The tour is organized by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK (CSC), with the support of several unions, following fundraising by members and affiliates.

Until just a few days ago, the visit was threatened by a delay in granting visas to René and Gerardo by the British Home Office.

On Monday, July 4, CSC called on its members, affiliates and supporters to contact their MPs to urge them to issue the visas, after the Home Office stated that the case was “complex” and failed to provide a date for the final visa decision.

In 2014, Cuban Hero René González was denied a visa to visit the UK for the second time, having been invited by a group of MPs to attend a meeting in Parliament to discuss the case of the Five.

After the British government denied him the visa, a group of 28 MPs — including current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — appealed the decision by writing to judges to state that the Home Office was violating the European Convention on Human Rights. Last year, in a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal ruled that the refusals breached the freedom to receive and impart information under Article 10 of said Convention.

Following a huge response to the CSC’s appeal, this Wednesday, July 4, it was announced that visas for the two Cuban anti-terrorists had finally been issued, marking another victory of British solidarity with Cuba.

From July 9-17, Gerardo Hernández and René González will visit several cities across the UK, including London, Manchester (northern England), Glasgow (Scotland) and Cardiff (capital of Wales), where they will be greeted by hundreds of activists who fought for the Five’s freedom over 16 years.

(Granma)

The leader held a private meeting with Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González, who arrived in the country accompanied by various family members, after a visit to Nicaragua where they attended events commemorating the 36th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution.

”You are messengers of hope and the dignity of the peoples of Latin America. We have a lot to learn from you. Know that your story will continue inspiring our people to keep the ideas of justice and freedom alive,” stated Sánchez Cerén on receiving the Five.

According to the President, the experience of these men “symbolizes the victory of life over terrorism and death, they are an example of dignity and love for the homeland which fills all Latin Americans with pride.”

Sánchez Cerén also welcomed the new chapter being opened in relations between Cuba and the United States which represents “a sign of understanding and respect for the sovereign equality of states and the people’s right to self-determination.”

Gerardo Her nán dez, speaking on behalf of his compañeros, stated that being able to share with the Salvadoran people “is a triumph of solidarity and unity,” rooted in the fundamental message that “when one perseveres and remains true to their principles, although the victory might be slow in coming, it always arrives and just ideals and loyalty triumph.”
”We, the Five, are of course inspired by the example of resistance and struggle of our people, our Revolution, but we also draw inspiration from the example of struggle, sacrifice and resistance of the Salvadoran people,” he stated.

Participating in the private encounter were First Lady of El Salvador, Margarita Villalta; Minister of Foreign Relations, Hugo Martínez; Presidential secretary for technical issues, Roberto Lorenzana; and Minister of Governance, Franzi Hato Hasbún.

Before the meeting, held at the Presidential Palace, the Five – as they are known – thanked the Salvadoran people for their solidarity and support.
The Five were arrested in 1998 in Miami, where they had been monitoring anti-Cuban terrorist groups, which have killed and injured thousands of people, and caused substantial material damage in Cuba.

In 2001, after a biased trial, full of irregularities, denounced by personalities such as former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the Five were sentenced to long prison terms.
The struggle for their release sparked a global movement which received support from solidarity organizations including groups from the U.S., governments, personalities such as Nobel Prize winners and international associations, in addition to important sectors of the Salvadoran population.

Of the Five, René González and Fernando González returned to Cuba in 2011 and 2013, respectively, after completing their sentences in full.

The three remaining anti-terrorists were released and returned to Cuba on December 17, 2014, within the context of the initiation of the process toward the re-establishment of diplomatic relations announced by Presidents of Cuba, Raúl Castro, and the United States, Barack Obama, that day.

(Granma)

At the official welcoming ceremony in the Plaza Simon Bolivar, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, together with their families, laid a wreath at the statue of the Liberator of America.

Rodriguez said Venezuela thus commends the work and struggle carried out by the Cuban Five even when they were away from their homeland.

“We gave you the Keys to Caracas so that you know the gates of Caracas and this Homeland will always be open to you”, he said.

For his part, the head of government of the Capital District, Ernesto Villegas, said the courage and dignity of the Cuban Five in US prisons since 1998, and the resistance of the Cuban people against Washington’s criminal blockade, are a clear example that when peoples fight for peace and independence, they deserve the victory.

The campaign for the release of Gerardo, Rene, Ramon, Fernando and Antonio and their unwavering conviction -he said- gave us fuel and inspiration for Venezuela’s crusade against the meddling decree of President Barack Obama, who considered Venezuela a threat for the US national security.

