Miami Five Family members to visit Britain
Campaign News | Thursday, 8 September 2005
Add your signature to the Five petition: http://www.liberenlos5.cult.cu/
London, 8 Sept: Olga Salanueva, the wife of Rene Gonzalez, and his 7-year-old daughter Ivette will be visiting the UK between November 29th and 6th December 2005.
The tour, hosted by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, will include meetings at the House of Commons with MPs, and at the Scottish Parliament with MSPs.
Olga and Ivette will also meet with lawyers and trade unionists interested in the case as well as addressing major public meetings in London, Manchester and Edinburgh.
The visit comes at a critical time for the campaign to Free the Five. On August 9th the three judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned their convictions and ordered a retrial on the grounds that they could not have received a fair trial in Miami.
The international solidarity movement is now demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the Five and for visiting rights for the families. The repeated denial of a visa for Olga Salanueva by the US authorities means that Rene's daughter Ivette also has been denied the right to see her father, something enshrined in Article 9 of the UN Declaration of Children's Rights.
Geoff Bottoms, Chair of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign Miami Five Committee, said
"We are honoured to be welcoming Olga and Ivette back to Britain. The campaign to free the Five Cuban heroes is integral to the struggle for a just and better world"
For all information on the tour please contact CSC Director, Rob Miller
office@cuba-solidarity.org.uk
Five hero writes letter of thanks to all in CSC
Cuban Five hero Gerardo Hernandez has written a letter to Father Geoff Bottoms thanking the CSC for all its efforts in helping to secure the judges' ruling that their conviction was insafe.
On August 9, the Court of Appeals of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Atlanta declared null and void the decision passed in Miami which had condemned Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, René González Sehwerert, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Fernando González Llort for infiltrating the extremist Cuban American groups in the south of Florida in order to obtain information about terrorist activities directed against Cuba.
The letter is reproduced in full here below:
Dear Fr Bottoms,
Congratulations to you and to all our friends in the UK! This important victory has been possible thanks to the support and solidarity of all our brothers and sisters around the world, and the brave people of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign have played a continual and very important role in this movement. Thank you all once again!
We are very happy and also ready to continue our struggle for justice. The retrial is not the most reasonable option for the US government, but I don't expect anything reasonable from them, so I think we are going to have another trial, and can assure you that this time it is going to be very different.
On behalf of my family, and especially from my mother and Adriana, I send a very warm embrace to you, and the regards of the Five also to all our friends.
Volveremos!
Gerardo.
USP Victorville, California
August 31st 2005.
Voices for justice: Petition on behalf of the Five growing fast
Havana 3rd Sept: ANOTHER Nobel Prize winner, Portuguese writer José Saramago, added his signature to an Open Letter to the U.S. Attorney General, which more than 1,500 artists, scientists, journalists and political and social activists from all over the world have signed, demanding the immediate release of the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in the United States in spite of the annulment of the Miami trial that convicted and sentenced them.
The document, made public on Tuesday in Havana, has received considerable coverage internationally, including in U.S. newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, Houston Chronicle, El Diario-La Prensa, and Voz de las Américas, as well as the Univisión television network, highlighting support for the letter from prestigious intellectuals around the world.
Excerpts of the letter have been published or broadcast in the Argentine dailies Página 12 and Clarín; Chile’s Crónica Digital; Venezuela’s El Tiempo and Venezolana de Televisión; the UK’s BBC; and Mexico’s El Universal.
In the United States, academic and social activist Angela Davis signed the letter a few hours before it was publicized. Her signature has great symbolic value, given that three decades ago, she suffered the same types of humiliation as the Five are undergoing in U.S. prisons. A few months ago in Berlin, Davis stated that “fighting for the freedom of the Five is fighting against terrorism in the world.”
As the document’s existence becomes known, other intellectuals have added their voices. These include well-known Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles, director of Motorcycle Diaries; popular Puerto Rican singer Andy Montañez; dancer and cultural advocate Julie Belafonte of the United States, and outstanding Argentine novelist Luisa Valenzuela.
