THE RECENT 34th anniversary of the bombing of a Cubana passenger aircraft off Barbados also coincided with the launch of an appeal by Caribbean citizens for the freedom of five Cuban political prisoners held in the United States since September 1998.
The appeal, bearing the signatures of Caribbean nationals across the region, and posted on the popular website of Jamaican-born Caribbean scholar and social commentator Dr Norman Girvan, is directed to United States President Barack Obama.
The “Cuban Five” – as they have come to be known in an international campaign launched by Cuba back in 2000, at the time of their conviction in the United States on charges of espionage and conspiracy to commit murder are – Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Fernandez Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez.
The Cuban political prisoners have at all times denied the nature of the charges.
They have also claimed that their trials were “unfair” and conditions “inhumane” during the last eight years.
Cuba had acknowledged that the five were members of the country’s intelligence service and that they had travelled in 1998 to Miami to spy on the activities of Cuban exiles suspected of carrying out bombing attacks in Havana.
But Cuba also stressed that the five were “not there to spy on the government of the USA” and had been requesting their release.
Among the anti-Castro Cuban emigrés said to have been involved in the terrorist bombings in Havana were Luis Posada Carilles, who has since come to be known as one of the masterminds of the Cubana plane tragedy on October 6, 1976, and Orlando Bosch.
Both became beneficiaries of protective political care in the United States.
Condemnation of the trials of the “Cuban Five” and reported conditions, including 17 months of solitary confinement, denials of visitations by family members and access to documents, have been lodged by a variety of sources.
Among them are the United Nations Human Rights Council, National Lawyers Guild of the USA, members of the European Parliament and other national parliaments, eight Nobel laureates, the United States actors’ group co-chaired by Danny Glover and Ed Asner and, now, appeals from Caribbean citizens.
