Canadian Councillors Demand Release of Cuban Five

Ottawa, Oct 9 (Prensa Latina) Six councillors of Canada requested US President Barack Obama to use his constitutional power to release unconditionally and authorize the return to Cuba of five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters unfairly held in US prisons for preventing terrorist acts planned in the United States against their country.

  In a joint letter released by the Toronto Association of Friendship with Cuba, the councillors of the Toronto city hall also recalled that Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, known worldwide as The Cuban Five, have been held in prison since 1998 for defending and protecting peacefully the lives of Cuban, US, Canadian and other foreign citizens who visit Cuba as tourists.

 They referred in this regard to the death of Italian businessman Fabio Di Celmo during the explosion of a bomb planted in a hotel in Havana, following orders from Miami-based extremist sectors responsible for violent actions like those that in the past 53 years left at least 3,400 victims in Cuba.

 "The Cuban Five worked to prevent new terrorist attacks for political reasons against Cuba, designed from South Florida," said the councillors of Toronto, the largest Canadian city.

 They also cited the resolution of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which termed illegal the arrest of these men, and urged the US to solve the case, and cited declarations by international organizations questioning the impartiality of the trial followed against them.

 They expressed concern because four of the fighters are facing harsh sentences in US prisons while Rene Gonzalez, who left prison in October, 2011 after serving a 13-year sentence, and was given an additional punishment of three years under supervised release in Miami, where his life is in danger.

 "President Obama, your executive order, a humanitarian gesture, might put an end to this injustice and allow The Cuban Five return to their families," concludes the letter signed by councillors Joe Mihevc, Paula Fletcher, Janet Davis, Maria Augimeri, Gord Perks and Mary Fragedakis.

 Ths action joins the international call for the immediate, unconditional release of The Cuban Five.

PRENSA LATINA