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.

“Until they all are here we must continue fighting (…) They will resist, they will not yield,” Rene told the reporters after beginning the procedures to renounce his citizenship at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, accompanied by his lawyer Philip Horowitz.

The anti-terrorist fighter was detained in 1998 along with Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, and Ramon Labañino, for monitoring terrorist groups that organized, financed and executed actions from Miami that have killed more than 3,300 Cubans.

As Rene told national and foreign reporters, once he has resolved “this affair of the supervised release,” he will look for a way to join the global campaign “to correct this injustice so they can return to be with us.”

We need to reach U.S. society with that campaign, he said, so that the Americans are made aware of the case of the Five and their mission in the northern territory to protect human lives from terrorism.

Last week, Judge Joan Lenard accepted the request made by the anti-terrorist fighter to modify the terms of his supervised release and remain in Cuba, in exchange for his renunciation of U.S. citizenship.

After serving his sentence in October 2011, Rene was forced to remain in the United States for three additional years under supervised release, something lawyers and human rights defenders described as an additional punishment.

Regarding the procedure begun for his renunciation of U.S. citizenship, the anti-terrorist fighter told Prensa Latina that this is barely the beginning of the legal process to remain in his homeland, as a modification of the terms of his supervised release.

“The order from Judge Joan Lenard that I can be in Cuba if I renounce my U.S. citizenship is not the end of the matter,” he said, “because there are further things to be done,” he said.

In his exchange with national and foreign reporters accredited in Cuba, Rene thanked Cubans for their solidarity and said he was happy to be back in the Caribbean country, “joining the society to which I belong.”

René is being held on U.S. soil for three years of supervised release, despite having served his sentence, and following the death of his father, Candido Gonzalez, he asked for permission to the Court for the Southern District of Florida to be with his family.

Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez were arrested in 1998 for monitoring Miami-based terrorist groups planning actions against Cuba, and received their sentences with no evidence of the charges imputed.

While René is under supervised release, the other four remain in prison with long sentences, including Hernandez’s two life sentences plus 15 years.

According to the official note released today in the press, his trip to Cuba was approved under strict conditions by Judge Joan Lenard, who from the beginning has been on the case of the Five, as they are known internationally.

In this sense, René had to give the authorities the detailed itinerary of his stay in the Caribbean island, data on his location and contact information here in the country.

Besides, adds the note, he must get in contact, by telephone, with his probation officer while in Cuba and return to the U.S. within the period prescribed.

This is the second visit of Rene to the island after finishing his sentence.

The first one was in 2012, under the same conditions, to see his brother Roberto, who was seriously ill and died several months later.

Those men turn today 14 years of lockup, hence we have promoted this campaign of denunciation, Graciela Ramirez, coordinator of the International Committee to Free the Five, told reporters.

According to Ramirez, marches in front of U.S. embassies, exhibitions, concerts, presentations of books, documentaries, and political acts, are included of today’s activities.

Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez are currently serving harsh sentences for gathering information on violent plans against Cuba, forged by terrorist groups operating in U.S. soil.

Solidarity organizations in Spain will stage a rally today in Puerta del Sol Square, while associations and friendship networks with Cuba will march in front of the U.S. embassies in Portugal and Germany.

As part of those expressions of support, activities for the Five, as they are universally known, will be also held in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina , Bahamas, St. Lucia, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

According to Ramirez, solidarity groups in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Guinea Bissau, South Africa, Lebanon, and Ethiopia also join to this campaign of denunciation.

Meanwhile, activists also talked of activities in favor of those antiterrorists in the United States and Canada.

In remarks to Prensa Latina, Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Five, said that many activities will be held in San Francisco, Washington DC and other U.S. cities from today to the coming few days, demanding the return to Cuba of Gerardo, Rene, Ramon, Antonio, and Fernando.

Regarding Canada, solidarity groups held a vigil in front of the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver and a forum in the same city.

The video includes interviews with renowned international artists such as Danny Glover and Peter Coyote speaking about the injustice committed against the Cuban patriots, detained in Miami in September 1998.

Thousands of people in the United States and the world have seen the videos, and important websites such as Facebook and Twitter, where many supporters of the Cuban cause have joined the struggle, have re-posted those videos.

The International Committee stated in a press release that the organization continues to work in a series of community activities in Washington DC, New York and San Francisco, to denounce the 14 years of unjust prison of the Cuban antiterrorists.

