[Pnews] Obama, Give Me Five - Traveling to the 9th International Colloquium to Free the Cuban 5

[Prisoner News]

December 03, 2013
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/03/obama-give-me-five/



*Traveling to the 9th International Colloquium to Free the Cuban 5*


  Obama, Give Me Five

by LINDA EVANS, DIANA BLOCK and AMANDA BLOOM

On November 12^th , the three of us traveled twelve hours by bus from 
Havana to reach Holguín, site of the 9^th International Colloquium for 
the Freedom of the Five. Holguín is located at the eastern end of Cuba, 
85 miles west of Guantanamo.  Our bus, nicknamed the Granma, was part of 
a fleet bringing delegates from around the world to the Colloquium, 
which was organized by ICAP (The Cuban Friendship Institute). Held from 
November 12-16, 2013, the goal of the Colloquium was to strengthen the 
unified international strategy to win the release of the men from U.S. 
prisons where they have been held for fifteen years.

The Cuban 5, Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio 
Guerrero, and Fernando González were arrested in Miami in 1998. The 
mission of the Five was to infiltrate and monitor the activities of 
anti-Cuban exile groups operating in Miami. Always fully supported by 
the U.S. government, these groups had been responsible for numerous 
bombings and other violent terrorist activities inside Cuba for decades, 
resulting in the death of nearly 3,500 Cubans and the injury of many 
more. (see www.thecuban5.org  for more information).  The aim of these 
anti-Cuban groups was to destroy the Cuban revolution and the radically 
different society that it was struggling to create. During the course of 
our visit we heard testimony from many Cubans who had family killed or 
injured in these attacks. The Cuban 5 were convicted of conspiracy to 
commit espionage against the U.S. after a sham trial which ignored all 
of the evidence in their defense. The trial took place in Miami despite 
repeated efforts to change the venue because seating an impartial jury 
was impossible in the highly prejudicial political atmosphere.

Like many of the other 272 delegates from 51 countries, we three brought 
our own particular experiences  of struggle against U.S. imperialism  to 
the Colloquium.  Linda is a former political prisoner who served 16 
years in Federal prison before she received a commutation of her 
sentence by President Clinton in 2001, and we had all participated in 
the campaign for her release.  The three of us had also been deeply 
involved with the successful clemency campaign for eleven Puerto Rican 
political prisoners whose sentences were commuted by Clinton in 1999. 
This history helped us recognize that now is a critical moment in 
winning freedom for the Five, with the focus of political pressure 
directly on President Obama.  Obama has the constitutional power to 
release the Five and a moral and judicial obligation to do so since they 
are innocent.  We hoped that our experiences with previous campaigns 
could be of use.

We were also very excited because we knew that René González, one of the 
Five, was finally allowed to return to Cuba in May 2013 and would be 
participating in the Colloquium in Holguín for the first time. René 
completed his 15-year sentence in October 2011, but was detained in 
Miami as a condition of his parole until April 2013, when he was 
permitted to return to Cuba for his father's funeral. He was allowed to 
stay in Cuba permanently only when he renounced his U.S. citizenship.

René and Olga Salanueva, his wife, received a tremendous, loving welcome 
from the people of Holguín and the delegates to the Colloquium.  René's 
strong, visible presence confirmed the truth of the refrain  -- /Si Se 
Puede! / (Yes, it can be done!) --- which was repeated again and again 
throughout the Colloquium.

René's uncompromising description of the crimes of the United States 
against the Cuban people made it clear that his years in prison had only 
sharpened his understanding of the destructive nature of the U.S. 
system.  "The arrest of the Five was a shameless act, an act of revenge 
which reflected the power of imperialism to make people suffer without 
caring about the consequences. "  He described how the Five were 
deliberately isolated from their families and surrounded by the 
disinformation presented by the U.S. media and its criminal legal system 
for the first couple of years.  However, the Five never lost confidence 
that their families, the Cuban people, and eventually the world would 
learn the truth and support their efforts to defend Cuba against 
terrorism and aggression. Since his sentence was the shortest, René was 
released first. "I had always dreamed that all of us would be released 
together," he explained.  Since that dream was not realized, part of him 
still remained in prison with his comrades.  Working for their freedom 
was now central to his life, and Olga confirmed that he was up at all 
hours of the night, working on some aspect of the campaign.  As Ramón 
wrote in his message to the Colloquium, "We were 'born' Five and we will 
eternally be Five!"

The organizers of the Colloquium understood that successful campaigns 
are not developed primarily in conference halls.  Many sessions of the 
Colloquium were held in Holguín's universities engaging with students 
and teachers; in the CDR (Committees in Defense of the Revolution) 
neighborhood associations;  and in nearby municipalities where delegates 
had a chance to get to know members of the community, talking, eating, 
singing and dancing together.  A highpoint for the three of us was our 
visit to the municipality of Rafael Freyre, named for a man who died in* 
*1953 after being imprisoned and tortured with his comrades defending 
the Bayamo barracks at the same time as the historic attack on the 
Moncada barracks. At a townhall meeting, we listened to students offer 
poems, statements and songs about the Five.  One girl told how her class 
planted trees on the fifth day of each month.  A member of the Women's 
Federation described a blanket that women of the community had 
collectively sewn together with embroidered messages for the Five. It 
was overwhelming to see how, in truth, they are among the millions of 
Cubans who know all the details about the 5 and lovingly talk about 
concern for the 5 and their families.