Open Letter to
The Attorney General of the United States of America
Mr. Alberto Gonzales
Attorney General of the United States of America
According to the information supplied by the International Press, on August 9, 2005, the Court of Appeals of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Atlanta declared null and void the decision passed in Miami which had condemned Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, René González Sehwerert, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Fernando González Llort for infiltrating the extremist Cuban American groups in the south of Florida in order to obtain information about terrorist activities directed against Cuba. Their prison sentences have already been declared illegal by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations.
For the past seven years, these five young men have been held in maximum security prisons; they have been held incommunicado in isolated cells for long periods of time and two of them have been denied the right to receive family visits.
At this present time, considering the nullification of the sentence, nothing justifies their incarceration. This arbitrary situation which is extremely painful for them and their families, cannot be allowed to continue. We, who have signed below, are demanding their immediate liberation.
Signed by:
Wole Soyinka, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nadine Gordimer, Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchú, Noam Chomsky, Oscar Niemeyer, Mario Benedetti, Harry Belafonte, Pablo González Casanova, Ernesto Cardenal, Thiago de Mello, Danny Glover, Eduardo Galeano, Alice Walker, Manu Chao, Atilio Borón, Francois Houtart, Ignacio Ramonet, Luis Sepúlveda, Tariq Ali, Ramsey Clark, Gianni Miná, Frei Betto, Miguel Bonasso, Howard Zinn, Jorge Sanjinés, Rusell Banks, Alfonso Sastre, León Rozitchner, Gianni Vattimo, Belén Gopegui, Jorge Enrique Adoum, Tato Pavlovsky, Pascual Serrano, Juan Mari Brás, James Petras, Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, Silvia Iparraguirre, Abelardo Castillo, Volodia Teitelboim, Rosa Regás, Ramón Chao, Salim Lamrani, Daniel Ortega, Michel Collon, Eric Toussaint, Emir Sader, Ariel Dorfman, Saul Landau, Theotonio dos Santos, Istvan Mestzaros, Victor Flores Olea, Walter Tournier, Silvio Rodríguez, Daniel Viglietti, Victor Heredia, Pablo Milanés, Beth Carvalho, Danny Rivera, Fernando Morais, Keith Ellis, Alicia Alonso, Hebe de Bonafini, Raúl Zurita, James Cockcroft, Giulio Girardi, Paulo Lins, Juan Bañuelos, Marco Martos, Rémy Herrera, Carlo Frabetti, Hernando Calvo Ospina, James Early, Wim Dierckxsens, Joseph Mulligan, Fernando Birri, Roberto Fernández Retamar, Martin Almada, Eusebio Leal Spengler, Amiri Baraka, Amina Baraka, Cintio Vitier, Fina García Marruz, Marcos Roitman, Georges Labica, Heinz Dieterich, Pierre Kalfon, Roy Brown, Chiqui Vicioso, Andrés Sorel, Jorge Ruffinelli, Graziella Pogolotti, Richard Gott, Alfredo Guevara, Oscar González, Lisandro Otero, Domenico Losurdo, Eva Forest, Luis Britto, Isabel Parra, Victor Victor, Frank Fernández, Constantino Bértolo, Julio García