Vol. 74/No. 39      October 18, 2010

José Luis Robaina García, Cuba's ambassador to New Zealand, said that more solidarity for the Cuban Five is needed. He pointed out that Washington would only free them “under pressure of the people of the world.”

The meeting was chaired by Robert Reid, general secretary of the National Distribution Union. Other speakers included Keith Locke, Green Party member of parliament; Jane Kelsey, law professor at the University of Auckland; Mike Treen, national director of the Unite union and a spokesperson for the Cuba Friendship Society; and Annalucia Vermunt, Communist League candidate for mayor of Auckland, who participated in the Second International Youth Meeting in Solidarity with the Cuban Five in 2009.

A third international youth meeting in solidarity with the Cuban Five is scheduled for April 2011 in Cuba. The fight to win the release of the five will also be featured at the December 13-21 World Festival of Youth and Students in South Africa, Vermunt told participants, which is expected to draw thousands of young people.

This case “is a travesty of fundamental legal principles of due process and constitutional rights,” said Kelsey. She summarized how the five didn't receive a fair trial, including being denied access to their lawyers and to documents while preparing their defense, and having the trial in Miami at a time when an anti-Cuba atmosphere was being whipped up.

Locke pointed to social gains in Cuba made possible by a revolution that overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship and ended U.S. domination of the island. “This is what the Cuban Five case is all about,” he said. “It's the challenge to the U.S. administration of what Cuba does.”

Washington “paints Cuba in the worst colors,” Robaina said. “It began with the victory of the Cuban Revolution when Cuba said no, and after 50 years continues to say no,” to U.S. domination. “We have no alternative except to fight back.” The meeting passed motions calling on Washington to free the Cuban Five, grant visas to two of the five's wives, Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez, so they can visit their husbands, and to lift the embargo against Cuba.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. gov’t paid media in frame-up of Cuban Five  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home