The Cuban Five: A letter to President Obama

Source - by Jacqueline Roussie

The so-called Cuban Five

Mr President Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington DC 20500

Mr President,

A few weeks ago I had a dream. The five Cubans, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino and René González, had been transferred to the penitentiary at Guantanamo, and, on the Fourth of July, to celebrate the independence of your country, you had signed the law definitively abandoning the Platt Amendment. By returning Guantanamo Base to Cuba, Mr President, you were showing your fellow citizens as well as the entire world, your commitment to independence and sovereignty for all nations.

Then the Cuban government liberated all the prisoners at Guantanamo and the Cuban Five were hailed as heroes in Havana. An overall jubilation brought together, by the magic of dreams, thousands of Cubans and North Americans.

Sadly, when I woke up I was struck with the painful reality – the Cuban Five had not rejoined their families, and the prisoners at Guantanamo had not moved an inch. As for your commitment to the independence and the sovereignty of Cuba, Mr President, it was just in my dream! In a document dated June 28th, this being the sad reality, your government greatly augmented the funds for the USAID Agency intended to “change the regime” in Cuba. This document encourages the continuation of Alan Gross’ works, all the while excluding any kind of responsibility for what could happen to any persons on mission in Cuba. As a matter of fact, the arrest of Alan Gross makes for a precedent. On March 12th 2011, Gross was sentenced by a Cuban court to fifteen years in prison for “acts against the integrity and the independence of the nation”

Wasting more than 20 million dollars a year in trying to destroy the Cuban Revolution is not only a lack of respect by your government to the people of Cuba, but also to your own people who are suffering the full force of the economic crisis. USAID’s mission does not stand alone; there are numerous such organizations in the United States that are plotting against Cuba’s government.

Just last june, the California Federal Appeals Court confirmed the confiscation of a stock of arms and ammunition belonging to Robert Ferro. A real arsenal, consisting of the trifling sum of 1,679 firearms, 87,883 bullets, plus explosives and I could go on and on. This person, a North American citizen from Cuba, is a member of Alpha 66, the terrorist organization notorious for its violent actions against Cuba.

Ferro had been arrested in 2007 while he was on a mission to organize, at Havana, the assassination of Fidel Castro. The court had not retained his admitted intention to kill an important state figure, but uniquely for illegal arms possession. The intention to kill President Fidel Castro, by the way, seems to be extenuating circumstances for a terrorist in your country…

Ferro had already been charged with illegal transportation of explosives in 1991, which is why he was not authorized to possess arms.

Walking freely down the streets of Florida and California, to mention just these two states, are a number of terrorists who have more than one crime on their conscience. René González, who has done his time and has been liberated after 13 years in prison, is at this time free on parole in the United States. This patriot’s life is in danger as long as he’s in the middle of all these killers. He has, by the way, already received death threats.

The Cuban Five have been condemned to heavy prison sentences when all they were doing was sacrificing their younger days to protect their country from the killing frenzy of criminals such as Ferro, Posada Carriles, Bosch and many others.

These five patriots were judged in an atmosphere of hatred and threats that even disturbed the judge herself, and it wasn’t known at the time that the newspaper reporters had been paid to fuel this hatred.

Once again I ask you, Mr President, to intervene so that these five Cubans can, finally, get back the liberty that they’ve been deprived of for almost fourteen years now.

Please receive, Mr President, the expression of my most humanitarian sentiments.

Jacqueline Roussie

Translated by William Peterson

Copies sent to: Mrs. Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Kathryn Ruemmler, Janet Napolitano, to Mr. Harry Reid, Eric Holder, John F. Kerry, Pete Rouse, Donald, Rick Scott, and to Charles Rivkin, United States Ambassador in France.

WOLRD MATHABA