Declaration of the participants in the 5th International Colloquium

“For the Release of the Cuban Five heroes and against Terrorism”

The 5th Colloquium for the Liberation of the Cuban Five met in Holguín from the 19th to the 23rd of November.

The 200 participants, from 45 countries, resolved to intensify the campaign to free the Five Cubans and condemned the United States government’s double standard in its policy to fight against terrorism while itself harbouring, protecting and supporting terrorist organizations based in the United States that operate with impunity, causing victims not only among the Cuban people, but also in other countries.

Below is the Colloquium’s Declaration

1) We demand the United States government:

.....> To respect its own laws and act abiding to the rules of International Law.

.....> To IMMEDIATELY cease the systematic and repeated violations of human rights against the Cuban Five and their relatives, particularly the violation of the right to be visited by the wives Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez; as well as to grant the reclaimed visas to both of them.

.....>To put an end to the logistic and financial support provided to terrorist organizations based in that country, and to bring the notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to justice for the blowing up of a Cuban airliner in which 73 civilians were killed.

2) We demand President Barack Obama and the Government of the United States of America to free RIGHT AWAY the Cuban Five because they are innocent.

3) We call upon all honest people in our planet, and especially the noble US people, to work intensely to disseminate the fair cause for which the Cuban Five are fighting and to demand their liberation as a way of paying tribute to decency and truth.

4) We ratify to the Cuban Five and to everyone fighting for their freedom that we will not relent in our efforts denouncing this injustice, and that we will continue to fight until they return to their homeland.

Download the full Declaration and Action Plan

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.Download the Stop the Injustice Poster

Gerardo Hernandez’s Mother Passed Away

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Carmen Nordelo Tejera mother of Gerardo Hernandez, one of the five Cuban anti-terrorists unjustly incarcerated in the United States, passed away Monday afternoon after a long illness.

Carmen Nordelo was born on February 15th, 1934 in the Canary Islands and at the age of 16 migrated to Havana with her family due to economic reasons.

In spite of her illness, 76 year old Carmen actively participated in the campaign to publicize the truth surrounding the Five’s case, and promote the demand for a fair trial for those who attempted to prevent terrorist attacks on Cuba from taking place.

Raúl attended the interment ceremony At the Colón Cemetery in Havana and wreaths from Fidel, Gerardo and his wife Adriana, and the Cuban people were laid on her coffin.
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Hernandez is serving an unjust sentence of two life imprisonments plus 15 years imposed in a biased trial held in Miami after infiltrating extreme right wing Cuban American groups in an attempt to stop terrorist actions against the Cuban people.

Meanwhile, in El Cairo, the Egyptian capital, members of the permanent secretariat of the Organization in Solidarity with Afro-Asian Peoples have urged US President Barack Obama to release these antiterrorists from prison immediately.

In a letter addressed to the US President, they expressed their concern for the imprisonment of these men, which they described as a violation of US and international laws.

To send condolences to Gerardo
Mail to:

....Gerardo Hernández, #58739-004
....U.S.P. Victorville
....P.O. Box 5300
....Adelanto, CA 92301
....U.S.A.
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Or email info@freethefive.org and they will forward your message.

Condolence messages

· International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
· New Zealand Free the Five Committee
· Cuba Friendship Society Christchurch (NZ)

Reflections by comrade Fidel
...............The Best Tribute to a Hero’s Mother

Re-sentencing date set for Fernando and Ramón

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Tuesday (Oct 27th) the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida announced the new date of the Sentencing hearings for Fernando González and Ramón Labañino. The hearings shall take place on December 8, 2009.

In 2008 the Atlanta Court of Appeals annulled the sentences of Antonio (life plus 10 years), Ramón (life plus 18 years) and Fernando (19 years) because they were considered excessive and contrary to the legal rules.The sentencing hearing for Antonio Guerrero took place as previously set on October 13, and there the Court imposed to Antonio Guerrero a sentence of 21 years and 10 months.

San Francisco Labor Council Passes a Resolution in Support of the Cuba Five.

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On Monday October 26th, 2009, the San Francisco Labor Council (SFLC) passed a resolution in support of the Cuban Five and their rights for family visitation. The Cuban Five are five men who came to the United States to monitor anti Cuban terrorist groups in Miami to protect the lives of not just Cubans but U.S. citizens as well. They are facing lengthy sentences and have been incarcerated for over 11 years. As this case gains international support there has been a significant increase in the number of resolutions by unions and city councils and the support of personalities in the U.S. This particular resolution was brought up to the Executive Board of the SFLC by the American Federation of Teachers local 2121, that passed a similar resolution on August 25th and amongst other things stated that they will ask the SFLC for endorsement.

The San Francisco Labor Council is the local body of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and serves as headquarters to the Labor Community in San Francisco. The SFLC represents more than 100,000 union members and their families who belong to over 150 affiliate unions. The AFL-CIO is the largest federation of unions in the United States and Canada.

The SFLC Resolution, calls for President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to consider the violation of International Covenant and due process for a fair trial associated with the conviction and imprisonment of the Cuban Five. The resolution also calls for diplomatic improvement in the relationship between the United States and Cuba. Additionally it calls for the pardon and release of the Cuban Five to their homeland. It also demands that the US government to immediately grants visas to Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez to visit their husbands in prison. And finally the SFLC calls on President Richard Trumpka of the AFL-CIO to send a letter to President Obama expressing support for the content of the resolution.

