The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 78/No. 17      May 5, 2014

 
US rulers’ hatred of revolution
behind frame-up of Cuban 5
(feature article)
 
BY SETH GALINSKY  
“From the beginning we were conscious that we were paying the price for being Cuban revolutionaries, for working in favor of the people of Cuba, the revolution and the people of the United States,” Fernando González told Colombian journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina in an interview published on the CubaDebate website April 15. González was referring to the U.S. government’s arrest of him and his four comrades.

“The punishment wasn’t directed against me, against us,” González said. “It was Washington’s need for vengeance because of the hate they have toward the revolutionary process, toward our history.” After serving his entire sentence, González was released from the Safford, Ariz., central prison Feb. 27, rearrested by immigration police and deported to Cuba the next day. “This operation lasted 36 hours. I was handcuffed the whole time,” he said. It wasn’t until he landed in Havana and the plane door opened that U.S. agents removed the handcuffs.

Calvo Ospina asked how he was treated by other prisoners during his 15 years in jail.

“At the beginning I was just another prisoner,” he said. “But little by little our case became better known thanks to international solidarity.”

“We shared reading material that we received with other prisoners,” he said. “That got their attention, and they began to see that we are people who think differently. Then they would come to talk about Cuba, about the revolution.”

“We still have a lot to do,” González said. “We can’t accept that Ramón and Antonio will serve their full sentence, like René and I. That would mean that Gerardo would never return. That’s why those in solidarity with us around the world need to keep pushing for the three to be let go and allowed to return as soon as possible.”
 
 
Related articles:
Who are the Cuban Five?
Exhibit of paintings by Antonio Guerrero
 
 
 
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