CAMPAIGNS & EVENTS : CAMPAIGNS
World Federation of Trade Unions demands freedom for the Cuban Five
By Haroldo Romero, Antiterroristas.cu
The immediate liberation of five Cubans wrongly imprisoned in the United States for fighting terrorism by ending terrorist attacks from the U.S. against Cuba, was demanded Saturday by the 15th World Federation of Trade Unions Congress which was attended by more than 500 union leaders from 75 countries.
The demand is contained in a resolution approved during the third day of the event of this important international union organization, and was adopted after a special address on the topic by the Cuban Parliament President, Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
The WFTU recalls that during more than 45 years, thousands of terrorist acts that were organized, financed, promoted or assisted by U.S. authorities, have caused Cuba the death or mutilation of thousands of its sons and daughters.
Faced with these facts, says the resolution, five Cubans were sent to monitor the activities of Cuban-American terrorist groups that operate from Florida, thereby preventing a higher death toll of both Cubans and U.S. residents in the attempted commission of further acts of terrorism against the Island..
For this antiterrorist work the five Cubans were sent to prison, subjected to a farce of a trial, given excessively and unjust severe sentences and obliged to live under inhuman conditions in their prisons. Their families were also subjected to humiliating treatment.
Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Fernando González Llort, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and René González Sehwerert have been imprisoned for more than seven years.
The sentences imposed on the Five by a Miami court in a city controlled by the anti-Cuban extreme right-wing included four life terms. Among the measures applied by the U.S. government against the relatives of the prisoners are the cruel denial of visas to Adriana Pérez and Olga Salanueva – respectively, the wives of Gerardo and René – to travel to the USA to see their husbands.
The union leaders based their call for freedom on the findings of a Special Group on Arbitrary Detentions of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, as well as the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, both of which have pronounced against the illegal and arbitrary process against the Cubans, the latter even declaring the Miami trial null and void.
The resolution announces the intention of carrying out acts in support of the five Cuban anti-terrorists in every country on the fifth day of every month.
In his address, Ricardo Alarcón denounced the unjust and illegal detention of the Five, using arguments contained in the legal file of the case itself, and how the event reveal the double standard of the self-proclaimed “war against terrorism” undertaken by George W. Bush.
The Cuban parliamentary leader also referred to the silent complicity of the major media relating to the case, and the need to increase information everywhere so that the case becomes known by every sector of society in the United States.
If the people of the United States have the possibility of finding out even the most minimum information on what has happened to these men, the Bush government could not continue one more second with this injustice, he said.
Aside form the Cuban contingent, more than 500 union delegates from 75 countries attended the World Federation of Trade Unions congress at the Havana Convention Palace from last Thursday to Sunday.
Resolution calling for the immediate release of the Five Approved at the WFTU Congress
Considering:
That for more than 45 years the people of Cuba have been the victims of brutal attacks that include—aside from the genocidal economic, financial and commercial blockade—thousands of terrorist actions organized, financed, promoted or assisted by the authorities of the United States, have caused Cuba the death or mutilation of thousands of its sons and daughters—including the exploding of its civil airliners in mid-flight, murder, sabotages and others—and sowing grief and pain in Cuban families,.
Considering:
That faced with these facts, five Cubans were sent to monitor the activities of Cuban-American terrorist groups that operate from Florida, thereby preventing a higher death toll of both Cubans and U.S. residents in the attempted commission of further acts of terrorism against the Island, were sent to prison, subjected to a farce of a trial, given excessively and unjust severe sentences and obliged to live under inhuman conditions in their prisons. Their families were also subjected to humiliating treatment.
Considering:
that the Special Group on Arbitrary Detentions of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, as well as the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, have both pronounced against the illegal and arbitrary process against the Cubans, the latter even declaring the Miami trial void.
The participants in the 15th World Federation of Trade Unions Union Congress, taking place in Havana, Cuba:
Demand:
That the Government of the United States—which has proclaimed itself the champion of the fight against terrorism—immediately free the Five Cuban antiterrorist fighters and cease all terrorist attacks against Cuba.
Agree:
To hold in each country, every 5th day of every month, an act in repudiation for the groundless imprisonment imposed on the five Cubans, until they are freed..
Havana, Cuba, December 4, 2005