Espinosa, Luciano Vasapollo, Omara Portuondo, Hildebrando Pérez Grande, Schafik Handall, Andy Spahn, Miguel Barnet, Henri Alleg, Roberto Fabelo, Ann Sparanese, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Vicente Feliú, Jane Franklin, Tomás Borge, Tony Word, Gaspar Llamazares, Nora de Izcue, Alex Cox, Edgardo Lander, Coriún Aharonián, Noel Colón Martínez, Leo Brower, Faheem Hussain, Paul-Emile Dupret, Jesusa Rodríguez, Liliana Felipe, Carlos Gallisá, Raúl Pérez Torres, Osvaldo Martínez, Claribel Alegria, Raúl Suaréz, Robert R. Bryan, Juan Madrid, Abelardo Estorino, Diamela Eltit, Jaime Augusto Shelley, Kofi Taha, John Beverley, Ben Treuhaft, Arnoldo Mora, Michael Avery, Fidel Castro Díaz Balart, Tarek William Saab, Michelle Gross, Jorge Nadal, Edmundo Aray, Francisco Jarauta, Nancy Morejón, Jhannett Madriz Sotillo, Cristián Tattembach Yglesias, Stella Calloni, Gilberto López y Rivas, Manuel Cabieses, Miguel D'Escoto, Fernando Butazzoni, Tubal Páez, Carlos Martí, Alpidio Alonso, José Steinsleger, Manuel Talens, Beverly Keene, Néstor Kohan, Carlos Taibo, Eric-Holt Gimenez, Han Otto Dill, Aldo Díaz Lacayo, Vicente Battista, Ana de Skalon, Luciano Alzaga, Christian Parenti, Arnel Medina Cuenca, Ida Rodríguez Prampolini, Adolfo Colombres, Montserrat Ponsa i Tarrés, Claudio Katz, Lee Lorch, Alessandra Riccio, Alcira Argumedo, Julio Fontanet, Alain Lambert, John Saxe Fernandez, Alan Woods, Jesús Orta Ruíz, Husni Abdel Wahed, Fernando Alonso, Douglas Valentine, Juan Martín, Jaime Sarusky, Leo Gabriel, Pedro Rivera, Daniel Vaca Narvaja, Rosita Fornés, Héctor Pesquera Sevillano, Claufe Rodríguez, Plinio de Arruda Sampaio Jr, Celina González, Michael Lebowitz, Marta Harnecker, Augusto Boal, Beto Almeida, Noelle Narran, Gennaro Carotenuto, Julio Rodríguez Puértolas, Adán Chávez Frías, Isidora Aguirre, Kintto Lucas, María de los Angeles Santana, Francisco "Pancho" Villa, Marta Rojas, Gloria la Riva, Richard Becker, Angel Guerra, Carlos Fernández Liria, Harold Gramatges, Carlos Fazio, Andrés Thomas Conteris, César López, Irene Amador, Isaura Navarro, José Antonio Rodríguez, Alan Mills, Esther Borja, Octavio Cortázar, Tunai, Loipa Araujo, Sandra Levinson, Quintín Cabrera, Amaury Pérez, Emeka Udemba, Pablo Armando Fernández, Humberto Solás, Verónica Lynn, Marina Minucci, Josefina Méndez, Senel Paz, Horacio Cerutti-Guldberg, Héctor Díaz-Polanco, Luis Carbonell, Carmen Bohórquez, Carilda Oliver Labra, Guillermo Núñez, Sergio Rodriguez Lazcano, Nelson P.Valdés, Pablo Guayasamín, Alfredo Vera, Javier Corcuera, Alejandro Moreano, Saskia Guayasamín, Alejandro Torres, Miren Uriarte, Bob Guild, Marcos Reyes Dávila, Steve Brouwer, Ana Esther Ceceña, Arturo Corcuera, Javier Ortiz, Reynaldo González, Antonio Maira, Santiago Alba Rico, Vicente Revuelta, Rosario Murillo, Pablo Marcano García, Angel Augier, Eduardo Roca, Chiara Varesse, Alfredo Sosabravo, Luis Rosa Pérez, Richard Egües, Mercedes C. de Meroño, Orlando Núñez, Soledad Bianchi, Ramiro Guerra Suárez, Oscar René Vargas, Anibal Quijano, Marilia Guimarães, Héctor Quintero, Saúl Arana, Carlos Raúl Argüelles, Rogelio Martínez Furé, Francoise