Vol. 75/No. 34      September 26, 2011

Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba’s National Assembly, spoke at the main event held in Cuba September 12 marking the 13th anniversary of the arrest and jailing of the Cuban Five. A central aspect of his remarks dealt with the upcoming release of René González, one of the imprisoned Cuban revolutionaries. That section of his presentation is printed below. Translation by the Militant.

BY RICARDO ALARCÓN  
On October 7, René González Sehwerert will leave prison after having completed the very last minute of his unjust incarceration.

For René, this could open up a three-year period of so-called “supervised release,” which constitutes a real risk for our compañero and an unjust additional punishment for him and his family. But it also signifies a challenge for the Obama administration, which one would hope it will face with wisdom and common sense. From that day forward, we will see one of the most telling, and for that reason one of the most hushed up, aspects of the sordid process to which our compañeros have been subjected.

I’ve said before that the case of the Cuban Five is irrefutable proof of Washington’s complicity with the terrorists. Believe me, I wasn’t exaggerating. This is demonstrated by the record and other documents from the Miami trial. The prosecution urged that the harshest and most excessive sentences be imposed, but in addition, it insisted that for Washington there was something just as important as a maximum prison sentence. This something, what they called “incapacitation,” consists of taking measures so that after finishing their prison terms, none of the defendants would be able to try do to anything against the terrorists or their plans.

In the sentence imposed on René, the restriction was expressed in these words: “As a further special condition of supervised release, the defendant is prohibited from associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists, members of organizations advocating violence, and organized crime figures are known to be or frequent.”

This was proclaimed by a U.S. federal court in December of 2001, scarcely three months after the abominable terrorist act of September 11, and it was made at the formal and express request of the fakers who unleashed a so-called “war on terrorism,” based on lies and illegality, that has caused the death and suffering of countless innocent people all over the world.

While it threw itself into this effort—as cruel as it was hypocritical—the Bush regime admitted that in South Florida there are individuals and terrorist groups, and it [the U.S. government] knows where they are and where they go. But instead of capturing them and putting them on trial, which is its duty, it shamelessly protects them and demands that neither René nor anyone else bother them.

What will the current government do now? Asking that it rescind this sanction against René and dare to send its agents to arrest the known terrorists in the places where they are “known to be or frequent” might be asking too much. However, it does have the option of avoiding the problem by letting René return to Cuba now, to his home and his family.
 
 
Related articles:
Cuban 5 prisoner presses for return to Cuba after release  
 
 
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