The Militant - November 5, 2007 -- Groups in U.S., Canada build Toronto conference on Cuban 5

Vol. 71/No. 41 November 5, 2007

Groups in U.S., Canada build
Toronto conference on Cuban 5

BY SAM MANUEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.—A conference in Toronto to map out the next steps in the campaign to win freedom for five Cuban revolutionaries unjustly held in U.S. jails will feature several guests from Cuba. These include members of Cuba’s National Assembly, the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), and family members of the Cuban Five.

The November 9-10 conference, entitled “Breaking the Silence: A Solidarity Conference for the Cuban Five,” will be jointly hosted by the Canadian Network on Cuba, the Table de Concertation de Solidarité Québec-Cuba, and the U.S.-based National Network on Cuba.

Supporters of the Cuban Five from several U.S. cities, including New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., are planning to participate in the conference.

The conference opens with a morning press conference that includes Elizabeth Palmeiro, wife of Ramón Labañino, one of the five jailed Cubans. A public meeting that evening features the Cuban ambassador to Canada, Ernesto Sentí Darias.

The second day features a session with Palmeiro; Silvia García, a member of the Cuban National Assembly; and Basilio Gutiérrez and Javier Domínguez from ICAP.

Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González have been imprisoned in the United States since 1998. They were convicted and sentenced in a federal frame-up trial in Miami in 2001. The five were monitoring counterrevolutionary Cuban American groups in Florida that have carried out violent attacks in Cuba with complicity of the U.S. government.

Information on the conference can be found at www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca.

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