These men were arrested in 1998 in the United States and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for preventing aggressions against Cuba and monitoring the actions of violent organizations based in Florida.

Hernandez, Labañino and Guerrero returned to Cuban soil on 17 December and their release was the result of an agreement reached between Cuba and the United States to restore diplomatic relations.

Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez were released in 2013 and 2014; respectively, after fully serving their unfair sentences, according to the opinion of many international organizations and personalities.

(Prensa Latina)

(December 17, 2014)

Fellow countrymen,

Since my election as President of the State Council and Council of Ministers I have reiterated in many occasions our willingness to hold a respectful dialogue with the United States on the basis of sovereign equality, in order to deal reciprocally with a wide variety of topics without detriment to the national Independence and self-determination of our people.

This stance was conveyed to the US Government both publicly and privately by Comrade Fidel on several occasions during our long standing struggle, stating the willingness to discuss and solve our differences without renouncing any of our principles.

The heroic Cuban people, in the wake of serious dangers, aggressions, adversities and sacrifices has proven to be faithful and will continue to be faithful to our ideals of independence and social justice. Strongly united throughout these 56 years of Revolution, we have kept our unswerving loyalty to those who died in defense of our principles since the beginning of our independence wars in 1868.

Today, despite the difficulties, we have embarked on the task of updating our economic model in order to build a prosperous and sustainable Socialism.

As a result of a dialogue at the highest level, which included a phone conversation I had yesterday with President Obama, we have been able to make headway in the solution of some topics of mutual interest for both nations.

As Fidel promised on June 2001,when he said: “They shall return!” Gerardo, Ramon, and Antonio have arrived today to our homeland.

The enormous joy of their families and of all our people, who have relentlessly fought for this goal, is shared by hundreds of solidarity committees and groups, governments, parliaments, organizations, institutions, and personalities, who for the last sixteen years have made tireless efforts demanding their release. We convey our deepest gratitude and commitment to all of them.

President Obama’s decision deserves the respect and acknowledgement of our people.

I wish to thank and acknowledge the support of the Vatican, most particularly the support of Pope Francisco in the efforts for improving relations between Cuba and the United States. I also want to thank the Government of Canada for facilitating the high-level dialogue between the two countries.

In turn, we have decided to release and send back to the United States a spy of Cuban origin who was working for that nation.

On the other hand, and for humanitarian reasons, today we have also sent the American citizen Alan Gross back to his country.

Unilaterally, as has always been our practice, and in strict compliance with the provisions of our legal system, the concerned prisoners have received legal benefits, including the release of those persons that the Government of the United States had conveyed their interest in.

We have also agreed to renew diplomatic relations.

This in no way means that the heart of the matter has been solved. The economic, commercial, and financial blockade, which causes enormous human and economic damages to our country, must cease.

Though the blockade has been codified into law, the President of the United States has the executive authority to modify its implementation.

We propose to the Government of the United States the adoption of mutual steps to improve the bilateral atmosphere and advance towards normalization of relations between our two countries, based on the principles of International Law and the United Nations Charter.

Cuba reiterates its willingness to cooperate in multilateral bodies, such as the United Nations.

While acknowledging our profound differences, particularly on issues related to national sovereignty, democracy, human rights and foreign policy, I reaffirm our willingness to dialogue on all these issues.

I call upon the Government of the United States to remove the obstacles hindering or restricting ties between peoples, families, and citizens of both countries, particularly restrictions on travelling, direct post services, and telecommunications.

The progress made in our exchanges proves that it is possible to find solutions to many problems.

As we have reiterated, we must learn the art of coexisting with our differences in a civilized manner.

We will continue talking about these important issues at a later date

Thank you.

At 12:00 noon, the Cuban television and radio shall broadcast the address by the President, which will be broadcast by Cubavisión Internacional, Radio Habana Cuba and digital media sites in the Island.

From a legal point of view, for it to have standing in a United States court, the deed in question had have had to occur in international airspace, outside of Cuban jurisdiction. Otherwise, no court of the United States would have been able to take it up.

That is why in the Miami trial the exact location of the incident was discussed at length, repeating what had taken place before in the Security Council of the United Nations and in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). In those discussions, the contradictions between the Cuban radar and those of the United States arose continuously. There is certainly a great deal to write about the U.S. data, for example, the delay of several months in handing it over, which forced a delay in the work of the ICAO and the suspicious destruction of some records, all of which is stated in the ICAO report.