At the Freyre townhall, one Cuban American delegate explained how her 
family had emigrated from Cuba to Key West Florida 55 years before.  
Over time she came to experience the many injustices of life in the U.S. 
and had become an active member of the José Marti Association in Miami, 
which has become a potent force in challenging the agenda of Miami's 
right-wing Cuban organizations.  Linda was then introduced to the 
gathering as a symbol of the slogan /Si Se Puede!/ Because Clinton had 
been successfully pressured to release Linda as well as eleven Puerto 
Rican political prisoners, there was hope that Obama could be compelled 
to do the same for the Five.

In an emotional speech, Linda made it clear that the Cuban revolution 
had helped  inspire her anti-imperialist politics from early in her 
life.  In the years since her release she had continued to work for the 
freedom of political prisoners in the U.S. and also for the human rights 
of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people.  Conditions in the 
U.S. made it very challenging to sustain the work for political 
prisoners, many of whom have remained in prison for decades.  Being in 
Cuba now for the first time, she recognized how crucial the organized, 
massive support of the Cuban people was in building the strength of the 
campaign for the Five's freedom. One of the women leaders who had 
represented the community at the 8^th Congress of CDRs gave Linda a 
commemorative button from that Congress. She had worn that button every 
day, and entrusted Linda to take it to Washington DC, to represent the 
people of the Rafael Freyre municipality and their demand for freedom 
for the Five.

 From the women leaders who facilitated the townhall in Rafael Freyre, 
to the mothers, wives, daughters and nieces of the Five, we were 
repeatedly impressed by the forceful, central role of Cuban women in 
sustaining the fight to bring the Five home.   Mirta Rodriguez, 
Antonio's mother, had just returned from an arduous trip visiting her 
son at Marianna prison in Florida. She described how strong Antonio's 
spirit was and how he told her that he knew they were doing everything 
they could to win their freedom. " He could be patient," she said, but 
after fifteen years she could not.  Her outrage at their continued 
incarceration and her call to increase the effectiveness of the campaign 
was reiterated passionately by all the other family members who spoke.

The final declaration of the 9th Colloquium summarized the key demands 
and the actions the delegates would take to heighten our efforts.   The 
proclamation called upon delegates from all countries to actively 
support the third annual Five Days for the Five in Washington, D.C., 
which will be held from June 4 -- 11, 2014.  Initiated by the 
International Committee for the Freedom of the Five, this series of 
events will include a rally in front of the White House on Saturday, 
June 7th, an educational and cultural program on Saturday evening, and 
intensive Congressional lobbying on Monday-Wednesday, June 9-11.  As 
occurred last year, elected parliamentarians and activists from all over 
the world will converge in Washington, D.C. to pressure Obama to do the 
right thing and free the Five, while building public awareness and 
solidarity with them. We encourage community organizations to endorse 
the event and urge you to join us. (see www.thecuban5.org  for more 
information).

In his final speech before thousands of residents of Holguín gathered at 
the city's monument to Che Guevara, René expressed his confidence in the 
growth of solidarity across the globe.  He described how the isolation 
that the U.S. government first tried to impose on the Five became 
ineffectual.  "One step at a time, letter by letter, international 
solidarity became our strongest tool.  Letters, first drops then rivers, 
became our safeguard."  He noted that Gerardo had called for a "jury of 
millions" to counter the corrupt verdict of the Miami jury that had 
convicted them. "Now this hope has been exceeded by the millions in Cuba 
and those around the world who have joined together to demand freedom."

We know from long hard experience that there are no easy or sure 
victories when it comes to fighting for justice from the United States. 
   Along with many other political prisoners, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard 
Peltier, Oscar Lopez, Lynne Stewart, Hugo "Yogi" Pinell, and the 
Guantanamo detainees remain captive in U.S. prisons despite lengthy 
efforts to free them.  But our trip to the 9^th Colloquium has 
reinvigorated our belief in the capacity of a unified people to keep 
struggling for what is just, despite all obstacles.  Freedom for the 
Cuban 5 will strengthen the fight to free them all.

/Venceremos!/

/*Linda Evans* is a former political prisoner and a founding/active 
member of All of Us or None, a grassroots organization fighting for the 
rights of formerly and currently incarcerated people./

/*Diana Block* is the author of Arm the Spirit -- A Woman's Journey 
Underground and Back, and a founding/active member of the California 
Coalition for Women Prisoners./

/*Amanda Bloom* is a social justice activist and a Physician Assistant 
at the Native American Health Center in Oakland, California./

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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