Solidarity with the Cuban Five on the Rise in Europe

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 13 (acn) The solidarity with the five Cuban antiterrorists unfairly incarcerated in the United States became stronger with the seminar on their cause held at the Italian Chamber of Deputies and a meeting that took place in the Portuguese city of Setubal.

  The seminar “The case of The Five, violations of international law” was carried out under the sponsorship of Leoluca Orlando, deputy for the party Italia dei Valori and spokesperson of that political group, in which journalist Gianni Mina, author of the book “An encounter with  Fidel,” addressed participants.

  The punishment and cruelty suffered by the relatives of The Five was also condemned.

 Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez were arrested in 1998 and condemned in Miami to harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to two life imprisonments, for warning their people about the violent actions of Florida-based anti-Cuban groups.

  Participants in the seminar also emphasized the double standard applied by Washington,
which allows Luis Posada Carriles -the greatest terrorist of the western hemisphere- and other people of that sort to walk freely on the streets of that country while maintaining The Five unfairly in prison.

  Present in the seminar were religious leaders, intellectuals and journalists, and representatives of different solidarity-with-Cuba associations.

 Likewise, in Setubal, a meeting of solidarity with the case of The Five was carried out, in which the president of the local government, Maria das Dores Meira, and Eduardo Gonzalez, Cuban ambassador to that European nation, participated.

According to Cuban diplomatic sources in the Portuguese capital, the meeting was convened  by the Portuguese Committee for the Release of The Five (CPLC), along with the Setubal Delegation of the Uniao de Restistentes Antifascistas Portugueses  (URAP).  

  Attending the meeting were Portuguese people from all walks of life, several presidents of Juntas de Freguesia (local government), among them Carlos Jorge de Almeida, from San Sebastião, and Antonio Almeirin, from Samouco, as well as members of the Portugal-Cuba Friendship Association.

  The case against The Five followed by the US legal system is scandalous and it’s an example of outrage and of violation of human rights and justice, said Maria das Dores.   

  She cited as an example of the hypocrisy and the double standard of the US government the protection it gives to notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, the author of numerous crimes, like the blowing-up in mid air of a Cubana airliner in Barbados in 1976, killing all 73 people on board.

Cuban News Agency