The
following organizations have issued this
declaration: The National Committee (U.S.)
Committee to Free the Cuban Five; the
International Committee to Free the Cuban
Five; and the organizations of the Cuban
Immigration in Miami that together comprise
the Alianza Martiana (Marti Alliance):
the Antonio Maceo Brigade, the Alianza
Martiana as an individual organization,
the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community
(ATC), the José Martí Association,
and political parties of the United States
who are part of the Cuban Five solidarity
movement.
With
our declaration we reaffirm our unwavering
commitment to maintain and strengthen
our efforts to demand the immediate freedom
of our Five brothers: Gerardo Hernández,
Ramón Labañino, Antonio
Guerrero, Fernando González and
René González, as they are
innocent of the charges that the U.S.
government has convicted them of.
Today,
Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009, in Miami's United
States Federal District Court for the
Southern District of Florida, a hearing
was held to reduce the sentence of one
of our Five brothers, Antonio Guerrero.
It is one of three re-sentencing hearings
ordered by the Full Panel of the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals in September
2008. The U.S. Federal District Court
has not yet set the date or dates of the
other two re-sentencing hearings of our
brothers Ramón Labañino
and Fernando González.
In
September 2008 the 11th Circuit Court
of Appeals vacated the trial court's previous
life sentence imposed on Antonio Guerrero
and Ramon Labañino, and the 19
year sentence imposed on Fernando González
in December 2001. The Five were convicted
in June 2001.
Today
the Court imposed a prison sentence of
21 years 10 months on Antonio Guerrero
for his unjust conviction of Conspiracy
to Commit Espionage.
Independent
of the court process and the decisions
that are issued by the court, we maintain
our steadfast demand for the immediate
freedom of the Cuban Five.
The
judicial case prosecuted against our Five
brothers has nothing to do with justice.
This is, and always has been, a political
case.
Since
the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in
1959, every administration of the U.S.
government has maintained a policy of
permanent aggression against the Cuban
people. A fundamental part of this policy
of aggression has been the use of violence
against the Cuban people. For decades
the U.S. administrations have been directly
or indirectly involved--through terrorist
organizations of the Cuban American extreme
right wing in the United States--in countless
terrorist attacks against the Cuban people,
causing the deaths of 3,478 Cuban men,
women and children, and injuring 2,099
Cubans. The peace, security and well-being
of the Cuban people have been tragically
affected.
In
the interest of defending its people--as
any other responsible government would
do--the government of Cuba assigned to
the Five the task of infiltrating the
terrorist organizations of the Cuban American
extreme right wing. Everyone in this city
knows full well that the terrorist organizations
have carried out campaigns of death and
terror against the Cuban people for decades.
Stopping terrorism was the mission of
the Cuban Five.
Instead
of arresting the terrorists and prosecuting
them for their crimes, the U.S. government,
participant of these nefarious campaigns
of death and terror, arrested the Five
11 years ago this past September. Since
then it has kept them arbitrarily imprisoned.
It
is for these reasons that today in Miami
we reaffirm and make known to our Five
brothers, to their families and all our
sisters and brothers in the U.S. and international
movement to Free the Five, as well as
the Cuban people, our unalterable decision
to continue and strengthen our struggle
for their immediate freedom.
Miami,
October 13, 2009
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