| Leandro Maceo Leyva THE people of Cuba, represented by their political and mass organizations, accompanied families and friends of the Five in condemning the 13 years of their unjust incarceration in U.S. jails at a political-cultural event in the capital on September 12. political-cultural event in the capital on September 12.Organized by the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 and the José Martí Cultural Society, the gala invited increased solidarity to achieve the immediate liberation of Gerardo, Antonio, Ramón, René and Fernando. Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party and President of the National Assembly, recalled that throughout all these years the Five have been subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment. In that context, he condemned the "total silence imposed by the media dictatorship to extinguish the solidarity which they deserve and to conceal the truth. Hence the need to break down this wall of silence, the most important thing today," he stated. "The case of the Five is irrefutable evidence of Washington’s complicity with terrorists," he affirmed, adding that the current U.S. administration will have to confront the dilemma of continuing or not the immoral cynicism of its predecessors. Alarcón noted that René González is due for release on October 7 after having served his unjust prison term to the last minute. MANY OTHER ACTIVITIES Phil Horowitz, René’s lawyer, explained in a telephone conference from Washington that he has asked a Miami federal judge to allow his client to return to Cuba as soon as he is released to serve the three-year probation which was part of his sentence on the island, EFE noted. However, the prosecution is opposing the application, using the argument that René has not shown any remorse concerning the crimes for which he was sentenced, and is asking that he spend that three-year term in Florida where, as his attorney commented, he has no family. The lawyers of Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino also took part in the telephone conference – organized by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five – and condemned the injustices committed during the trials of their clients. "Being deprived of his family for 13 years is a very long time," stated William M. Morris, Labañino’s lawyer. Also on September 12, protesters outside U.S. embassies in Spain and other countries called for the liberation of the Five. In Venezuela, family members of the Cuban national heroes placed flowers in Caracas’ Plaza Bolívar and demanded the release of the Cuban patriots in an event attended by President of the National Assembly and Rogelio Polanco, the Cuban ambassador in Venezuela. During a general debate in Geneva with Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Cuban representative, Rodolfo Reyes, made use of the occasion to demand the release of the Five. Youth in all parts of Cuba are taking part in various activities for the Five through October 6. |