Cuban Five: They are innocent

Cuban Five: They are innocent.

September 12 marks the twelfth anniversary of the detention of the Cuban Five. Their trials were so riddled with irregularities that even the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared in 2005 that the deprivation of liberty of the five men was arbitrary, and urged the U.S. government to take steps to remedy the situation.

That was Bush. Now it’s Obama. Has anything changed?

Not much, according to Michael Collins. Writing in NACLA in October 2009, he said “Unfortunately, the Obama administration seems to have picked up where Bush and Company left off. During the summer, while the U.S. Supreme Court was considering the case of the Cuban Five for appeal, President Obama's solicitor general, Elena Kagan, requested that the Supreme Court decline to hear the case. In her writ she stated that, with respect to the bringing down of the BTTR planes, "Neither plane had entered Cuban airspace". This affirmation was made despite clear evidence to the contrary from the International Civil Aviation Organization's independent investigation. The Supreme Court subsequently acquiesced to the government's demands. In October, the U.S. government was also accused of resisting a judge's order concerning the disclosure of classified material vital to the case. For a government that promised a change in attitude towards Cuba, the Obama administration's decision to block the Supreme Court appeal is deeply disheartening.”

Salim Lamrani, a lecturer at Paris Sorbonne IV University, shares the sentiments. Writing in the Huffington Post he said, “President Barack Obama has repeatedly expressed his desire to normalize relations with Havana. He can take a initial step in that direction by releasing the five Cuban political prisoners who have been imprisoned in U.S. since 1998 for infiltrating violent groups in South Florida that are responsible for dozens of terrorist attacks against Cuba.”

According to organisers, international events will take place between 10 September and 8 October, Che Guevara’s birthday, and they are being held not only to demand justice for the Cuban Five, but also to remember what they were fighting against, and some of the victims of it. “During this time, the world will be reminded that on September 21, 1976, the former foreign minister of Chile, Orlando Letelier and his North American secretary Ronnie Moffitt, were assassinated in Washington DC. Also during this time, it will be remembered what happened on October 6, 34 years ago when a plane was blown up in mid-air over the coast of Barbados killing 73 innocent people on board. Those who confessed to this heinous crime, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, today enjoy privileges awarded by the US government and are free to walk the streets of Miami as honorable citizens instead of the international criminals that they are. September 4 was the thirteenth anniversary of the death of Fabio Di Celmo, a young Italian tourist who died from a bomb that was planted in a Cuban hotel by order of the same Luis Posada Carriles,” they said.

More and more New Zealanders are joining the growing international chorus demanding the freedom of these five Cuban men. The New Zealand Free Cuban Five Committee is sending a letter to President Barack Obama demanding their release, and other activities in support of the Cuban Five are planned for Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch this weekend.

ENDS

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