Vol. 73/No. 4      February 2, 2009

In a January 15 letter addressed to President Barack Obama, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 president Melvin Mackay states, “On behalf of all members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10, we urge you to look into the case of the internationally known Cuban Five, and immediately free them so they can return to their families in Cuba.” ILWU Local 10 is based in San Francisco.

The Cuban Five are René González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, and Gerardo Hernández. They were arrested in 1998 in Miami and convicted in a 2001 frame-up trial on various charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. Hernández was also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.

Mackay says in his letter that the Cuban Five were in the United States “because of the unwillingness of past U.S. administrations to act and put an end to terrorist actions emanating from Miami that [have] resulted in the death of more than 3,400 Cubans.” He notes that they were convicted after “a highly politically motivated trial in Miami, the only city in the U.S. where five men accused of being agents of the Cuban government could not have a fair trial.”

Defense attorneys for the five were denied a change of venue. Labañino, Hernández, and Guerrero received life sentences. René González was sentenced to 15 years and Fernando González to 19.

Mackay also calls the denial of visas to Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez, wives of René González and Gerardo Hernández respectively, “an additional and unnecessary punishment.” He calls on the government to grant them visas to visit their husbands.

“President Obama, we appeal to your sense of justice and ask you to act immediately to put an end to this travesty of justice. We know that if you learn about the case, you will understand that the Cuban Five are innocent,” Mackay’s letter concludes.

The letter from the ILWU is the second sent to a U.S. president from a major union in the United States asking for the granting of visas for Salanueva and Pérez. In July 2008, a similar letter was sent to George Bush on behalf of the Service Employees International Union by its president, Andrew Stern.
 
 
Related articles:
Lebanon meeting hails Cuban Revolution
‘Declarations of Havana’ sell at Lebanon meeting on Cuba
Havana book panel to discuss U.S. class struggle
Restructuring an industry: when workers decide
Former sugar workers in study-as-work program in Cuba
are ‘more confident in what we can accomplish’
Women’s combat platoon in Cuba’s revolutionary war  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home