MIAMI—Around 90 people, mostly Cuban Americans, participated in a protest meeting here June 28 to demand freedom for five Cuban revolutionaries, known internationally as the Cuban Five, who have been unjustly locked up in U.S. prisons for almost 11 years. The Alianza Martiana, a coalition of groups that support normalizing relations with Cuba, organized the event. Speaking at the meeting, Max Lesnik (above), director of Radio Miami, denounced the June 15 U.S. Supreme Court decision to deny the five a retrial. “The five are imprisoned for defending Cuba, its sovereignty, and its revolution,” Lesnik said. “Our objective is to keep the pressure on,” said Andrés Goméz, a leader of the Antonio Maceo Brigade.

Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González were arrested in 1998 and convicted in 2001 in a federal court in Miami on a range of “conspiracy” charges. The five were monitoring counterrevolutionary Cuban American groups in Florida that have carried out violent attacks in Cuba with the complicity of the U.S. government.

—ROLLANDE GIRARD