ALBANY, N.Y. — Thirty-five people gathered at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany Oct. 24 to hear a presentation by Pepe Rossy on the international campaign to free the Cuban Five. Rossy is a long-time fighter for Puerto Rican independence. He spoke about the decades-long history of assassinations, bombings and other assaults and acts of sabotage directed against Cuba and supporters of the Cuban Revolution by paramilitary groups that operate from U.S. soil with tacit backing from Washington and its cop agencies.

Rossy described how Carlos Muñiz Varela was gunned down by rightists in 1979. Muñiz — a friend of Rossy and a fellow fighter for Puerto Rican independence and supporter of the Cuban Revolution — was organizing trips where young people of Cuban descent could go to the island and learn the truth about the revolution. Recently released and heavily redacted FBI documents provide proof of Washington’s knowledge and complicity in the assassination, for which no one was ever charged.

It’s the long record of attacks such as these, Rossy explained, that led the Cuban Five to take on a mission to gather information for the Cuban government about the plans and activities of rightist paramilitary groups in Florida to prevent future attacks and provocations.

The program was held in conjunction with “Humor from My Pen,” an exhibit of cartoons drawn in prison by Gerardo Hernández, one of the Five.

The cartoons were displayed in the hall for two weeks and viewed by more than 100 members of the congregation, as well as numerous students who attend Rockefeller College of the State University of New York across the street. Following the exhibit here, the cartoons traveled to New Paltz, where they were put on display in the library of the state university campus.

— TIM CRAINE