<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div
style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204); font-family: Trebuchet MS,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"
align="center"><span
style="font-family: book Antiqua,Palatino; color: rgb(62, 80, 109); font-size: 14pt;"><strong></strong></span>
<div align="left"></div>
<span
style="font-family: book Antiqua,Palatino; color: rgb(62, 80, 109); font-size: 14pt;"><strong>
<div style="text-align: center; font-size: 14pt;" align="center">
<div align="left"><span
style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 77, 180);">International
Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 Announces:</span><span
style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva; color: rgb(62, 80, 109);"><strong></strong></span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva; color: rgb(62, 80, 109);"><strong></strong></span></div>
<div align="left"><span
style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva; color: rgb(62, 80, 109);"><strong>U.S.
Blocks Consular and Legal Visits of </strong></span></div>
</div>
</strong></span><span
style="font-family: book Antiqua,Palatino; color: rgb(62, 80, 109); font-size: 14pt;"><strong></strong>
</span>
<div align="left"><span
style="font-family: book Antiqua,Palatino; color: rgb(62, 80, 109); font-size: 14pt;"></span><span
style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva; color: rgb(62, 80, 109);"><strong>Gerardo
Hernandez Nordelo<br>
</strong></span><span
style="font-family: book Antiqua,Palatino; color: rgb(62, 80, 109); font-size: 14pt;"></span></div>
<span
style="font-family: book Antiqua,Palatino; color: rgb(62, 80, 109); font-size: 14pt;"><strong>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-align: left;"
align="left"><span
style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(62, 80, 109);"> </span>
</p>
</strong></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;" align="justify"><span
style="color: rgb(62, 80, 109);">
<div style="text-align: left;" align="left"><span
style="font-size: 11pt;">Once again an additional punishment has been
inflicted upon Gerardo Hernandez</span><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: book Antiqua,Palatino;"> <br>
<div style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva; font-size: 11pt;">
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div><span>
<div style="font-size: 11pt;"><span>Nordelo, one of the Cuban 5
anti-terrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United States for
almost 14 years. On Saturday July 7 Cuban consuls were not allowed to
enter the prison and on Monday July 9 his lawyer, Martin Garbus, was
also denied a legal visit having to resort instead to enter as a
regular visitor. This meant that Garbus could not enter the prison with
any legal documents for Gerardo's current appeal or any pens or writing
paper.</span> </div>
<div> </div>
<div><span><strong>The International Committee for the Freedom of the
Cuban 5</strong>
denounces this new arbitrary measure against Gerardo. It seems that it
is not enough for the US government to keep 4 innocent men in prison
and another under a punitive supervised probation, now they add more
impediments to elementary legal and human rights.<br>
<br>
We also
demand the the US government grant immediate visa to Adriana Perez to
visit Gerardo in prison and to allow Rene Gonzalez to immediately
return home to his loved ones. </span></div>
</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</span></div>
<div
style="text-align: left; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"
align="left"><strong><br>
Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba </strong></div>
<p
style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"> </p>
<div
style="text-align: justify; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"
align="justify">One
of the five antiterrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United
States, Hero of the Republic of Cuba, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, has
been subject of a new arbitrariness by the authorities of that
country, aiming at hindering his legal process. </div>
<div
style="text-align: justify; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"
align="justify">Last
Saturday, July 7th, the Cuban officers who had been already authorized
by the State Department to carry out a consular visit to Gerardo, were
not able to fulfill it, under the supposed argument that the memorandum
of the Chief of the penitentiary center Victorville, in California,
authorizing their entrance to the prison, was not available at the
reception desk. This fact powerfully calls the attention when, in
addition to the procedures followed by the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington with the State Department to get the authorization for this
visit, Gerardo himself had reconfirmed with the prison´s authorities
that everything was in order.</div>
<p
style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"> </p>
<div
style="text-align: justify; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"
align="justify">Additionally,
last July 9th, lawyer Martin Garbus, member of Gerardo´s defense team,
who had scheduled a legal visit to review, together with Gerardo, the
documentation related to the current collateral process of appeal, was
not able to do it with the same pretext that the memorandum of
authorization of the chief of prison was not at the reception desk.
Garbus could finally visit Gerardo, thanks to the fact that his name
was on the visitor´s list; however, and given the conditions imposed to
the type of visit he was authorized to, without a legal character, he
could not bring in the documentation our Hero should read and sign, and
neither met with him under the appropriate conditions. </div>
<div
style="text-align: justify; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"
align="justify">This
is not the first time events like this one occur. They have taken place
systematically during every key moment of Gerardo´s legal process. Just
to mention a few examples: in 2010, during the preparations of the
collateral appeal, known as Habeas Corpus, the penitentiary authorities
denied Gerardo the possibility to be visited by his lawyer Leonard
Weinglass in two occasions, and deliberately delayed the delivery of
his legal mail, which prevented his participation in the reviewing. In
2003, Gerardo was isolated in a punishment cell prior to the
presentations of his direct appeal.</div>
<p
style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"> </p>
<div
style="text-align: justify; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"
align="justify">The
Minister of Foreign Affairs denounces this new maneuver by US
authorities, aiming at hindering Gerardo´s process of appeal, depriving
him from one of the few rights he has as a prisoner in the United
States. </div>
<div
style="text-align: justify; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"
align="justify">Gerardo
has been sent to solitary confinement several times without
justification; he´s had repeated difficulties with his personal and
legal mail; his wife, Adriana, has not been granted visa to visit him
and they have not been able to conceive a child. During his long and
unjust imprisonment, on charges for crimes he did not commit and have
never been proved, his rights have been violated repeatedly. </div>
<p
style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"> </p>
<div
style="text-align: justify; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"
align="justify">Cuba
will not stop denouncing to the world these violations and will not
cease the efforts to achieve the return to the Homeland of Gerardo and
his other four brothers unjustly imprisoned and retained in the United
States for almost 14 years.</div>
<div style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva; text-align: justify;"
align="justify"> </div>
<div
style="text-align: justify; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Trebuchet MS,Geneva;"
align="justify">Havana July 12th, 2012 <br>
</div>
</span></div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a></div>
</body>
</html>