Best Wishes for all of you for this New Year

_ HAPPY 53rd ANNIVERSARY OF THE REVOLUTION, BROTHERS AND SISTERS! EVERY YEAR, EVERY MONTH...

...EVERY DAY THAT WE RESIST AND CONTINUE TO ADVANCE IS A NEW VICTORY...

...IN FRONT OF THOSE WHO FOR MORE THAN A HALF CENTURY HAVE TRIED TO MAKE US BEND. GREETINGS!

Cartoon by Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo

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Dear friends:

I wish to convey to all of you my most sincere appreciation for another year of company in solidarity with this struggle for truth and justice.

The year which will soon end is yet another year of significant efforts of all those, who in one way or another, contribute to the objective of making the freedom of the Cuban Five a reality.

We are aware of the activities and events that all of you organize everywhere in the world as part of the campaign for our freedom. To each one of you, in each place on the planet where you show the universal value of human solidarity, with the closing of the year 2011, receive my gratitude and my certainty that we will achieve victory.

May you have a happy and fruitful New Year, and that 2012 be another year of gains and victories for the causes that we defend.

Happy 2012!

¡Venceremos!

Fernando Gonzalez Llort

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Dear sisters and brothers,

This year 2011 is reaching an end, and we want to take this special time to send you all our love, with warmness and the gratitude of the Five, for all that you give every day for the cause of Cuba; that is our cause.

You are our greatest virtue, our strength and the main reason we can maintain our optimism that someday the big miracle of our freedom will happen and we will all celebrate together in victory.

With those of you who have always been there along our side for these 13 years of unjust imprisonment, we are fulfilling the prophecy that all work of love overcomes the adversity and in the end that will prove to be the case.

We wish you happy holidays, a 2012 with peace, love, health and victories.

The love of the Five is with you every second of the year and of life!

On behalf of our five families, of the Cuban people, and from each one of us, we wish you

!!!!!!!HAPPY 2012!!!!!!!

Ramón Labañino 

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Dear friends,

The second half of December has started.  I decided to share with you this message that I have sent to many friends, answering their words of solidarity and encouragement.

Rene is free, but it is a freedom with many conditions; it is a freedom where he is in constant physical danger; it is a freedom without being able to have Olguita and his daughters next to him; it is a freedom without freedom.

Gerardo continues under the terrible conditions of a penitentiary, something I know very well. His strength remains high against the injustice of the double life sentence despite not being able to receive visits from Adriana.

Our Habeas Corpus process is reaching its end. Perhaps in the beginning of next year we will receive an answer. I am wondering what Judge Lenard's response will be?.

It gives us great strength to hear about the participation of many friends from all over the world who attended the VII Colloquium for our freedom in Holguin. Once again the success of this yearly event shows that the struggle for our cause is growing.

These are some of the things that 2011 ends with, in the middle of a world that cannot take it anymore and is dying of pain. It is a world that is asking us to run to help it in order to save humanity from so much selfishness; a world that is taking us, as Fidel affirmed, "in a relentless pace, towards a definitive and total catastrophe".

For me, the recent visit of my two sons has been the most wonderful thing that has happened to me in this 13 years of imprisonment.

With great thanks for your support, on behalf of the 5, I wish you a Happy New Year 2012!

Peace, health, happiness and success in your goals.

We are always optimistic, and reiterate: !Venceremos!

Five embraces.

Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez
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Dear friends:

As another end of the year approaches with all the festivities and the symbolism that for each of us, from its place on our diversity, hold these days, the family spirit is renovated and our best wishes point to the immediate future; projecting our aspirations, dreams, realities and affections.

For the five of us, separated from our families and from our people for more than 13 years, the recurrent wish of seeing at last this injustice repaired will be again our greatest hope. All of you, who have being with us throughout all these years on an endless struggle to accomplish something as simple as the application of the laws, have shown to be sensible enough so as to feel on your own flesh the laceration inflicted by the denial of such an elemental aspiration on both us and on our loved ones; by giving space on your hearts to this battle that for enduring would have already made many people give up. For that perseverance we thank you and reiterate to all of you the assurance of our eternal gratitude.

A very important year is coming. It is probably a decisive one, when the last legal skirmish of this long and tortuous process can be elucidated. Such as it has been admitted by the prosecutors themselves, the weight of the solidarity is of no small effect, and the knowledge that we still count on your efforts gives us encouragement and sustenance. We have no doubt that we all will continue together on this struggle until we can be victorious, and that it will be thanks to the actions of people like you that in the end the reunification of our families will be achieved.