In order to try to resolve the discrepancy in the radars, the ICAO asked the United States to submit the images from its space satellites, a request that was rejected in 1996. Washington also refused to permit the Miami Court to view them. For a long time now it has been opposing the repeated requests by the Center for Constitutional Law and Human Rights of California and has litigated in the Courts of that State in its effort to keep the images from being seen. Soon it will be 20 years of obstinate censorship.

Only the United States has been able to examine what its satellites filmed, but no one else is permitted to see them. Not the UN Security Council, nor the ICAO, nor the United States courts. Why?

There is only one answer. Washington knows that the incident occurred inside Cuba’s territorial waters, very close to the Havana coast and consequently, it never had legal jurisdiction over it. Since the satellite images are irrefutable proof of the Yankee lie nobody but the United States authorities will ever be able to see them.

But the issue is not whether the satellite images exonerate Gerardo. They were not necessary because to convict him the Prosecution had to prove that he personally participated in the incident, something totally absurd, impossible to sustain regardless of where the shoot-down of the invading planes occurred. That problem was and is for Washington.

A problem, because the images prove that the United States, its authorities and its courts had no right whatsoever to try an incident that took place outside its territorial jurisdiction. It should be pointed out, that according to the U.S. radars, the planes flew together the whole time in a southerly direction and at least one of them, according to the U.S.’s own version, had penetrated Cuban territory. Indeed, if one accepts the United States theory about the planes’ location, they were in the vicinity of the Cuban capital, very close to its most central and populous part. In a few minutes they would have flown over it and would have been able to cross the island to the southern coast.

This did not take place near the United States airspace, rather it was far below the 24th Parallel which demarcates the zones of aerial supervision of both countries. It was there, within the area under Cuban control where a good part of the flight transpired, southward toward Havana and ignoring the indications and warnings issued by the Air Traffic Control Center of our country.

In any case, Gerardo had absolutely nothing to do with the deed, no matter where it occurred. And the United States authorities knew that perfectly well.

According to the Indictment of September 1998, the FBI had identified Gerardo and knew the mission he was carrying out. From 1994 on they were viewing his communications with Cuba, more than two years before that incident which grievously affected the situation between both countries.

The mobs of the Batista-terrorist mafia called then for war in the streets of Miami. Meanwhile, according to what President Clinton wrote in his Memoirs, the White House was discussing a possible bombardment of Cuba. He opted to promote the Helms-Burton law, accompanied by bellicose threats. Can anyone believe that they would not act against Gerardo if he had been involved? They did nothing precisely because his innocence was clear to them.

It is also the reason they did not charge him when he was arrested together with his comrades in September 1998. In the initial indictment not one word is said about the event of February 24, 1996, nor is anything said about the plane shoot-down or related issues. They did not do that because the FBI, which possessed and had read the messages between Gerardo and Havana, knew he was innocent.

Count 3 (“conspiracy to commit murder”) was drawn up only against Gerardo. It was more than seven months after the arrest of the Cuban Five, when they were in solitary confinement — the infamous “Hole” — isolated from the world and where it was impossible to defend themselves. To that end the Prosecution presented a Second Superseding Indictment that — as the Miami press described it — was created in meetings openly carried out by the FBI, the Prosecution and the leaders of the terrorist groups.

It was an arbitrary accusation, fabricated top to bottom, with the sole objective of satisfying the criminals, inflaming the hatred against Gerardo and his comrades and guaranteeing beforehand the worst, most illegal and irrational convictions. Count 3 was the focus of the lawless and vulgar media campaign, promoted and financed by the Federal Government. Like a tsunami of lies, it slammed a defenseless community paralyzed by terror. It was five articles per day in the print newspapers, endless commentaries day and night on radio and local television, creating what the panel of judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2005 characterized as a “perfect storm” of hatred, prejudice and hostility.

A major part of the trial centered on Count 3. Inside and outside the courtroom, individuals linked to “Brothers to the Rescue” agitated and made strident statements that the local media amplified. They and the U.S.-paid “journalists” persecuted and besieged the members of the jury who complained to the judge. She, for her part, several times also complained to the Government, of course, to no avail.

In the courtroom, despite all this, the baseless lie of the Prosecution was defeated. The accusers, who were so effectively promoting hatred and prejudice against him, were unable to present one single proof to connect Gerardo to the events of February 24. Not a thing.

