Vol. 79/No. 9      March 16, 2015

BY SARA LOBMAN
NEW YORK — A range of viewpoints on recent developments in U.S.-Cuba relations were presented at a Feb. 19 meeting at the Service Employees International Union Local 1199 hall here. The program, titled “End the Embargo of Cuba Now!” was co-sponsored by the union’s Latin American and Caribbean Democracy Committee, the Metro New York Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, and the World Organization for the Right of the People to Health Care. Some 50 people attended.

Speaking were Ariel Hernández, first secretary of the Cuban Mission to the United Nations; Bob Guild from Marazul Tours; Luis Matos from the union’s Latin American and Caribbean Democracy Committee; and Muata Greene, a retired paramedic with the New York Fire Department and member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“The blockade hasn’t ended. What the U.S. government has changed is its way of pursuing regime change in Cuba,” Hernández said. He added that Washington hasn’t changed the Cuban Adjustment Act — and its “wet-foot, dry foot” policy — which gives Cubans emigrating to the U.S. refugee rights that no other immigrants have.

No one will be allowed to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs, he said. Cuba “will never put our sovereignty or our principles on the negotiating table.”

“Obama should be applauded” for the steps he has taken to open travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba and to free the Cuban Five,” Guild said. “But the victory doesn’t belong to the U.S. government. It belongs to the Cuban people, their leadership, other Latin American governments, and those of us here in the United States who fought U.S. policy” over the past half century.

Matos announced that 1199 is organizing trips to Cuba in April and November.

The meeting ended with a discussion on how to wage the battle to end the U.S.-imposed travel ban and embargo.

“Obama has far more power than he has exerted to alter U.S. policy toward Cuba,” Guild said. “That’s why it’s so important to fight to end the U.S. embargo completely.”

Pat Fry of the Committees of Correspondence proposed those wanting to change U.S. policy focus on influencing members of Congress.

Other participants at the meeting stressed upcoming public protests and activities, including a March visit to New York by leaders of the Federation of Cuban Women; an April exhibit of paintings by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban Five, at a Puerto Rican cultural center in Lower Manhattan; a delegation to the May Day celebrations and an international solidarity conference in Cuba; and a May 30 march demanding freedom for Oscar López, a Puerto Rican nationalist leader imprisoned in the U.S. for nearly 34 years for his political activity.

BY OMARI MUSA
WASHINGTON — Nearly 150 supporters of the Cuban Five gathered here Feb. 6 to celebrate the return to Cuba of Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino after more than 16 years in U.S. prisons. They joined Fernando González and René González who served their full sentences and were released earlier.

The event was co-chaired by Alicia Jrapko, U.S. coordinator of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5, and Netfa Freeman of the Institute for Policy Studies.

“We are here because of the steadfast solidarity of the Cuban people and international support for our fight,” said Hernández, speaking by two-way video from Havana. “You in the U.S. were central to this support. Thank you from the Five and the Cuban people.”

“The embargo still stands. Cuba is still on the list of state sponsors of terrorism and Guantánamo is still occupied,” Jrapko said. “We have more work to do.”

The event included a photo exhibit of events in the fight to free the Five by Bill Hackwell, a leader of the International Committee.

BY ANTHONY DUTROW
MIAMI — More than 150 people gathered here Feb. 1 to celebrate the freedom of the Cuban Five and the steps toward opening diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S.

Speakers included Wayne Smith, former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana under the Carter administration, and Gloria La Riva, chairperson of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five.

The audience heard greetings from Havana by Gerardo Hernández and then from Ricardo Alarcón, former president of the Cuban National Assembly and for many years responsible for the Cuban government’s work in defense of the Five.

The event was sponsored by a number of Cuban-American organizations. “We’re now facing new struggles, for which we’re better prepared,” said Andrés Gomez, president of the Antonio Maceo Brigade.  
 
 
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