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Vol. 73/No. 40      October 19, 2009

 
London protest demands
‘Free the Cuban Five’
 
BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN  
LONDON—Chanting “Justice now! Free the five!” 250 people joined a candlelight protest October 1 outside the U.S. embassy here. The protest was organized by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign to demand “immediate and unconditional release” of Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, René González, and Antonio Guerrero, known as the Cuban Five.

The five Cuban revolutionaries were arrested in 1998 on a range of frame-up charges that included “conspiracy to commit espionage” and in one case, “conspiracy to commit murder.” They had been keeping the Cuban government informed about rightist groups that have a long record of carrying out bombings and armed attacks against Cuba from U.S. soil.

Their arrest and imprisonment for 11 years have been marked by violations of democratic rights, including illegal search and seizure, denial of the right to a speedy trial, long stints in solitary confinement, prison lockdowns, and denial of visitation rights.

Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour Party member of Parliament, denounced their imprisonment as “crass injustice.” Corbyn was one of a dozen speakers at the protest. Other speakers included representatives of the Trades Union Congress and national union officials, lawyer Steve Cottingham, and Miriam Palacios, representing Cubans living in the United Kingdom. One of them, prestigious violinist Omar Puente, played a composition he had written for the families of the five. Greetings were read from the Venezuelan ambassador to the United Kingdom.

The protest was joined by Adriana Pérez, wife of Gerardo Hernández, and Olga Salanueva and Irma González, wife and daughter respectively of René González. The U.S. government has denied Pérez and Salanueva visas to enter the country to visit their husbands. “Visitation rights should be granted immediately,” demanded Keith Sonnet, deputy general secretary of the health workers union, Unison.

Salanueva addressed the crowd, bringing greetings from the five and thanks for the widening international support for their release.

“I spoke with René today and he knows you’re here this evening,” she said. The five “will never tire. They know they have on their side truth, reason, and the dignity of the Cuban people.”

Two days earlier, the Cuban women addressed 150 people during a meeting at the Labour Party conference organized by the trade union Unite. They were joined on the platform by the union’s joint general secretary, Tony Woodley.  
 
 
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