So overwhelming and obvious was its defeat that the Government did something highly unusual. At the end of the discussions, when the judge was about to issue her instructions to guide the jury in its verdict deliberations, the prosecutors objected, surprisingly, to the text that the Judge had prepared, which reflected the Indictment word for word. They proposed changing it radically. The Judge, for good reason, did not accept the request, asserting that they had spent seven months discussing the prosecution’s indictment and it was much too late to modify it. That same day the Prosecution rushed to do something even more unusual: In an action that it acknowledged was “unprecedented,” the Prosecution appealed to the Court of Appeals with an “emergency writ of prohibition,” seeking to overturn the decision of the trial court as well as postpone the trial.

In the strange document the Prosecution maintained that “In light of the evidence presented in this trial, this [the instruction given by the judge] presents an insurmountable hurdle for the United States in this case, and will likely result in the failure of the prosecution on this count.”

It should be emphasized that, according to the universal principle of Law, a person is innocent unless and until proven otherwise and it is the obligation of the accuser to present the necessary proof or evidence to show the guilt of the accused. The Prosecution certainly faced “an insurmountable obstacle” for the simple reason that it could not show any proof against Gerardo, merely because it does not exist, nor can it exist. They lacked any evidence against him and worse still, they knew — since they possessed all his communiqués of several years with Havana, including the years before the planes’ incident —that he had had no relation whatsoever with that deed. In other words, when the Prosecution issued its Second Superseding Indictment, it was fully aware that it was accusing an innocent man and consequently was perverting justice in an unpardonable and gross manner.

Count 3 was a grave violation of the Constitution and law and also the legal and professional duty of the prosecutors. They worked hand in hand with the FBI of Miami as agents and accomplices of a terrorist mafia whom they should be combating, when in reality they were at their service with a scandalous subservience.

The Court of Appeals did not accept the late petition of the Prosecution and from that point on, developments occurred that would be surprising if we were dealing with a case which from beginning to end, has been and is an enormous mockery of justice.

Very quickly, without expressing any doubts, without asking any questions, in a few hours the Jury declared the Cuban Five guilty of each and every one of the Charges lodged against them, including Count 3. It did not matter to them that regarding Count 3 the Prosecution had admitted its failure and persisted in trying to get it withdrawn.

Upon the trial’s conclusion in the first week of June 2001, the Judge announced that she would impose the sentences in mid-September. The abominable terrorist act on the 11th of that same month and year apparently made her change her mind. Neither she nor the Government would feel comfortable brutally punishing anti-terrorist heroes while W. Bush joyfully and with great fanfare launched his “war on terrorism” throughout the planet. They would wait three months.

Finally, on December 14, 2001, Gerardo was sentenced to two life sentences plus 15 years.

Everyone in the Courtroom knew they were punishing an innocent man.

Por Carina Pino

This is the first time that Cubans on the Island can see the Special Holding Unit Prison Quarters of the United States (SHU), to go into it and if they prefer, to experience the conditions of a maximum security prison in solitary confinement, if only for five minutes.

The installation reproduces a part of this type of US prison where “The Five” were prisoners having suffered a trial in Miami and being sentenced for searching for information about terrorist actions to be carried out against Cubans and in the United States, in a legal process which is considered to not even have a precedent in the history of American jurisprudence.

Certainly, it is still recent news that there in the United States, on the 8th of May the Prize for Human Rights 2014 Global Exchange, will be bestowed on the five fighters (three of them still in prison), in the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California. It is a recognition that, in addition, has been received by Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, Noam Chomsky among other prestigious personalities, from this international human rights organization.

The work in the Palace of Fine Arts recreates the conditions of the Hole, a space 4 and a half meters long by somewhat more than two wide on the 12th floor of the Federal Detention Center of Miami, where they stayed for 17 months beginning on the 29th of September of 1998 and before the trial of the Cuban Five.

Besides representing “Chu”, as the prisoners in the United States call him, is included, in front of the first prison cubicle, the exhibition space El Hueco, un espacio para el arte contra la injusticia (The Hole, a space for art against injustice) that will be desined for transitory exhibitions and where the personal show Yo me muero como viví (I die the way I lived) of 15 watercolors by Antonio Guerrero, who has been behind bars for the same number of years.

In the back part of the square that is located a few meters from the entrance to the National Museum of Fine Arts the scene continues with ten school desks in whose tops catalogues about the exhibition are screwed down, in addition to a digital screen on which are projected all the documentaries since 1998 about the case of the Cuban Five making a small open theater.

