Socialist Viewpoint

Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González have now been imprisoned in the United States for more than four years without having committed any crime or having in any way inflicted damage on the U.S. people. They were charged in a subverted trial plagued with irregularities and violations held in an atmosphere of prejudice, intimidation and hatred in Miami-Dade county. They were accused solely because they acted in a non-violent manner to uncover the plans of terrorist groups freely operating from that city that had already caused the death of innocent persons and serious human and material damage in both Cuba and the United States, as was amply demonstrated during their trial in Miami.

The Federal Court in the South Florida district currently has before it a motion for a retrial in an area other than that of Miami. To accede to this request, which would ensure a just and impartial trial, would be to the honor of the U.S. legal system. Our five compatriots are experiencing cruel and unjustifiable treatment counter to the U.S. Constitution and traditions, with lengthy periods of solitary confinement in five separate penitentiaries. Gerardo and René have not been allowed visits from their wives and visas for all the others’ relatives have been delayed for more than five months.

The major media has barely published any information on their case. The people of the United States, like those of Cuba, have been the victims of terrorism and will not tolerate notorious terrorists being protected in their own territory while persons who have combated them at the risk of their lives are unjustly punished. Nor will they allow the most elemental rights of these prisoners and their families to be so flagrantly violated.

We shall continue fighting for the truth to come out even when those who control the media continue attempting to prevent that. We shall multiply our efforts to circulate the truth through the use of the website www.antiterroristas.cu and other alternative media. We appeal to the sentiments of solidarity and love of justice of our U.S. brothers and sisters and have every trust in them.

—The National Assembly of People’s Power, City of Havana, December 21, 2002: “Year of the Heroes Imprisoned by the U.S. Empire.”