Notables Worldwide Demand Freedom of Cuban Five
Havana, Oct 21. -More than 500 notables worldwide, including five Nobel Prize laureates, have demanded the final release of five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters unfairly held in US prisons.The signatures of Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Elfriede Jelinek, Zhores Alfiorov, Nadine Gordimer and Rigoberta Menchu joined the demand for justice made by the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and the Hermanos Saiz Cultural Association (AHS).
"We, the undersigned, demand that the U.S. Government immediately return René González to his country and release Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González," says the text.
The call, read by President of UNEAC Miguel Barnet, recalls that terrorist actions against Cuba have claimed more than 3,000 lives and wounded and disabled some 2,000.
It says that notorious criminals are free today in Florida while The Cuban Five were detained in 1998 for monitoring anti-Cuba terrorist organizations.
In this regard, Barnet said that his fellow countrymen have been victims of a trial full of irregularities under the pressure and hostility of US government-paid media.
Of The Cuban Five, only Rene Gonzalez served his 13-year prison sentence, but he still has to remain for another three years in the United States under supervised release.
In remarks to Prensa Latina, her wife Olga Salanueva explained that Rene's current situation prevents him from communicating with his comrades and from moving from one state to another without authorization, among other constraints.
He said that her husband is in permanent danger and lacks total privacy, as a supervisor was assigned to him with absolute freedom to search his home and control his movement and funding.
The international call was also signed by notables including Oscar Niemeyer, Eduardo Galeano, Danny Glover, Alfonso Sastre, Alice Walker, Ignacio Ramonet, Frei Betto, Gianni Mina, Silvio Rodriguez and Luis Eduardo Aute, as well as laureates in literature, theatre and other artistic expressions in Cuba.
The call was posted on www.liberenlos5.org website in Spanish, English, French, German and Arab, so that those interested may also join it, said President of AHS Luis Morlote. (Prensa Latina)
