Statement by Adriana Perez and Elizabeth Palmeiro on the Case of the Cuban Five

Toronto, September 21, 2012

On behalf of the Cuban Five, their families and the Cuban people, we would like to thank the organizations and personalities for the efforts of organizing this important event, "Breaking the Silence: Justice for the Five", and also the personalities who have decided to speak with one voice to demand the release of our husbands.

September 12th was the 14th anniversary of unjust imprisonment for René González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez, and although justice and reason are on our side, their most basic human rights continue to be violated, year after year, without a U.S. government decision to end this legal aberration.

The case of the Cuban Five remains an ignored issue, silenced by the mainstream media, and unknown to the international public. That is why events like this one become critical, because this is where the Press can hear the arguments firsthand, and where friends have the opportunity to clear up mysteries about this case, so extremely manipulated by the big media power.

Right now, the decision of a Judge on the Habeas Corpus appeal to dismiss the convictions brought against Gerardo, Antonio, Ramón, Fernando and René, is the last legal r recourse that we have to defend the five heroes. It invokes the payments by the U.S. government to various journalists in order to contaminate the venue where the trial took place, making it impossible for the accused Cubans to receive a fair and impartial trial in Miami. This fact is most unusual and unacceptable in that many of these same journalists had been imprisoned in Cuba and in the United States for terrorism.

Similarly, we continue to ask the U.S. government to disclose information related to its radar data and satellite photographs, since the harshest and most cruel charge against Gerardo is that he conspired to commit murder. However, there is evidence showing that he had nothing to do with the fate of the small airplanes.

The Attorney General of the United States has the power to ask Judge Joan Lenard in Miami, to dismiss the charges against the Cuban Five convicted in 1998 in that city, however, this has not happened to date.

In these 14 years of unjust imprisonment, us relatives of the Five have also been victims of the irrational hate of a small segment of the Cuban community in Florida and of the north American authorities.  The extended separation, has prevented us from enjoying the marvelous special family moments or to embrace each other and cry together for the loss of a loved one.

Their children have grown up without their fathers and their mothers have aged without seeing their children, some of them are more than 80 years old and they worry that they won’t see their return.  Gerardo couldn’t attend his mother’s funeral and she went through the last 4 years of her life without seeing her son.  Rene recently lost his brother to cancer, he was only able to see him in the last moments of his life and now he is prevented from witnessing the pregnancy of his older daughter.

The continued visa denials to Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva, wives of Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez respectively, constitute a flagrant violation of human rights.  Meanwhile, the US government insists in forcing Rene to remain in this north American territory, where his life is in danger and his supervised freedom, has become house arrest.

All this, has been the price we had to pay for so many years of cruelty, this is why we ask for the international community to unite its efforts and actions in order to influence president Obama’s decision, so that he will use his authority and end this injustice.