A new mural has been completed on the International Wall in West Belfast to support the campaign for the release of the Miami Five.  The mural was commissioned by Cuba Support Group Belfast and was drawn by muralist Danny Devenny.

The Miami Five, are five men unjustly imprisoned by the United States government while infiltrating and gathering evidence on Miami Cuban groups who had carried out terrorist actions in Cuba.  Rather than acting on the evidence gathered by the men on the Miami-based terrorist groups, the US government arrested the five on espionage charges  and sentenced them to heavy sentences in different jails across the US.

A working group of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights said that ‘the trial did not take place in a climate of objectivity and impartiality’.  Amnesty International has described the treatment of the Five as ‘unnecessarily punitive and contrary both to standards for the humane treatment of prisoners and to states’ obligation to protect family life’. Eight international Nobel Prize winners and 110 MPs have written to the U.S. Attorney General calling for freedom for the Five.

One of the men, Rene Gonzalez, was released on probation in October 2011 but has to remain in the US for three years placing his life in grave risk from the groups he sought to expose.

The new mural aims to promote the campaign to release the Five and encourage greater efforts to have them set free.

by Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo

———–

I wish to convey to all of you my most sincere appreciation for another year of company in solidarity with this struggle for truth and justice.

The year which will soon end is yet another year of significant efforts of all those, who in one way or another, contribute to the objective of making the freedom of the Cuban Five a reality.

We are aware of the activities and events that all of you organize everywhere in the world as part of the campaign for our freedom. To each one of you, in each place on the planet where you show the universal value of human solidarity, with the closing of the year 2011, receive my gratitude and my certainty that we will achieve victory.

May you have a happy and fruitful New Year, and that 2012 be another year of gains and victories for the causes that we defend.

Happy 2012!

¡Venceremos!

Fernando Gonzalez Llort

———–

Dear sisters and brothers,

This year 2011 is reaching an end, and we want to take this special time to send you all our love, with warmness and the gratitude of the Five, for all that you give every day for the cause of Cuba; that is our cause.

You are our greatest virtue, our strength and the main reason we can maintain our optimism that someday the big miracle of our freedom will happen and we will all celebrate together in victory.

With those of you who have always been there along our side for these 13 years of unjust imprisonment, we are fulfilling the prophecy that all work of love overcomes the adversity and in the end that will prove to be the case.

We wish you happy holidays, a 2012 with peace, love, health and victories.

The love of the Five is with you every second of the year and of life!

On behalf of our five families, of the Cuban people, and from each one of us, we wish you

!!!!!!!HAPPY 2012!!!!!!!

Ramón Labañino

————

Dear friends,

The second half of December has started.  I decided to share with you this message that I have sent to many friends, answering their words of solidarity and encouragement.

Rene is free, but it is a freedom with many conditions; it is a freedom where he is in constant physical danger; it is a freedom without being able to have Olguita and his daughters next to him; it is a freedom without freedom.

Gerardo continues under the terrible conditions of a penitentiary, something I know very well. His strength remains high against the injustice of the double life sentence despite not being able to receive visits from Adriana.

Our Habeas Corpus process is reaching its end. Perhaps in the beginning of next year we will receive an answer. I am wondering what Judge Lenard’s response will be?.

It gives us great strength to hear about the participation of many friends from all over the world who attended the VII Colloquium for our freedom in Holguin. Once again the success of this yearly event shows that the struggle for our cause is growing.

These are some of the things that 2011 ends with, in the middle of a world that cannot take it anymore and is dying of pain. It is a world that is asking us to run to help it in order to save humanity from so much selfishness; a world that is taking us, as Fidel affirmed, “in a relentless pace, towards a definitive and total catastrophe”.

For me, the recent visit of my two sons has been the most wonderful thing that has happened to me in this 13 years of imprisonment.

With great thanks for your support, on behalf of the 5, I wish you a Happy New Year 2012!
Peace, health, happiness and success in your goals.

We are always optimistic, and reiterate: !Venceremos!

Five embraces.

Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez

————-

Dear friends:

As another end of the year approaches with all the festivities and the symbolism that for each of us, from its place on our diversity, hold these days, the family spirit is renovated and our best wishes point to the immediate future; projecting our aspirations, dreams, realities and affections.

For the five of us, separated from our families and from our people for more than 13 years, the recurrent wish of seeing at last this injustice repaired will be again our greatest hope. All of you, who have being with us throughout all these years on an endless struggle to accomplish something as simple as the application of the laws, have shown to be sensible enough so as to feel on your own flesh the laceration inflicted by the denial of such an elemental aspiration on both us and on our loved ones; by giving space on your hearts to this battle that for enduring would have already made many people give up. For that perseverance we thank you and reiterate to all of you the assurance of our eternal gratitude.

A very important year is coming. It is probably a decisive one, when the last legal skirmish of this long and tortuous process can be elucidated. Such as it has been admitted by the prosecutors themselves, the weight of the solidarity is of no small effect, and the knowledge that we still count on your efforts gives us encouragement and sustenance. We have no doubt that we all will continue together on this struggle until we can be victorious, and that it will be thanks to the actions of people like you that in the end the reunification of our families will be achieved.

