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Vol. 74/No. 31      August 16, 2010

 
Join fight to free Cuban Five!
(editorial)
 
Now is the time to intensify the campaign to free the Cuban Five, who have been serving hard time in U.S. prisons for nearly 12 years. The recent actions by the U.S. government to single out Gerardo Hernández, one of the five, for brutal punishment by placing him in the prison “hole” exposes the hypocrisy of the U.S. rulers, who rail about alleged human rights violations in Cuba, while every day they trample on the rights of workers in the United States and around the world.

Known as the Cuban Five, Hernández along with Ramón Labañino, René González, Antonio Guerrero, and Fernando González were framed up on charges ranging from “conspiracy to act as unregistered foreign agents” to “conspiracy to commit espionage” and, in the case of Hernández, “conspiracy to commit murder.” The five had been monitoring the activities of right-wing Cuban exile groups in Florida with a long history of violent attacks against the Cuban Revolution with Washington’s complicity.

Hernandez was given the most draconian sentence of the five—two life sentences plus 15 years. His wife has been denied the right to visit him for nearly 12 years. His lawyers have been restricted from working with him to help prepare the appeal of his conviction.

And then just one day after a doctor ordered tests on his health, Hernández is thrown into a tiny, sweltering cell for 13 days and denied medical treatment, in a further attempt to break his spirit. The abuse of Hernández verifies what tens of thousands of working people know from personal experience on the way prison authorities brutalize those behind bars.

Working people should join the campaign to demand that Hernández receive the medical attention he needs, that he be allowed full access to his attorneys, and that his wife be granted a visa to enter the United States and be able to visit him. Unions and other organizations should get behind this fight, and help spread the word. Free the Cuban Five!
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. gov’t takes aim at one of Cuban Five
‘12 men and 2 cats’: With Gerardo Hernández and his platoon in Angola
Message from Gerardo after release from ‘hole’  
 
 
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