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Spanish Women Ask Michelle Obama to Support Release of the Cuban Five

SPAIN, May 31, 2010. More than a hundred Spanish women are appealing to United States First Lady Michelle Obama to intercede in the case of five Cuban antiterrorists being held since 1998 in the United States for their efforts to stop terrorism, reported Prensa Latina.

The letter asks Michelle Obama’s help to convince Washington to allow two of the imprisoned men’s wives to visit their husbands, and is signed by 115 women.

Adriana Pérez and Olga Salanueva have attempted in vain for years to visit their husbands, Gerardo Hernández and René González respectively, but they have been repeatedly denied visas to travel to the United States.

In a trial plagued with irregularities and held in a highly biased Miami court, the Cuban Five —Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González— were given harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to consecutive life terms plus 15 years.

The five Cubans were working to uncover information about terrorist activities being planned and carried out against Cuba by ultra-rightwing organizations based in southern Florida with a long record of terrorist actions against Cuba and the Cuban people. When they turned their information over to authorities they were arrested and have been in jail ever since.

The letter written by the Spanish women states that the denial of visiting rights is a form of psychological torture. The text reads that it is now up to President Obama to rectify the wrong that was carried out against the five Cubans.

A UN Working Group reviewing the case of the Cuban Five determined that the trial did not take place in a climate of objectivity and impartiality, which is required in order to conclude on the observance of the standards of a fair trial. The UN report also charges that the Cuban Five were wrongfully held for seventeen months in solitary confinement after their arrest, and that their lawyers were deprived of the opportunity to examine all of the available evidence before the government invoked the Classified Information Protection Act.

Shortly following the UN ruling, on August 9, 2005, a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta issued a 93-page reversal of the initial conviction as well as nullified the sentences. In response to the reversal, the Bush administration and Attorney General Gonzales vehemently pushed for the US Solicitor General to appeal the verdict of the three-judge panel’s decision before all twelve judges of the 11th circuit in Atlanta. This time the court bowed down to pressure from the Bush administration and reversed the previous pro-Cuban Five ruling by a vote of 10-2.

(Cubaminrex- Juventud Rebelde)