Thursday, September 13, 2007

Washington: No Visas for Cuban Five Wives

"Once again the US government lies", said the president of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, during a cultural gala on Wednesday night to celebrate the beginning of an international campaign for the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino and Rene Gonzalez, internationally known as the Cuban Five, who remain unjustly imprisoned in the United States nine years after they were detained for infiltrating terrorist anti-Cuba organizations based in Florida.

Alarcon was making reference to the announcement made on Wednesday afternoon by the US State Department informing that Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez had been denied - for the eighth time - visas to visit their husbands Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez, respectively.

Regarding the arguments used by the US authorities to deny the visas, Alarcon said: "They lie. These women can not be accused of committing espionage because not even their husbands were".

During the gala, held at the Mella Theater in Havana coinciding with the ninth anniversary of the arrest of the Cuban Five in September 1998, messages in support of the Cuban political prisoners from US actor Danny Glover and writer Alice Walker were read.

The event was also attended by Culture Minister Abel Prieto and relatives of the Cuban Five.

The new international campaign to demand the immediate release of the Cuban heroes will run until October 8.

World for Freedom of Cuban Five

Thousands of people in the world attend Thursday a new campaign in favor of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters unfairly imprisoned in the United States after a political trial.

After the ninth anniversary Wednesday of the detention of Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, nearly 50 countries have held popular demonstrations for release of the Five.

World Demands Freedom for the Cuban Five

Demonstrations all over the world Wednesday are demanding the immediate release of the antiterrorist Cuban Five, unjustly imprisoned in the United States, Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) reports.

The campaign is carried out on the ninth anniversary of the arrest of Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, later sentenced in a trial described as unfair by a UN judicial panel.

In Washington, the coalition Campana por la Libertad de los Cinco de Metro is carrying out several actions that extend until October 6, while Defense Council Leonard Weinglass will give a lecture on this topic at Howard University Law School.

Lectures will also be given in the State of Wisconsin at universities and public libraries, while the second Latino Congress will be in session October 5-9, headed to adopt resolutions on this same topic.

In Canada, the film "Posada Carriles, Terrorism Made in the USA"

will be shown with an analysis of the unfair imprisonment of the antiterrorist Cuban Five.

US embassies face demonstrations protesting the maltreatment of The Five in: Argentina, where there are also provincial events, in La Paz, Bolivia, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with a public teach-in to support the Five, and in the Mexican capital.

The Cuban documentary "El Proceso" is being shown in Uruguay

Demonstrations in Bolivar Square Caracas, Venezuela and in France Square Lima, Peru, are taking place.

In Havana, the book "Desde la Soledad y la Esperanza" dedicated to the Cuban Five, was launched with the presence of Cuban National People's Power Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon and Culture Minister Abel Prieto.