Vol. 78/No. 43      December 1, 2014

BY NATASHA TERLEXI
KALAMATA, Greece — About 60 people, including workers, farmers, youth and some public officials, attended an Oct. 25 showing at city hall here of Antonio Guerrero’s watercolor collection titled “I Will Die the Way I’ve Lived.”

The exhibit was followed by a speech by Cuban Ambassador Osvaldo Cobacho Martínez. The event was covered by the local Mesogios TV station.

“This exhibit here is special for us, it is a perspective by revolutionaries from inside the prison walls,” said Cabacho. “These five revolutionaries were in the U.S. to monitor organizations that organize terrorist acts against Cuba from U.S. territory. We are asking people to join the worldwide movement demanding their liberation.”

“I want to express my solidarity with the people of Cuba in the demand to free the remaining three prisoners,” said Thanasis Petrakos, a member of parliament from the Syriza party. “We will be organizing a delegation of MPs to visit Cuba as a symbolic gesture of support in this fight and against the U.S. embargo on Cuba.”

“With the Ebola epidemic in West Africa we have seen Cuba send doctors and nurses while the U.S. government is sending soldiers. That shows the big difference between the two societies and explains why we should support the fight to free the Cuban Five,” said Andreas Haikalis, who chaired the event.

Participants picked up 14 books on the case of the Cuban Five, the Cuban Revolution and other titles on revolutionary, working-class politics.

The event was sponsored by the local Greek Cuban Friendship Society and was part of a nationwide tour of the paintings organized by the José Martí Cultural Association, Hasta La Victoria Siempre and the Greek Solidarity Network – La Red Solid@ria.

Who are the Cuban Five?

Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González are Cuban revolutionaries who during the 1990s accepted assignments from the Cuban government to gather information on the operations and plans of Cuban-American paramilitary groups based in southern Florida. These rightist outfits, organizing on U.S. soil with virtual impunity, have a long record of carrying out bombings, assassinations and other attacks, both against targets in Cuba and supporters of the Cuban Revolution in the United States, Puerto Rico and elsewhere.

On Sept. 12, 1998, the Five were arrested by the FBI. They were framed up and convicted on a variety of charges, which included acting as unregistered agents of the Cuban government and possession of false identity documents. Without a shred of evidence, three were charged with “conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense information.”

Hernández was also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, on the pretext that he bore responsibility for the Cuban government’s 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes that had invaded Cuban airspace in disregard of Havana’s repeated warnings. He is serving two life terms plus 15 years. His wife Adriana Pérez is barred from entering the United States.

René González returned to Cuba in May 2013 and Fernando González on Feb. 28 this year.
 
 
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Who are the Cuban Five?
 
 
 
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