The Five’s Cause in the Cuban-Egyptian Pictorial Exhibision

Cairo, Oct 10. -Caricarutes, oil paintings and pastel drawings with intense patriotic and gestures of solidarity are exhibited in Egypt today as part of a campaign to raise people's awareness with the cause of the Cuban Five antiterrorist fighters unjustly held in the United States.

It has been promoted together with the Cuban Embassy in Cairo and the Egyptian branch of the Caricaturists' Federation (FECO-Egypt), the exposition includes 100 works with a mixure of art, commitment, humor and will to fight against this injustice that had lasted 13 years.

Among the one hundred drawings chosen from more than 200 sent by caricaturists from Egypt and Cuba, there are original paintings by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban Five incarcerated since 1998 for preventing terrorist attacks against his country.

A close-up from Guerrero's mother, Mirta, the image of an Arab father in a naive position holding his son and the meditative expression of a beautiful woman, are part of the pieces, among them, the portraits of Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara.

At the same time, the audience in Toot galery enjoyed the section, Humor from my pen, by caricaturist Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo, another of the Cuban Five imprisoned in the United States.

The exhibision has also works from 10 Cuban artists and tens of Egyptian members of the FECO Egypt, among them Mohamed Effat, an in solidarity activist with the Caribbean island, Ahmed Abd El Neim, Sayed Atwa, Hassan Farouk, Mohamed El Kholi and Saeb Badawy.

The Cuban Five imprisoned in the US are innocent, remarked Otto Vaillant, Cuban ambassador in Egypt, when he addressed those attending the opening of the event, including his colleagues and other diplomats from a ten of Latin American countries and the Democratic Republic of Korea.

Authorities from the Egyptian government and Mona Abdel Nasser, daughter of former president Gamal Abdel Nasser, also highlighted the exhibision where Vaillant explained in details the cause of the Cuban Five as the antiterrorists are known in the world.

The ambassador explained that Rene Gonzalez had been released on Friday, but he alerted his life is in danger because he has to serve three years of supervised release in Miami.

Besides Rene Gonzalez (already released and forced to stay in U.S. territory for three years), Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez were sentenced to harsh sentences in prison for infiltrating terrorist gangs based in the United States, to miscarry attacks against Cuba.

Injustice should stop, Vaillant remarked after his address to the countless world personalities defending the freedom of the Cuban Five, so those attending the exhibision did with their signatures in a letter sent to the American embassy in Egypt. (PL)