| Cuban anti-terrorist fighter René González Sehwerert was released from Marianna Penitentiary in the north of Florida, United States this past October 7 after serving 13 long years of unjust incarceration. Since his imprisonment in September 1998, René González Sehwerert, together with his compañeros Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Fernando González Llort have been forced to endure cruel and degrading conditions and all kinds of pressure and abuse, including separation from their families. All the hatred to which they have been exposed has not broken their convictions and, with exceptional stoicism and admirable integrity they have always maintained exemplary conduct as prisoners. This dignified and courageous attitude of our five compañeros, who have never renounced their principles under any circumstance, combined with motivations of political revenge which characterized the legal proceedings which led to their sentencing, was what prompted Judge Joan Lenard to impose an additional punishment on René, by refusing last September 16 a motion to allow him to return to Cuba and the heart of his family and people upon his release. The judge's decision to uphold the special and additional requisite of prohibiting him, after leaving prison, "from associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists [...] are known to frequent," included in his sentence at the express petition of the U.S. government, is irrefutable evidence that anti-Cuban terrorists continue to enjoy total impunity and the support of American authorities. For more than 50 years successive administrations in this country have protected terrorism against Cuba and harbored terrorist individuals and organizations in that same territory. Persons responsible for so much pain and death are living a completely normal life there, with priority access to the media and with total impunity to organize and promote terrorism against our country. The very recognition of this reality on the part of the judge and the government ratifies the "state of necessity" which obliged the infiltration of terrorist groups and demonstrates that the severe sanctions of the Five are directed at protecting the real terrorists who, like Luis Posada Carriles, are enjoying a problem-free life in Florida. There is no doubt that the United States government is perfectly well aware that the fact that René has to reside in that country's territory constitutes a serious threat to his life and physical integrity. The U.S. authorities will be responsible for anything that might happen to him. The cause of the Five is becoming more and more known throughout the world. Thousands of men and women from all latitudes and social strata have joined the struggle for their liberation, including many parliamentarians and legislative bodies. In the name of the Five and their families, likewise victims of so much injustice, we thank every one of you for your support in attaining their freedom. However, it has not been, and is not an easy road, given that opposing it are revanchism, hatred and the obstinacy that have always predominated in the United States in relation to Cuba for not having been able to break our people. Also opposing us is the ironclad censorship around this case in the media, which has only referred to this injustice on a very few occasions. We firmly believe that solidarity can achieve everything and that just causes must triumph over lies and injustice. For that reason, we call on all parliaments and members of these, on political and social forces and groups committed to the truth and justice, on all upstanding men and women on the planet, to exert all their influence so that President Obama does what he has to do: permit the immediate return of René to the heart of his family and to release his four compañeros in struggle and captivity. Let us make it possible, among all of us, to see that justice is done. International Relations Commission National Assembly of People's Power Havana, October 11, 2011 (Granma International) Statement of U.S. National Committee to Free the Cuban Five - October 7, 2011 - René González, one of the five men known as the Cuban Five, today will walk out of Federal Prison in Marianna, Florida. He will walk out with his head held high after more than 13 years in prison, having served his utterly unjust sentence with complete dignity. He has been a model prisoner, even while suffering the indignity of being inhumanely deprived visits from his wife for more than 11 years. Unable to afford René even the small victory of his release, however, the U.S. government insists on punishing him and his family even more by requiring him to remain in Florida for the three years of his parole, even though René has no family in Florida and his life will be in danger from the very terrorist groups he helped to infiltrate. That danger cannot be underestimated. Florida Congressperson Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was quoted in the Miami Herald on Monday calling René an "enemy of America" with "American blood on his hands." These utterly false charges are a clear incitement to violence, and demonstrate all too clearly the necessity of allowing René to return immediately to Cuba. The very fact that a man who the government called a "spy" and a "threat to national security" is required to remain in the United States, rather than being immediately deported, demonstrates quite clearly what the prosecution and persecution is all about. The government never thought for one minute that René and his brothers were "spies" or a "threat to national security"; if they did, they would be putting René on the first plane back to Cuba. Instead, the punishment meted out to René and his brothers was all about protecting the terrorists who serve the interests of the U.S. government by trying to destabilize the Cuban government and overturn the Cuban Revolution. Cuba has suffered the scourge of terrorism not just since Sept. 11, 2001, but for more than 50 years. A scourge that over those years has killed at least 3,478 people, most of them Cuban but also many others including 11 Guyanese and five North Koreans killed in the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 and an Italian (Fabio di Celmo) killed in a hotel bombing in 1997. Thousands more have been seriously injured by the terrorists. René and his brothers -- Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero, and Ramón Labañino -- can be proud that they came to the United States, unarmed and risking their lives, to fight that scourge by infiltrating the right-wing terrorist groups based in Miami who were responsible for that terrorism, and exposing their ongoing plots. The U.S. government helped organize, finance, and direct the actions of those terrorist groups from the beginning, and protected them from the consequences of their actions. It continued that collaboration and protection by arresting René and the others, and continues that protection with the unjust punishment of René and the other four. That same government continues to this day to resist Venezuela's valid extradition request for the most notorious terrorist of them all, Luis Posada Carriles, responsible for not only the 1976 plane bombing which took the lives of 73 people, but also for the torture of numerous Venezuelans when he was part of the secret police in that country. If the U.S. government wants to continue to claim it is engaged in a "war on terror," it can help back up that claim with some very simple actions. Allow René González to return to Cuba immediately, free the remaining members of the Cuban Five and allow them to return to Cuba as well, extradite Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela, and arrest the other known terrorists in Miami. Until those acts have been performed, any claims by the U.S. government of "fighting terrorism" will continue to ring hollow. The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five has an online petition to President Obama to allow René González to return to Cuba, which has been signed by people across the United States and from around the world. We urge all people of conscience the world over to add their voices to this demand at: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-persecution-of-ren-gonzlez-let-him-return-to-cuba |