Ex-U.S. Col. Asks Obama to Release Cuban Anti-Terrorist Fighters

Former US Army Col. Ann Wright expressed deep concern about the lack of impartiality on the case of the five Cuban heroes unfairly tried and given harsh sentences in the city of Miami in 2001.

In a letter addressed to President Barack Obama, released today, Wright said that lack of impartiality was observed in the application of law and the judicial system regarding Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, internationally known as The Cuban Five, who were given harsh prison sentences for crimes they did not commit.

The former diplomat urged Obama “to defy the influence of the Cuban lobby’s right wing in Miami on the U.S. policy” and corrects the injustice, granting presidential pardon to Gerardo, Ramon and Antonio, who remain in prison.

Wright, who says to be proud to raise her voice for this cause, also refers to secret payments of the U.S. Administration of George W. Bush to journalists in Miami to write stories to discredit these Cuban heroes.

She recalled the conclusion in 2005 of the UN Working Group on Artbitrary Detention that the imprisonment of the Cuban Five was in violation of Article 14 of the International Convention on Political and Civil Liberties, of which the United States is a signatory.

Wright served in the U.S. Army for 29 years and then was a member of the diplomatic service for another 16 years until she failed resignation “in March, 2001, in opposition to the Bush Administration’s decision to invade and occupy Iraq.”