Panel 1. Happy 53rd anniversary of the revolution, brothers and sisters! Every year, every month. [Placards: Long live Raúl [Castro]! Long live Fidel [Castro]! Long live free Cuba! Down with the blockade! Long live the revolution!]

Panel 2. Every day that we resist and continue to advance is a new victory. [Placards: 100% Cuban socialism! Long live peace! Cubans don’t surrender or sell out! With all and for the good of all! Breaking with schemas! Down with the mental blockade of the bureaucrats!]

Panel 3. In the face of those who for more than a half century have tried to make us give in. Greetings! [Placards: Down with terrorism! Freedom for the five! Proud to be Cuban!]

The cartoon above by Gerardo Hernández was drawn for the occasion of the 53rd anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, which on Jan. 1, 1959, overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and opened the door to socialist revolution in the Americas.

Hernández is one of the Cuban Five—working-class revolutionaries arrested in 1998 and convicted in 2001 on trumped-up charges that included “conspiracy to commit espionage” and, in the case of Hernández, “conspiracy to commit murder.” The other four are Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González.

They were given sentences ranging from 17 years plus nine months for René González to double life plus 15 years for Hernández. On October 7, 2011, René was released on probation but is barred from returning to Cuba under a three-year “supervised release.” The other four are still in prison.

Considered as heroes in their homeland of Cuba, the five were living and working in Florida in order to keep the Cuban government informed on the activities of Cuban exile counterrevolutionary groups that have a long history of organizing bombings and other deadly attacks on Cuba from U.S. soil—with Washington’s tacit backing.

An international campaign has been publicizing their fight for freedom.

—LOUIS MARTIN