Copies of this important resolution will be sent to President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other Bay Area Congressional members, including State Senate members Mark Leno and Leland Yee, California State Assembly members Tom Ammiano and Fiona Ma, and all the members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Source

José Ramos-Horta on the Obama Nobel

"I am disappointed that President Obama has not started a serious review of US policies towards Cuba and has not ended the unjust, politically unwise and morally indefensible embargo on Cuba. It has been 50 years of US attempts at regime change" in Cuba and punishing an entire nation through a most comprehensive, draconian embargo, worse than the ones imposed on US biggest adversary during the Cold War, the now defunct Soviet Union, or on other countries and regimes whose human rights record and democratic credentials are not better than the Cuba's.

Other than that, I remain one of President Obama's fervent fans. Congratulations on the Nobel Peace Prize!"

Read the full article

A New Poem From Antonio

On October 13th, Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban Five, was resentenced to 21 years and 10 months. While waiting for his court hearing, he wrote this poem and sent it to all his supporters from around the world.

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Miami is before my eyes. I can't sleep
An obstinate verse bounces
between the luxury of a skyscraper
and the tragedy of a broken shower.

through the window I see the rising sun
to light the green tinted windows,
in every direction people, with whom
I make an imaginary world, walk.

The Royal Caribbean cruises,
the McDonald's, the school, the banks,
the homeless rummaging through the trash
the vendor under the umbrella
still there and again I look at them
from the "hole", that is, "from my altitude".

II

It is called Miami's Down Town
a mass of steel, concrete and glasses.
During the day an authentic ant's nest.
During the night a dangerous and empty place.

Its each time highest buildings
are symbols of power and opulence:
banks with millionaire transactions,
houses with few tenants.

In the cosmetic urbanization
there are parking lots for countless cars.
and I do not know how to say it in verse
but what captures more my attention
is to see that the public transportation
basically is used by the black people.

III

Once again orange jumper
Once again solitude between bricks.
Once again broken mattress without pillow.
Once again big noise in the hall.

Once again to change clothes once a week.
Once again tiny yellow pencil.
One again by a miracle a phone call.
Once again to walk without destiny.

Once again a cage to "recreate",
This time even they don't give coffee.
Once again dirty floor, cold shower.
Once again a "cop-out" to complain
and, of course, they don't answer once again.
Once again "hole" and once again poetry.

Painting: a new work by Antonio painted in his cell at USP Florence, Colorado titled “One day my prison shirt will stay there hanging” . More here.

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Thanks to the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5

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Declaration of the U.S. Movement in Solidarity with the Cuban Five

The following organizations have issued this declaration: The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five; the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five; and the organizations of the Cuban Immigration in Miami that together comprise the Alianza Martiana (Marti Alliance): the Antonio Maceo Brigade, the Alianza Martiana as an individual organization, the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community (ATC), the José Martí Association, and political parties of the United States who are part of the Cuban Five solidarity movement.

With our declaration we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to maintain and strengthen our efforts to demand the immediate freedom of our Five brothers: Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González, as they are innocent of the charges that the U.S. government has convicted them of.

Today, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009, in Miami 's United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a hearing was held to reduce the sentence of one of our Five brothers, Antonio Guerrero. It is one of three re-sentencing hearings ordered by the Full Panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2008. The U.S. Federal District Court has not yet set the date or dates of the other two re-sentencing hearings of our brothers Ramón Labañino and Fernando González.

In September 2008 the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the trial court's previous life sentence imposed on Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labañino, and the 19 year sentence imposed on Fernando González in December 2001. The Five were convicted in June 2001.

Today the Court imposed a prison sentence of 21 years 10 months on Antonio Guerrero for his unjust conviction of Conspiracy to Commit Espionage.

Independent of the court process and the decisions that are issued by the court, we maintain our steadfast demand for the immediate freedom of the Cuban Five.

The judicial case prosecuted against our Five brothers has nothing to do with justice. This is, and always has been, a political case.

Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, every administration of the U.S. government has maintained a policy of permanent aggression against the Cuban people. A fundamental part of this policy of aggression has been the use of violence against the Cuban people. For decades the U.S. administrations have been directly or indirectly involved--through terrorist organizations of the Cuban American extreme right wing in the United States --in countless terrorist attacks against the Cuban people, causing the deaths of 3,478 Cuban men, women and children, and injuring 2,099 Cubans. The peace, security and well-being of the Cuban people have been tragically affected.

In the interest of defending its people--as any other responsible government would do--the government of Cuba assigned to the Five the task of infiltrating the terrorist organizations of the Cuban American extreme right wing. Everyone in this city knows full well that the terrorist organizations have carried out campaigns of death and terror against the Cuban people for decades. Stopping terrorism was the mission of the Cuban Five.

Instead of arresting the terrorists and prosecuting them for their crimes, the U.S. government, participant of these nefarious campaigns of death and terror, arrested the Five 11 years ago this past September. Since then it has kept them arbitrarily imprisoned.

It is for these reasons that today in Miami we reaffirm and make known to our Five brothers, to their families and all our sisters and brothers in the U.S. and international movement to Free the Five, as well as the Cuban people, our unalterable decision to continue and strengthen our struggle for their immediate freedom.

Miami , October 13, 2009