by Andrés Gómez, director, Areítodigital

 

MIAMI—It was five years ago on December 12 that the Southern Florida Federal District Court condemned our brother, Gerardo Hernández, to two life sentences plus 15 years in prison. For the next 15 days the same court also unjustly condemned our remaining four brothers to prison: Ramón Labañino (a life sentence plus 18 years); René González (15 years); Fernando González (19 years); and Antonio Guerrero (a life sentence plus 10 years). All were falsely charged by the federal government of conspiracy to commit espionage against the United States and other related crimes.

The federal government lied and it is still lying. The Five, as everyone knows, were not in Miami to spy against the government of the United States, but to infiltrate the terrorist organizations of the Cuban-American extreme rightwing, which with the full knowledge and protection of the federal government, plans and directs from that city terrorist actions against the Cuban people and against others of this country who oppose them.

The Five had to infiltrate those terrorist organizations which for more than four decades have operated from Miami, causing death and desolation in Cuba because the federal authorities fail to carry out their duty that the law requires. Indeed, with their full knowledge, they allow these terrorists to freely develop and carry out their perfidious activities.

As the Five themselves expressed in June of 2001, in a “Message to the People of the United States,” after being convicted of those false charges, “Why are the U.S. authorities tolerant with these terrorists who act against our country? Why don’t they investigate or take action against the terrorist plans denounced by Cuba …  Why is it that the professed authors of these and other terrorist actions are still loose in South Florida as was clearly established during the trial? Who trained them and who is allowing them to carry out their plans?”

The federal government has kept the Five imprisoned for eight years and three months. For eight years and three months the government has continuously lied and obstructed justice to viciously punish five courage and honorable men whose duty was to prevent terrorist acts from being carried out from U.S. soil.

For more than five years, also in Miami, the members of the organizations that make up the Martí Alliance (Alianza Martiana): the Association of Workers of the Cuban Community (ATC) the Antonio Maceo Brigade (BAM), the Alianza Martiana, the José Martí Association, and the Bolivarian Circle of Miami, have denounced the crime being committed against the Five. We have denounced the terrorist of the Cuban American extreme rightwing for the infamous crimes that they have perpetuated for so many years. For all these years we have also demanded that the federal authorities do justice by freeing the Cuban Five and jailing the terrorists.

Since September 2001, less than two weeks after the terrorist acts of September 11 that caused so many deaths, we began our campaign in a conference at a hotel in our city. We denounced those who have caused so many deaths in Cuba through terrorism, and we demanded freedom for the Five.

From that day forward we have not let up, through public campaigns, demonstrations and conferences. The members of the organizations that make up the Alianza Martiana raised more than $11,000 in 2004 for the $50,000 fund that was needed for the publication of a full-page ad in the New York Times that protested the Five’s situation. Then, in 2006, we raised more than $36,000 of the $110,000 that has been raised so far, for an international fund of $250,000 that is needed to sustain the public campaign on their behalf.

And we have done this because it is our duty with the Five. It is the least that we can do for these five brothers who have shown, with the greatest dignity, their willingness to sacrifice everything to defend the lives of all our loved ones in Cuba and here. And we will not stop until justice is won by their freedom.

“We have always been moved by a strong sentiment of human solidarity, love for our homeland and contempt for that which goes against the dignity of the human being,” expressed Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René in the aforementioned message. They continue, “We declare ourselves completely innocent. Our loved ones understand the depth of the ideas that guide us and they will take pride in our sacrifices for Humanity in this struggle against terrorism and for the independence of Cuba.” 

(freethefive.org) 14-12-2006