blockade was recently held in the city of Holguin, Cuba.

The participation of 333 delegates from 44 countries shows that the world is demanding the release of the five Cubans who were wrongly convicted in the United States for monitoring terrorist activities against Cuba, an action that saved many lives.

Among those who participated in the symposium was Dolores Huerta, a social activist from the US who President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom.

Speaking to the press, Huerta said the people of the United States would support this cause if the message could be gotten out to everyone, because Americans have good hearts. Addressing the women and mothers present, she expressed confidence that these Cuban fighters would one day return home.

The five Cubans were convicted of charges that were not proven; rather, the jurors responded to constant pressure and intimidation by terrorist groups based in South Florida. For this same reason the five were sentenced to unreasonably long sentences, ones ranging from 15 years to two life sentences plus 15 years.

They were accused of spying yet they didn’t infiltrate any government agency. Instead, they managed to penetrate operations that were preparing terrorist actions against Cuba.

Therefore the questions is: Why did the US government accuse them of being spies if they infiltrated terrorist groups?

Is it that these terrorist groups are part of the government itself? I remember former President George W. Bush’s words that, “People who are willing to harbor a terrorist or feed a terrorist… are just as guilty as the terrorist.”

Therefore, if the US government protects these terrorist groups, and at the same time keeps the five Cuban fighters in prison for the sole crime of preventing violent actions against their country and against the United States, what can one think of that government?

Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez didn’t deserve to be convicted; indeed they should have been decorated. American actor Danny Glover believes that if the very same thing had been done by US citizens, they would have been honored.

However these were Cubans, and the US government wanted to lash out at them with all its rage for not having been able to destroy the Cuban Revolution.

Why did the Supreme Court refuse to consider the case if it’s very clear to everyone that this was the longest trial ever conducted in the United States and all types of violations of the law were committed in it?

Why did the jury find them guilty of charges that weren’t substantiated and others that had even been dropped by the prosecution for not having a shred of evidence?

Why did Judge Joan Lenard’s sentences go beyond all rational logic?

Why hasn’t President Barack Obama — knowing all this background and having received millions of letters, cards and emails asking for the freedom of the Cuban Five — why hasn’t he decided to release them?

All those questions are being asked today by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, including eleven Nobel Prize laureates and many parliamentarians and political leaders – including ones in the United States.

All of the so-called “mainstream press” has been effectively ordered not to publish anything related to the case of the Five, although journalistically it’s a case that could provide many interesting stories to American readers and those in other parts of the world. The problem is that no one wants the American people to know what’s happening.

Not a single line was line was published outside of Cuba about the recently held Eighth Symposium.

Keeping the case a secret has been the strategy to avoid mass protests. Nevertheless one day the truth will come out and then the people of that country themselves will demand freedom for the Cuban Five.

Just as the world demands the US end its economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba — which is a genocidal act of terror — people are also calling for an end to the injustices committed against the five Cubans who were convicted more than 14 years ago only for fighting against terrorism.