It is because of that reciprocal link that the happiness of yours is also our happiness, that we share your projects, that we enjoy your successes and that together we all project the optimism and the perseverance that make us one. With that spirit of fraternity and shared feelings we wish you the best New Year and lots of success on every one of your aspirations, which are also ours.

Wishing you a happy and prosperous 2012.

With affection.

Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert
*****

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Message from the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 / Mensaje del Comité Internacional por la Libertad de los 5

Dear Compañeros

This has been a year of hard work where the international solidarity around the cause of the Cuban Five has continued to grow.

We were all moved to see the images of Rene with his daughters when he was released from prison in October but we cannot deny our outrage that when his sentence ended he was not able to receive the embrace of his wife Olga or the warmth of the Cuban people. And to make it worse, we realize that such supervised 'freedom' is nothing other than house arrest. It is another cruel form of punishment that only the empire could come up with. Not only is he not allowed visits from his wife, or communicate with his four brothers but he is also exposed to the daily possibility that the terrorists, who enjoy absolute impunity, could make attempts against his life.

It has been another year in which Adriana has not been able to receive a visa to visit Gerardo, a basic elemental right of all prisoners.

Another year where Ramon, Antonio and Fernando continue waiting to see their families in freedom and not behind prison bars.

To all friends and committees that have helped us so much during this past year with our projects we send our profound thanks; especially to the compañeros from the US, Venezuela, Spain, Lebanon, Austria, Sweden, Canada, Quebec, and all of those who participated in the 7th Colloquium in Holguin in November. 

And a special thanks to the children of La Colmenita who brought their music, charm and love to thousands of people in the United States. They carried with them a sincere message calling for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 from the perspective of the children of Cuba; our love and gratitude always.

For the complete and unconditional return of the Five to their homeland is what the heroic people of Cuba have been demanding for more than 13 years. And that is what encourages us in the international solidarity movement to work with more determination than ever to demand that in 2012 President Obama, with a humanitarian gesture, will put an end to this colossal injustice.

For the new projects we are planning we will need the support and participation of all of you.

Let us toast this New Year for the dignity and resistance of our Five brothers and their wonderful families. Let us toast to their inevitable return to their homes and homeland.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre,

International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
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Mensaje del Comité Internacional por la Libertad de los 5

Queridos  Compañeros,

Este ha sido un año de arduo trabajo, donde la solidaridad internacional ha seguido creciendo alrededor de la causa de los Cinco.

A todos nos emocionó ver a René junto a sus hijas al recuperar su libertad, pero no podemos negar nuestra indignación de que el día en que cumplió su condena no haya podido recibir el abrazo de su esposa Olga ni el de su pueblo. Más aún constatar que tal libertad supervisada no es más que una nueva prisión domiciliaria, otra forma de castigo y crueldad que llega al extremo de impedirle la visita de su esposa y la comunicación con sus cuatro hermanos de causa, y donde se lo somete a la posibilidad de que los terroristas que gozan de absoluta impunidad atenten contra su vida.

Otro año más en el que Gerardo no ha podido recibir la visita de Adriana, algo tan elemental como el derecho de un prisionero a recibir la visita de su esposa y en el que Ramón, Antonio y Fernando siguen esperando poder encontrarse con sus familias no en una prisión sino en libertad.

A los amigos y comités que nos han ayudado durante este año que culmina a llevar adelante distintos proyectos, nuestro profundo agradecimiento, en especial a los  compañeros de EEUU, Venezuela, España, Líbano, Austria, Suecia, Canadá, Quebec,  y a todos los que participaron en el Coloquio de Holguín.

A los niños y niñas de La Colmenita que trajeron su música y su amor junto al pedido de libertad a los Cinco en EEUU, nuestro amor y gratitud siempre.

Poder abrazar a los Cinco en su Patria, es lo que añora desde hace más de 13 años el pueblo heroico que los reclama y lo que nos anima desde la solidaridad internacional a trabajar con más fuerza que nunca para que este año 2012 el Presidente Obama tenga el gesto humanitario de poner fin a esta colosal injusticia.

Nuevos proyectos nos esperan donde necesitaremos la ayuda y concurso de todos.

Brindemos en este nuevo año por la dignidad y resistencia de nuestros Cinco hermanos y sus queridas familias. Brindemos porque muy pronto puedan regresar libres a sus hogares y su patria.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre,

Comité Internacional por la Libertad de los 5 Cubanos