The sum total of the installation grouping is titled No agradezcan el silencio (Don’t thank the silence) and it is the latest work of Alexis Leyva Machado “Kcho” who, together with Wilfredo Lam, forms part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) of New York.

The public becomes the principal performer if it wishes and it can live the experience of being imprisoned there if only for the symbolic sum of five minutes.

The visitor must surrender their personal belongings, sign the entry into prison in a black folder with the name of the show and later be photographed with the number that has been assigned to them on a board.

A brief line of people wait, the first day open to the public inside the museum, in order to experience that which Fernando González, one of The Five, now free, but who was confined there like his companions, characterized as “a horrifying experience”.

My five minutes in the Hole can be described as follows:

After being handcuffed, I was guided to a small area where I was given an orange uniform bearing the name Gerardo Hernández Nordelo and the number of years he was sentenced to (which was life in prison). I had to roll up the pant legs several times because the size was much too big, while the guard, impeccably dressed in blue with the initials of the FDC, ordered me to put on gray socks and slippers of the same color. Following that, I was chained around the ankles. The chains were double and were locked with the jailer’s key. The brief transit toward the cell was carried out therefore, handcuffed and with chained feet. One minute after removing the chains to enter the cell, it was closed with a bang. The “guard” shouted to back up near a small pass through in the metal door, to take off the handcuffs.

The second order was for me to hit the bunk. This is double and in front, a cement triangle sticks out in the way of a table which is paired with a concrete stool that appears to be coming out of the floor. The dirty humidity of the ground is in a scene that has for all its decoration a cockroach – detained in its apparent ascent up the wall -, the lens of a security camera and a strip that could pass for some type of window. Inspecting the group I found only two ventilation ducts. One of these a grating like the ones used in Cuba for drains, over the toilet close to the ceiling.

(I tried to imagine that which Antonio Guerrero relates printed in the catalogue about how he got up on top of the lavatory in order to read poems through those holes, to his companions in the neighboring cell).

In the next instant the orders are heard: Lift one leg, lift the other, show your private parts, now do knee bends! Barely seconds later, another voluntary player in the performance, entered. A blonde woman of thirty some years, also in uniform asked me if I had read the poems that were on top of the cement stand, along with table game of Parchese (crafted totally by hand). The performer looked around and immediately said: I want you to take me out of here now. At that very moment a guard came in order (to “free” the lady) and by the way handcuffed me again. I was double-chained at my ankles again, which makes it hard to walk around the installation clumsily to its entrance, the last point of personal theatrical performance.

“In the “excesses” of the tourtures, awhole economy of power is seen”, says Foucault in his erudite study Vigilar y Castigar. Nacimiento de la prisión. (Watch and Punish. Birth of the prison). In truth, the penal action staged in the museum, reflects incidentally, how alienated the powerful are from the human condition which should be intrinsic.

Beside the fact that the work does not propose to expressly reflect a criticism of the penitentiary system of the united States, the role carried out voluntarily by the visitor (whether Cuban or not) in the role of the prisoner turns out to be impactful with respect to the Hole, where in real life, the most dangerous prisoners are held during 22 and a half hours a day, only leaving to go to REC for only one hour in certain prisons. Hunger strikes, suicides and the sharpening of mental illnesses in US jails are the result of thousands of people being held in the SHU during many years, according to declarations by specialized American writers, analysts and scientists, such as the APA (American Psychological Association).

Nevertheless, as Kcho would say on the 5th day of its inauguration, the work was not created to show hate, but rather “as a space for love, peace and reflection centering on the case of the Cuban Five” who were imprisoned in the United States.

The installation and performance in their unity apply the cultural and auratic meaning of the fine arts, upon being shown in the museum. With the result that it is the place where the staging is developed that which qualifies the experience as esthetic.

In the showing of 15 watercolors that Antonio Guerrero, self taught, created in prison represent objects and life experiences that – in addition to having been useful to document the installation -, transmit the anguished memory “of the unjust and cruel treatment that we were given from the first day of our arrest” in Guerrero’s words.

In his plea at the trial he declared that he did not defile, offend, plagiarize, deceive, defraud, nor commit espionage: “The Intention, there was no other – he assured in view of the sentence- than that of avoiding the senselessness and crime, saving the flower of life from fortuitous death, brusque, vain and premature.”