Cuban emigrant organizations in Miami called yesterday for a conference to analyze the special appeal currently underway for four of the Cuban five sentenced in 2001 in the United States.

The meeting was suggested by the Marti Alliance, Antonio Maceo Brigade, Jose Marti Association, the Bolivarian Circle of Miami, and the Association of Christian Women in Defense of the Family, among other nongovernmental groups in solidarity with Cuba.

Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, internationally known as the Cuban Five, were detained in 1998 in this country for monitoring anti-Cuban terrorist organizations located in Florida.

Rene was released from prison on October 7, after having completed his prison term. He was forced to remain in U.S. territory for three more years under supervised release.

In a biased trial in the city of Miami in 2001, the Five were condemned to long sentences in prison ranging from 15 years to double life imprisonment plus 15 additional years.

René González

Arleen Rodríguez Derivet

Translation: Machetera

Two notes associated with the case of the Cuban Five which happened to be published recently by various Cuban media outlets on the same day, deal with issues so obvious, and at the same time so ignored by U.S. authorities, that it’s worth comparing the headlines.

The first had to do with the new motion presented by Rene González’s attorney, asking once again for the same thing that was called for before he left prison: that he be allowed to return to Cuba, where his home and family are. The news here was that he would renounce his U.S. citizenship in exchange for meeting his petition.

The other blindingly obvious event, never before mentioned by a legal authority in relation to the case of the Cuban Five is contained in the statements of Gabriela Knaul, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on independence of judges and lawyers. Concerned by the extremely serious irregularities in the legal process against the Five, such as the defense’s lack of access to all available evidence, she also issued a warning, finally, about something that has seemed absurd to many of us since the beginning of the appeal process: that the habeas corpus appeals presented in the defense of the Five are being considered “by the same judge who was previously in charge of the case.”

Rene doesn’t want to be a U.S. citizen. He has no interest in being one. Surely he loves and respects the place where he happened to be born due to his parents’ temporary stay in the U.S. for economic reasons, but it’s senseless for him to remain a citizen of a country that uses his citizenship to punish him over and over again, including the most cruel of all punishments: preventing him from reuniting with his family after completing nearly 14 years of unjustified incarceration, as an exemplary prisoner.

How and why does a country that pursues and deports thousands of immigrants daily assign itself the task of forcing a man to prove he is “worthy” of a citizenship he has publicly said he wishes to renounce?

Anyone can see that behind the absurd imposition of supervised parole on Rene within U.S. territory is the deliberate proposition of continued punishment for him, while allowing the world to believe that he’s already free. And that is another abuse.

Rene is being held in a territory against his will, where there are no guarantees for his life. Doesn’t the U.S. citizen Rene González have the right to demand such guarantees during the three years of supposed freedom in which he is being prevented any possibility of rebuilding his family life? Who pays for the psychological effects of these abuses?

Regarding the statements from the U.N. Special Rapporteur, it’s extremely significant that a declaration of this nature be made about an issue that, in Cuba, even adolescents recognize as a problem. That is, every time there is any mention of another step in the appeals process for the Five, we hear again that the decision is in the hands of the same judge who handed down the maximum sentences in a trial so plagued with irregularities that three judges from the Appeals Court in Atlanta in August of 2005 ordered that it be declared a mistrial and begun over.

Who knows how many other absurdities in this long absurd process will continue to arise in the short term? They are as abundant as the abuses of the Five, including the fact that Rene is no longer behind bars but neither is he free.

According to information released by the TV news program, René arrived minutes alter midday.

On February 24, René had filed through his lawyer an emergency motion before the South Florida District Court, requesting an authorization to visit his brother, seriously ill in Cuba.

Nearly a month later, on March 19, Judge Joan Lenard, who have been handling the case of The Cuban Five since the start of their proceedings, authorized the trip for 15 days under certain conditions, including obtaining all US government travel permits needed.

She also set as a prerequisite failing a detailed travel schedule, his location in Cuba and information of contact in the country, as well as a systematic phone contact with his probation officer.

The judge also made clear that all conditions of Rene’s supervised release remain unchanged and he has to go back to the United States as soon as the two weeks pass from the date of his trip.

After having suffered 13 years of unfair prison, René is under a supervised release regime for another three years during which he has to remain in the United States, which constitutes an additional sanction.

The decision of authorizing his trip is fully in line with conditions established for his supervised release, which allow him to travel to Cuba after an approval by the probation officer or the judge.

