On August 16th, 2005 the Free the Cuban 5 Committee Vancouver (FC5C-Van) and Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC) organized an event at El Cocal restaurant on Vancouver's Commercial Drive to celebrate a victory for the case of the 5 Cuban heroes held in US prisons. Speakers at the event included Sophie Ziner coordinator of the Free The Cuban 5 Committee-Vancouver who had just returned from a trip to Cuba with Pastors for Peace, Claudio Ekdahl of La Surda Latin American Collective, Pat Moss from the Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association, and Tamara Hansen coordinator of Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba, speaking via telephone from her trip with a work brigade in Cuba. The night reflected a true feeling of celebration with the exciting news of victory for the 5 Cuban heroes, for Cuba, and for Cuba solidarity fighters around the world.

On September 12th 1998, after collecting facts and information pin pointing specific organizations and individuals that have committed and planned many terrorist attacks against the people of Cuba and after presenting this evidence to the FBI, these 5 anti-terrorist ambassadors to the US were jailed. Among the information they collected was proof against Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, who the US is trying desperately to protect, in planning the bombing of the Air Cubana tourist flight in 1976 that killed 73 people. The Cuban 5 had an important task in Miami, unarmed and unprotected to end these half-century-old attacks on Cuba. What were they met with for their honest and heroic efforts? More attacks and more terrorism from the US government and their anti-Cuba terrorist gangs which they created and have trained since the Cuban revolution in 1959.

"Now they are five kidnap victims of an administration that rides roughshod over the law everywhere. Not just in Abu Grahib and Guantánamo. Within US territory as well."
- Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban National Assembly

While CIA trained and funded terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles lives with Martha Stewart style treatment in jail, receiving his own private cell, and unlimited access to the phone, the Cuban 5 have faced 17 months in solitary confinement, and remain in cells that allow one to make only 3 paces from wall to wall. The 5 were immediately spread across all corners of the United States to divide them and their attorneys solely by distance, to make contact between the 5 and their representation almost impossible. The families of the Cuban 5 are not able to see their brothers, fathers, and sons. The US still denies visas to Olga Salaneuva and Adriana Perez, the wives of Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez. All evidence allegedly collected by the prosecution has been classified as confidential, to the 5, to their attorneys, and to the people of the world. What is so secretive about evidence condemning these men? The Cuban 5, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, and Rene Gonzalez have been living for seven years in some of the worst conditions the US has imposed against human rights this side of Iraq. This has all been done without evidence, only the fact that the US ruling class's interests were at stake in the hands of these men.

"United States of America (plaintiff-Appellee), versus Gerardo Hernandez, Luis Medina, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ruben Campa (Defendants-Appellants)"
-Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida

"They appeal their convictions, sentences, and the denial of their motion for a new trial arguing, inter alia, that the pervasive community prejudice against Fidel Castro and the Cuban government and its agents and the publicity surrounding the trial and other community events combined to create a situation where they were unable to obtain a fair trial. We agree, and REVERSE their convictions and REMAND for a retrial."
-Taken from the 93 page document by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States

On August 9th, 2005 after over five motions made by the defense to move the location of the trial to a neutral city, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals released their decision to re-locate the trial of the Cuban 5. The decision taken is to relocate to a venue free of the severely anti-Cuba sentiment that shadows over Miami. This sentiment has plagued the trial since the beginning and ensures that no trial being conducted in Miami having anything to do with Cuba would be unbiased. "The possibility of selecting twelve citizens of Miami-Dade County who can be impartial in a case involving acknowledged agents of the Cuban government is virtually zero," wrote Dr. Lisandro Perez on the exile of Cubans that followed US backed dictator of Cuba Fulgencio Batista after he and US intervention were overthrown by the Cuban revolution in 1959. Miami remains the environment most hostile to Cuba in the world and this question was raised and admitted throughout the case by the defendants and the plaintiff.

A Huge Step Forward for the 5 Cuban Heroes

This victory within the long and ongoing battle for justice by the Cuban 5 is one we must celebrate, but also one we must take seriously. Although the specific basis for the Cuban 5 to be sent to Miami was to put an end to terrorist attacks on Cuba and this was denied by the US administration, an even larger goal has been shown with this fight. The case of the Cuban 5 has served to further expose the illegitimacy and hypocrisy of the US, in a time where they are struggling to hold on to and strangle any bit of legitimacy they can get. The US has had to concede to the demands of the Cuban 5 because they are legitimate and follow basic human rights principals that Cuba and its people hold. The interests of the Cuban people are the same as that of the Cuban 5, they are the same interests that oppressed people echo all over Latin America and the world. They want an end to terrorist attacks and criminal blockade on them by the US government.

Join the Fight to Free the 5 Cuban Heroes

"The battle for the Five has not reached its end; it is just that a new chapter is beginning and we have to keep up the fight in every way we can."
-Ricardo Alarcon in Caracas August 10th

The US government is now further exposed with the new process of the case of the 5 Cuban heroes. We must unite to demand their immediate release. With well over 200 Free the Cuban 5 committees working world wide, the rising pressure of this fight is being injected straight into the veins of the US administration. With this great achievement won, we must continue the battle to its end.

Free the Cuban 5 Heroes Held in US jails!
Join the Free the Cuban 5 Committee Vancouver
Phone: 778-836-7090
E-Mail: cuban5_van@yahoo.com or visit www.vancubasolidarity.com
Mail: P.O. Box 21607 Vancouver, B.C. V5L 5G3




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