Support of Camagüey Residents to the Cuban Five Cause Extolled

_ Yamylé Fernández Rodríguez

Camagüey, Cuba, Nov 21.- Relatives of the five Cuban antiterrorists unjustly imprisoned in the United States since 1998, ratified their gratitude to the inhabitants of Camagüey for their permanent support in the struggle for the release of Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero.

This was made public during a brief stop in the provincial headquarter of the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP), after taking part in the 7th International Colloquium for the Release of the Cuban Five and against Terrorism, which recently came to an end in the Cuban eastern province of Holguin.

“We have found a lot of support and efforts to our case in Camagüey”, said Magali Llort, who is Fernando Gonzalez’s mother. She also highlighted the role played by the ICAP in this Cuban province that has been providing updated information on the case to the friends of Cuba who arrive to this office.  

“For all those who live in Camagüey, I’d like to send my regards and endless gratitude for being a companion in this campaign, in which we all are fighting together. This is the most important thing”, added Mirtha Rodríguez, mother of Antonio Guerrero.

Elizabeth Palmeiro, the wife of Ramón Labañino, warned that she is waiting for a visa so that she and her daughters can visit him in Beaumont prison, in Texas, where he is serving a 30-year sentence.

“He is very worried about Rene, who has been forced by a US Judge to stay three more years under probation in Florida, amid people who hate him because he was there to impede that ultra-right groups could carry out terrorist attacks against Cuba”, Elizabeth Palmeiro remarked. 

Palmeiro also explained that Ramón is on the watch for a Habeas Corpus, on which the attorney's office should make a pronouncement, “although it is very likely that it opposes as it happened in the case of Gerardo Hernández and Antonio Guerrero”.

“We will do everything necessary following legal channels, but the solution to the Cuban Five case depends on solidarity. Therefore, when participating in events like the International Colloquium held in Holguin, we fill ourselves with energy”, she concluded.

Colombian doctor Yohana Valdeblánquez and chairwoman of the Multinational Committee for the Liberation of the Cuban Five, stated on behalf of foreign scholarship holders who are studying in Camagüey-based universities, that “thanks to men like the Five we have the privilege of being studying in a safe country”.    

ICAP top official in Camagüey Rafael Rosales explained that, in a way, the International Colloquium for the Release of the Cuban Five and against Terrorism continued in Minas, some 36 km north-east the city of Camagüey, with a rally in which the inhabitants of this municipality ratified their support to these patriots.

Radio Cadena Agramonte