Even the US Government, which has opposed all motions filed by René to be allowed a permanent return to Cuba and his temporary visit to his brother, admitted that conditions of his supervised release do not prevent him from visiting our country.

In this regard, as of March 7, 2011, the Attorney General’s Office argued that the terms of Rene’s supervised release do not prevent him from traveling to Cuba during that period. “Nothing will prevent him from requesting his probation officer (or the court, if he was denied that by the former) a permit to travel to Cuba to visit his wife, his old parents or other relatives.”

In the motion filed by his lawyer, Rene said he would comply with the terms established for the visit and return to the United States.

Despite the terms imposed, our people, with deep respect, welcomes home our beloved René, and do not stop fighting for his final, permanent return home along with his four close brothers, says the press release.

René González, along with his comrades Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González, was detained in 1998 in the United States for monitoring Miami-based violent groups operating against Cuba.

Lenard, who has been in charge of the trials of Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Rene Gonzalez, authorized the latter to pay a two-week visit to Cuba to see his brother Roberto, who is seriously ill.

The Five, as they are known internationally, were detained in 1998 for monitoring violent activities by anti-Cuba groups based in the United States, and are currently serving long sentences ranging from 15 years to double life plus 15 years.

In October, Rene completed his prison term, although he must remain in the United States for three years under “supervised release,” imposed by Judge Lenard, who ordered him to comply with a group of conditions, according to which Rene should receive all the necessary permissions to travel home and present the detailed itinerary of his stay and location in Cuba.

Rene also has to provide information of his contacts in Cuba, as well as reporting to a probation officer over the phone.

The order also states that all conditions of supervised release are invariable, and Rene should return to the United States after two weeks visiting his brother in Cuba.

My Brother for life,

I never thought I would have to write this letter. We share the same lack of enthusiasm for letter writing, a fact clearly demonstrated during our respective internationalist missions and – more conclusively – in the unique experience of the last 20 years. In other words, only conditions as extraordinary as the present ones induce me to write.

Under normal conditions, these things should said be face to face, and a lot of them wouldn’t even need to be said at all. You have enough on your plate with this pitched battle against a disease that is trying to devour you, without on top of that having to face a human ailment that is much more lethal: hatred.

The hatred that stops me from reciprocating all the efforts, with that well-deserved hug we Five would like to give you.

The hatred that does not let me laugh with you at the each of the happenings that spring from your immense courage.

The hatred that obliges me to guess, by the sound of your breathing on the telephone, the fluctuating fortunes of the battle you are waging.

The hatred that causes me the anguish of not being able to share in the caring for all those who love you; and which stops me from being there to support Sary and the boys.

The hatred that deprives me of seeing our nephews and nieces grow up; they have become men and women in the last few years. How proud you must be of your children!

The hatred that prevents me from simply embracing my brother. That obliges me to follow from an absurd and distant confinement a process of which I should be part, like anyone else who has served a prison sentence, in itself quite long enough and imposed precisely out of hatred; but for him, still insufficient.

What can one do against so much hatred? What we have always done, I suppose: love life and fight for it, both for our own and for that of others. Confront every obstacle with a smile on our lips, an apt witticism, and with that optimism instilled in us from childhood. Press on, tough it out, never give in, always together shoulder to shoulder, however hard they try to isolate me from family and friends, to punish all of us in that way.

Today I’ve been remembering those great days from your time as a sportsman. You in the pool and us up in the stands, shouting your name as you swam. Our voices reached you intermittently, when you raised your head to breathe. You told us how sometimes you heard your whole name, other times just the beginning or the end. So we trained ourselves to wait ’till your head was out of the water and then all shout your name in unison. You couldn’t see us, but the din we made told you we were with you, even if we couldn’t intervene directly in the fierce struggle taking place in the swimming pool.

History is now repeating itself. While you are committing all your efforts to this struggle, I am here cheering you on, now together with the family that you had not then yet built. Although you can’t see me, you know I’m there, together with yours, who are also mine. You know that this brother, from his strange exile, from the sorrow of forced separation, under the most absurd conditions of supervised freedom, based on the dignity of his status as a Cuban patriot (like you) and on the affection nurtured by the ties of kinship and shared experience that unite us, is and always will be with you. Every time you raise your head, you’ll be able to hear me shouting, together with my nephews and nieces.

Breathe, brother, breathe!!

Your brother who loves you,

Rene