Lopez, Alberto Méndez, Nicolas Frize, Zenaida Armenteros, Jean Ortiz, Adigio Benitez, Cristy Domínguez, Juan Luis Martin, Patricio Pardo, Aurora Basnuevo, Evel A. de Petrini, Maria Antonia Antoine, Armando Soler, Cristine Tarquis, Ricardo Antunes, Jeremy M. Glick, Higinio Polo, Juan Blanco, Roberto Argüello Hurtado, Alejandro Horowicz, Brian Becker, Sarah Guggenheim-Deri, Jean Ives Guezenec, Claude Marks, Eduardo Heras León, Matías Bosch, Osneldo García, Raúl Fornet-Betancourt, Humberto Tumini, Jorge Ceballos, Felipe Meneses, Electo Silva, Lito Borillo, Hector Santarén, César Portillo de la Luz, Antonio Vidal, Jorge Farinacci García, Marcelo Cafiso, Norberto Galazo, Fernando Ramón Bossi, Sara Rosemberg, Estela Fernández Nadal, Francisco Berdichevsky, Cipe Fridman, Mario Hernández, Jorge Beinstein, Milagros Rivera, Beatriz Rajland, Daniel de Santis, Julia Constenla, Osvaldo Gallone, Lucía Alvarez de Toledo, Rubén Dri, Andrés Soliz Rada, Luis Fernando Novoa Garzon, Ivana Jinkings, Mano Mell, José Arbex Jr, K. Beeman, Carlos Varea, Jean-Pierre Daubois, José Juan Nazario de la Rosa, Omar Lara, Juana Donoso Casanellas, Justo Soto Castellanos, Sergio Zúñiga Pavio, Julián Sabogal Tamayo, John Walton Cotman, Pablo Guadarrama, Rita Martufi, Mario Sáenz, Raúl Izquierdo Canosa, Daniel del Solar, Eugenio Hernández Espinosa, Guillermo Almeyra, Berta Martínez López, Miguel Cruz, Manuel Rodríguez, Marta P. de Badillo, Hilda Oates William, Domingo Aragú, Antonio Scocozza, José Loyola, Nayar López Castellanos, Juan Brom, José Ramón Artigas, Domenico Jervolino, José Villa, Alicia Castellanos Guerrero, Ivair Coelho Itagiba, Carlos Padrón, Camilo Soares, Rafael Trelles, Francisco López Sacha, Rogger Tabeada, Enrique González, Yuliana Valenzuela, Cecilia Conde, Claudia Korol, Catherine Murphy, Francisco Alonso, Dario López Desvar, Omar Felipe Mauri, Yamandú Acosta, Manuel Hernández, Orlando García, Antonio Alberto Pérez, Gervasio Morales Rodríguez, Hebe P. de Mascia, Julio Miguel Llánes, Sarah Peish, Roberto Bullón, Ernesto Agüero, Carlos Tamayo, Juana M. de Pargament, Jorge Hidalgo, Lucía Muñoz, Jorge Núñez, Oscar Ugarteche, Rodulfo Vaillant, Marcelo Larrea, Eduardo Tamayo G, John Pateman, Jose Rodena, Iosu Perales, José Mendi, José Manuel Martín Medem, Francisco José Pérez Esteban, Elvira de Triana, Mauricio Valiente, Pepe Mejía, Raúl Wiener, Miguel Riera, Juan José Tamayo Acosta, René Weber, Teodoro Buarque de Holanda, Arturo Robles Arias, Raquel Arias, Manuel Lidón Medina, Marcello Guimarães, María Suárez Santos, Luisa Campuzano, Alida Millán Ferrer, Zenobia Marcano, Rafael Pla-Lopez, Mariano Pujadas, Luis García Céspedes, Alfredo Diez Nieto, Ricardo Santos Ramos, Beat Dietschy, Juan Camacho Moreno, Roberto Jiménez Maggiolo, Gutenberg Charquero, Ana Luisa Escobar, Mauricio Langón, Adolfo Alfonso, Marelis Pérez Marcano, Alba Carosio, Nelson Guzmán, Jessica Vargas, Alicia Jrapko, Bill Hackwell, Domingo Rafael Ojeda Liendo, Angela Nocioni, Georges Bartoli, Maritza Pérez, Juan Santiago Nieves, Elizardo Martínez, Hélène Boulais, Darrel Furlotte, Virginia Fontes, Alberto Rabilotta, Celia P. de Prósperi, María