This space in which his watercolors are shown, will be used to show future groupings that are not tied to a specific subject, according to what Kcho told me, rather they would gain much if their quality and meaning had a common denominator a non complacent art, that would gear into this same tendency of transforming the spectator by way of the lived or observed.

And likewise this installation and esthetic performing experience is inclined to a social message, ethical and meaningful in the political sense, whose effectiveness will be greater as its incidence in the public who visit the museum grows; in the same way works like this can also make extensive non material supports or include them, in order to influence large international auditoriums and publics.

At present are found re-sentenced, for crimes they did not commit, Ramón Labañino (30 years), Antonio Guerrero (21 years and 10 months) and Gerardo Hernández (two life sentences plus15 years).

The work in the National Museum incites us to be participants in a communication or solidary action. To not grant them our silence would be, in this sense, an important act of valor, honorable and just.

Translation: Daniel Fenton (Cubarte)

The campaign will run until October 6, to mobilize international public opinion to achieve the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, and Fernando Gonzalez.

They were detained in 1998 alongside Rene Gonzalez for the crime of miscarrying terrorist actions against their country, organized primarily from the Florida city of Miami.

Only Rene Gonzalez remains in Cuba since this year he renounced his U.S. citizenship after completing 13 years in prison and a period of supervised release.

The International Committee to Free the Five, as they are known among the followers of their cause, announced that many activities will be carried out in the world for their release.

Graciela Ramirez, from the Committee, informed that a vigil will be held in Washington on September 12 at noon. That day will mark 15 years of the imprisonment of the Cuban Five.

An important number of friendly organizations with Cuba to demand that President Barack Obama ends this injustice are expected to participate in the vigil.

Kenia Serrano, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, said that the island’s music bands will perform concerts the same day.

Those music groups will sing in Spanish language the song entitled “Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree.” This song is remembered in the United States when the return of a loved one is expected, she added.

The Cubans throughout the island confirmed yesterday that they will use yellow ribbons to send a message to U.S. people in solidarity with the antiterrorist fighters imprisoned in the northern country.

Rene Gonzalez made the call this week so that, as of a symbol in the United States, people learn more about the cause of the Cuban Five.

“It is a symbol that U.S. people will achieve understanding, visitors could see and foreign correspondents here could not ignore it,” he said in a televised speech.

We want this is a different campaign and the last one. It’s time to bring them home and for that reason we have your support, Gonzalez said.

During the actions to be carried out from September 5 to October 6, especially those on September 12, the day marking the 15th anniversary of the detention of Gerardo Hernandez , Ramon Labañino Salazar, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, and Rene Gonzalez Schewerert, should carry yellow ribbons, the group said.

It is expected that “not only in the United States but also throughout the world, people carry yellow ribbons in marches, sit-ins, events, and vigils in front of the White House and the Washington embassies in those countries, as the families of the Five and all the Cuban people will use. They are waiting for the return of their children to homeland,” the Committee said in a statement released today.

“There has been fifteen years of unjust imprisonment, 15 years of revenge for the crime of being honorable and defend the right to life of their people, 15 years that are a disgrace for the most basic principle of justice, 15 years of perverse manipulation, of violations to them and their families,” the text stated.

And despite that, the Five, as they are worldwide known, bear no hatred, or bitterness, and all we ask is to give the truth to the U.S. people, he added.

In a speech released yesterday through the Cuban television, Rene Gonzalez requested that the country is full of yellow ribbons on September 12 “and any visitor or foreign correspondent who is in the island can not ignore it” and can not stop reporting that the people of the island await for four of their children who still remain in U.S. prisons.

The yellow ribbon is a symbol for the American people, based on a legendary love song, whose story has been adapted, but has endured for over a century.

The Five were detained while monitoring from the city of Miami the movements and activities by violent groups and individuals engaged in planning terrorist acts against Cuba, as those that have left more than 5,000 deaths and people with disabilities for more than 50 years.

With the participation of youth, friends of the Caribbean island, and representatives from many political organizations, attendees referred to the details of the case of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, the latter already returned to Cuba after completing his prison term).

The Five, as they are known in the world, were detained in 1998, for monitoring terrorist groups planning actions against Cuba, and later convicted at a trial in which no evidence of the allegations was presented.

In the event, experts Mila Alečković and Iv Bataj provided the participants current information on the legal status of the case.

Serbian Communist Party general secretary Natasa Radulovic, and Cuban ambassador to this European country, Mercedes Martinez, attended the event.