Miami Five out of solitary confinement
Campaign News | Wednesday, 2 April 2003
STATEMENT BY THE CUBAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
STATEMENT BY THE CUBAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
April 1st, 2003
As a result of public denunciation and numerous messages of protest,
the Government of Washington decided to put an end to the arbitrary
solitary confinement that it had imposed to Gerardo Hernández, René
González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González, and
to place them again in the general penal population, although
maintaining against them several completely discriminatory
restrictions.
It has been demonstrated that during a month, the Government of the
United States violated the rights of the prisoners, of their lawyers
and the norms of due process, seriously damaging the appeal process.
Taking them now out of ‘the hole’, the U.S. Government is proving
that never existed a ‘national security’ justification and that it
was obliged to go back because of the denunciations and protests.
The U.S. Government has not finished yet with its arbitrary,
discriminatory and illegal actions. It still maintains inadmissible
prohibitions related to the use of the phone, the correspondence, the
consular access and the family visits, that should be completely
lifted.
It was proved the strength of the international solidarity and its
capacity to act with efficacy, even in very difficult circumstances,
due to the fact that the information about this issue in the big
media was virtually zero.
The Government of the United States in March, 2003 has repeated the
methods and techniques that it used before to prevent a fair trial,
that is precisely the principal question that the Atlanta Appeal
Court should consider. That is the best proof to demonstrate that
that Court should dismiss the Miami farce and order the release of
the five prisoners.
It is necessary to multiply and intensify the solidarity, now that we
have this additional proof about the serious misconduct of the U.S.
Government.
The solidarity took them out of ‘the hole’.
The solidarity will free them.
The Cuban National Assembly
Havana, April 1st, 2003