Elisa H. de Landín, Ada F. de Senar, Elsa F. de Manzotti, María N. de Gutman, María del Carmen O, Elena S. de Gerbilski, Angel Parra, James Sober, Carmela Prizzi de Lago, Visitación Folgueiras de Loyola, Nadya Ricny, Josefina N. de Paludi, Irene Lizzi de Córtez, Rosa A. de Camarotti, Claudia P. de San Martín, Aurelio Narvaja, Lorenzo Osores, Fabio Basilone, Maria José Caramez, Leticia Spiller, Jalusa Barcelos, Olny Freitas, Terezinha Limeira, Judy Wicks, Jesus Chediak, Monica Montone, Carmen Vargas, Geraldo Moreira, José Caramez, Vivaldo Franco, João Grillo, João Braga, Caique Botkay, Paula Nobrega, Andrea Paola, Iedo Ivo, Dalmo Marins, Inês Gomide, Alexandre Brandão, Anne Lamouche, Diane Ladjouzi, Jean-Pierre Marguerat, Juliette Mabille, Patrick Perez Secheret, Juliette Mabille, Roland Labarre, Serge Lengendre, Marc-Olivier Gavois, Aurélien Gavois, Martine Bonmati, Marie-France Fovet, Bruno Drweski, Ivan Lavelle, Louis Michel Bonnemaire, David Lopez, Eric Lopez, Pierre Sahores Nemours, Francis Le Herisse, Jean-Pierre Page, Tania Noctiumnes, Jean-Pierre Neel, Freddy Ernesto Ilanga Ilunga, Danielle Bleitrach, Hiram Guadalupe Pérez, Pedro Varela Fernández, Rita E. Zengotita, Neeltje van Marissing Méndez, Carlos Muñiz Pérez, Madeline Ramírez, Marilena Román, Ebenecer López Ruyol, Rodolfo Sandino Argüello, Mariano Barahona, Ramón Leets, Álvaro Ramírez, Edwin Castro, Gustavo Porras, Ernesto Aburto, Edgardo García, Dora Zeledón, Sixto Ulloa, Roberto González, Nelson Artola, Rita Fletes, Jacinto Suárez, Orlando Sobalvarro, Álvaro Argüello Hurtado, Uriel Molina Oliú, Rafael Aragón, Indiana Acevedo, H. Margarita Zavala, Arnaldo Zenteno S.J, Jeanne Laurent, Alain Matiz, Alfredo Lo Picollo, Annie Boudin, Carlos Ruiz-Eldredge, Claude Vatican, Denis Lemercier, Henri Boudin, Jacqueline Coignard, Jacques Leyrat, Laurence Choko, Luis Diego Romero, Michel Maillet, Mireille Guézénec, Mireille Matiz, Miriam Hernández Salazar, Raquel Zamorano, Roberto Flores Guevara, Stans Choko, Virgilio Ponce, Fernando García, Deborah James, Ana Perez, Ariel Golan, Sterling Evans, Shirley Pate, Favianna Rodríguez, David Kent Peterson, Lucien Lenoire, Joanne Schwarz, Suzanne Ross, Chesa Boudin, Ann F. Schafer, Anne Marie Lamb, Ronald Margolis, Ed Rimbaugh, Alex Turner, Cindy Domingo, Richard Levins, Dana Kaplan, Morgan Alexander, Francisco Guzmán Pasos, Millard A. Murphy, Víctor Winer, Al Campbell, Kirsten Moller, Ivy Meeropol, Thomas Ambrose, Rachel Bruhnke, Sonja de Vries, Karil Daniels, Lydia Howell, Hunter Lenihan, Derrel Myers, Naomi White, Joan Malerich, Tony Prokott, Daniel Alvin, Arturo Roig, Eliézer Meleán, Ivonne Caldera, Orlando Zabaleta Polo, Gilberto Maringoni, Mário Augusto Jakobskind, José Artur Poerner, Elsa Neves Moraes, Eugene R. Murphy, Dee Brooks, Gloria Berrocal, Javier Maqua, Jim Diers, Gaudêncio Frigotto, João Quartim de Moraes, Paulo Tumolo, Fernando Antonio Lourenço, Claudia Nogueria, Dana Lubow, Victor Wallis, Leslie Reindl, Katalina Montero, Gaudêncio Frigotto, João Quartim de Moraes, Paulo Tumolo, Fernando Antonio Lourenço.
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