2012 an Intense Year for the Cuban Five Case

New initiatives carried out in 2012 to reinforce the fight for the Five.

The case of the five Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. for 14 years for fighting terrorism added to its curriculum new and solid elements and initiatives in 2012 to reinforce the fight for the release of Gerardo, Ramon, Antonio and Fernando as well as that of Rene, who spends in Florida his second year of probation.

Since January 5 last year, Amnesty International (AI) again referred to the case of the Five and included it in the fragment dedicated to the United States, specifically in the section of unfair trials. This is the only trial in that country which AI describes as unjust, said antiterroristas.cu website.

The visit Adriana Perez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez, paid to Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on March 5 in Geneva, Switzerland, is among the most important actions undertaken last year for the release of the group. Adriana explained to Pillay the suffering of the family and of the Five during the 14 years of his imprisonment, as well as the violations in the process and other details of the case.

The next day, the wife of Gerardo reported in the Human Rights Council of the UN, the illegalities committed in the case of the Five, during an interactive dialogue with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

On  April 18th, an agreement was reached in Managua by Nicaragua’s parliament to demand the release of the five Cubans, and in the same day took place the lobbying and information distribution in the U.S. Congress, during the second day of the Five Days for the Five Campaign, which was followed on 20th and 21st by the debate Obama, Give Me Five, involving Wayne Smith, Jose Pertierra, Cindy Sheehan, the former Foreign Minister of Nicaragua Miguel D’Escoto and other personalities.

On Saturday 21, about 25 activists from North America and Europe, members of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Five, contacted the Congress of the United States with about 40 senators and representatives, to whom they explained the peculiarities and wrongs of the case of the Five.

In late June, the Cuban delegate, Paul B. Oliva presented the statement on the occasion of the 20th session of the Human Rights Council of the UN in Geneva and participated in an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers of that body, Gabriela Knaul, who opposed proceedings against the Five, and strongly insists that to the government in Washington.

On September 12, upon completion of the 14 years of unjust imprisonment of the Cuban Five, media, mass organizations and personalities in the U.S., Canada and Latin American and Caribbean countries presented texts with statements, sent messages to the U.S  presidency and made demonstrations outside American embassies and consulates in different countries demanding the release of the Five.

In October, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, reiterated in Geneva her interest in the case of the Five, while a group of prestigious figures such as Chilean Judge Juan Guzman, the President of Guyana, the Rev. Joan B.Campbell and her compatriot Louis Farrakhan, and the president of Nation of Islam, favored the cause of the Cuban prisoners.

At the institutional level, important initiatives were taken in November and December, such as that of the left of the European Parliament on November 17th, supporting the Five, which was followed on the 23rd, when Brazilian congressmen demanded freedom of the group in a meeting held in the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, with the participation of deputies, senators, legislators and members of solidarity groups with the island.

New actions were held in Washington in early December, when the Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five in the United States asked the Senate immediate response for the release of the Cuban Five arbitrarily confined in prisons there.