Vol. 77/No. 11      March 25, 2013

Although González was paroled in October 2011, his request to return to live in Cuba has been denied on the pretext of his dual citizenship. An unnamed U.S. official cited the same reason for González’s denial of consular visits, reported Spanish news agency EFE Feb. 28.

The denial is consistent with the U.S. government’s frame-up, designed to punish Cuban working people for continuing to defend their sovereignty and socialist revolution since the 1959 popular insurrection that overthrew the U.S.-backed tyranny of Fulgencio Batista.

“These visits had been permanently authorized during the 13 years in which he was imprisoned and during the first few months of his supervised release upon finishing his prison term,” the statement said.

Washington’s action violates the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, says the Cuban statement.

González’s wife, Olga Salanueva, remains barred from traveling to the U.S. to visit him, as is Adriana Pérez, the wife of Gerardo Hernández, who is serving two life terms plus 15 years.

The new measures make González’s supervised release more like being in prison “with the aim of continuing to punish him,” said the Cuban statement.

Josefina Vidal, director for U.S. Affairs at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denied State Department claims that its refusal to allow consular visits is similar to restrictions imposed on U.S. government personnel in Cuba.

“The U.S. Interests Section in Havana invariably receives permission to travel outside the capital to visit prisoners from the United States and Cubans naturalized in the U.S. who are carrying out their sentences anywhere in Cuba,” Vidal said in a statement, pointing to recent trips by U.S. officials in five provinces of Cuba. “All travel requests for [U.S.] consular visits have been authorized without exception.”

Meanwhile, Ramón Labañino, another one of the five, has been transferred to a low-security prison in Ashland, Ky. Labañino, who is serving a 30-year sentence, had been held in a medium security prison in Jesup, Ga.

The International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five has called a week of actions for the framed-up revolutionaries May 30-June 5 in Washington, D.C. These will include public meetings and a June 1 demonstration in front of the White House. For more information see http://www.thecuban5.org.
 
 
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‘To be a revolutionary doctor, you must make a revolution’
Who are the Cuban 5?
Write to Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio and Fernando
Students at Cuban medical school exchange views with socialist workers from US, UK, Canada, Australia
‘Women have taken part in every battle in Cuba’s revolutionary history’
Meetings in Havana and Santiago discuss books that help new generations of workers understand what a socialist revolution is
Socialists from US, UK, Canada talk with workers at Cuban plant
 
 
 
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