It is because of that reciprocal link that the happiness of yours is also our happiness, that we share your projects, that we enjoy your successes and that together we all project the optimism and the perseverance that make us one. With that spirit of fraternity and shared feelings we wish you the best New Year and lots of success on every one of your aspirations, which are also ours.

Wishing you a happy and prosperous 2012.

With affection.

Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert 

STATEMENT DELIVERED BY FINIAN McGRATH T.D.

We, representatives of the Free the Miami Five, the Irish National Campaign seeking Justice for the Miami Five, are here today, September 12^th to draw the attention of  the public and the media to their case, as they begin their 14^th year of unjust imprisonment in US jails, for the sole crime of fighting Florida based Cuban terrorist groups.

Their convictions were the result of a manipulated trial and are unsafe. We share this belief with former Presidents Jimmy Carter (USA) and Mary Robinson (Ireland), along with Amnesty International and the United Nations panel on Arbitrary Detentions.

The Atlanta District Court of Appeals formed a similar opinion, until its decision was hurriedly revised, and the US Supreme Court declined to examine the case in spite of an unprecedented number of petitions, including one from 54 Irish parliamentarians, which shows the wide spread level of support they enjoy both in Ireland and internationally.

But numerous international appeals from parliaments, government ministers, citizens groups, trade unions and legal experts for justice and a fair treatment have also been unsuccessful. While in prison they have been subjected to additional punishment and two of the wives have been repeatedly refused visas to visit their husbands.

US lawyers for the Five have presented compelling arguments for immediate Habeas Corpus relief. Using the Freedom of Information Act, it was revealed that the US government paid thousands of dollars to Miami TV, radio and print journalists to write and print prejudiced and biased articles against the Five and Cuba at the same time they were conducting a prosecution trial against them in a US court.

Today we want to highlight the case of Rene Gonzalez, the first of the Miami Five to serve his full sentence of fifteen years, who is due for release October 7^th. Rene was also sentenced to 3 years probation and is to fulfil this requirement in the US, where his physical integrity will be at risk. We ask that he be allowed to return to Cuba and join his family.

Today, the Irish Free the Miami Five Campaign is launching a programme of actions in the months of September and October to increase pressure for an end to this gross miscarriage of justice.

We urge you to support the Miami 5 and join us in calling on President Obama to use his presidential powers to release these men and facilitate their safe return home to their people and their families.

ENDS

Leinster House, 12 September 2011, 12:30 p.m.

This beautiful and already epic battle

Dear sisters and brothers around the world,

Today, September 12, 2011, thirteen years of an unjust and prolonged incarceration have been completed, where the manipulations, lies and concealment of evidence engaged in by this country’s government, have made this legal odyssey an endless and even more painful one. However, on the other side of the equation, without so much as a single second’s hesitation throughout this beautiful and already epic battle, are all of you, sisters, brother, family, eternal friends, who fill us with a sense of pride and privilege.

Thanks to all of you, to the entire international solidarity movement, we’ve made small steps forward, such as a re-sentencing for three of us, although the sentences remain exaggerated and unjustifiable. The struggle continues.

Our brother, Gerardo Hernández, still remains under a double life sentence plus 15 years, for crimes he never committed, whose exculpatory evidence the government refuses to hand over, making a mockery not only of justice and universal ethics, but of the very laws and constitution of the United States. For him, there has been no rest whatsoever in this battle, and against him, every kind of punishment and disparagement have been and continue to be used.

On the other hand, René Gonzáles is finally at the point of completing his unjust sentence and still must fight for the recognition of his legitimate right to reunite with those who love him most, and return to his homeland.

We all continue in the fight for truth and justice. Now our final legal appeals are being presented to obtain some kind of remedy that might rectify so much injustice. The “Habeas Corpus” petitions of Gerardo, Tony and Ramon have been presented. We can say that they are marvelous documents, with a strong legal basis and with real evidence of our innocence, as well as the aberrations of this entire process. But we are not naïve. As in many prior moments, we know that this is a totally and uniquely political cause, and that is behind the decisions of judges and prosecutors. Our families, brothers, friends also suffer from this situation.

We must not permit this injustice to continue any longer, that other brothers should be forced to complete undeserved sentences, that Gerardo should continue to be treated with such cruelty.

This is the reality and the scene that we are facing on this, the thirteenth anniversary of captivity.

But we are continuing and shall continue struggling until victory is achieved, because there is nothing more beautiful than the defense of the dignity and right of our country to be free, independent and sovereign.

And we are proud, knowing that we can count on this wonderful solidarity that someday, ever closer, will free us and bring us home.

Thank you to everyone for your faithful companionship!

Our love and affection remain with you!

We shall be victorious!

Ramon Labanino Salazar
Sept. 12, 2011, 11:50 a.m.
FCI Jesup, Georgia