The statement below was released by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five. The Cuban Five–Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González–were monitoring anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based in Miami at the time of their September 1998 arrest. These organizations have engaged in countless terrorist activities against Cuba and anyone who advocates a normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. The Five were falsely accused and wrongly convicted in Miami of espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related charges. The Five and their countless supporters around the world continue to seek justice and their freedom today.
Antonio Guerrero receives new sentence.
The struggle continues!
 Antonio Guerrero |
Rejecting a negotiated agreement between the U.S. government and the defense team of Antonio Guerrero-which sought a sentence of 20 years—Judge Joan Lenard refused to agree to the terms. After a four-hour session in court, the judge imposed a 21 year, 10 month sentence. The following is a declaration by the U.S. movement in solidarity with the Cuban Five, confirming an ongoing commitment to fight for the Cuban Five’s immediate freedom.
Declaration of the U.S. Movement in Solidarity with the Cuban Five to the rest of the International Movement for the Freedom of the Cuban Five
The following organizations have issued this declaration: The National Committee (U.S.) Committee to Free the Cuban Five; the International Committee to Free the Cuban Five; and the organizations of the Cuban Immigration in Miami that together comprise the Alianza Martiana (Marti Alliance): the Antonio Maceo Brigade, the Alianza Martiana as an individual organization, the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community (ATC), the José Martí Association, and political parties of the United States who are part of the Cuban Five solidarity movement.
With our declaration we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to maintain and strengthen our efforts to demand the immediate freedom of our Five brothers: Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González, as they are innocent of the charges that the U.S. government has convicted them of.
Today, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009, in Miami’s United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a hearing was held to reduce the sentence of one of our Five brothers, Antonio Guerrero. It is one of three re-sentencing hearings ordered by the Full Panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2008. The U.S. Federal District Court has not yet set the date or dates of the other two re-sentencing hearings of our brothers Ramón Labañino and Fernando González.
In September 2008 the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the trial court’s previous life sentence imposed on Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labañino, and the 19 year sentence imposed on Fernando González in December 2001. The Five were convicted in June 2001.
Today the Court imposed a prison sentence of 21 years 10 months on Antonio Guerrero for his unjust conviction of Conspiracy to Commit Espionage.
Independent of the court process and the decisions that are issued by the court, we maintain our steadfast demand for the immediate freedom of the Cuban Five.
The judicial case prosecuted against our Five brothers has nothing to do with justice. This is, and always has been, a political case.
Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, every administration of the U.S. government has maintained a policy of permanent aggression against the Cuban people. A fundamental part of this policy of aggression has been the use of violence against the Cuban people. For decades the U.S. administrations have been directly or indirectly involved–through terrorist organizations of the Cuban American extreme right wing in the United States–in countless terrorist attacks against the Cuban people, causing the deaths of 3,478 Cuban men, women and children, and injuring 2,099 Cubans. The peace, security and well-being of the Cuban people have been tragically affected.
In the interest of defending its people–as any other responsible government would do–the government of Cuba assigned to the Five the task of infiltrating the terrorist organizations of the Cuban American extreme right wing. Everyone in this city knows full well that the terrorist organizations have carried out campaigns of death and terror against the Cuban people for decades. Stopping terrorism was the mission of the Cuban Five.
Instead of arresting the terrorists and prosecuting them for their crimes, the U.S. government, participant of these nefarious campaigns of death and terror, arrested the Five 11 years ago this past September. Since then it has kept them arbitrarily imprisoned.
It is for these reasons that today in Miami we reaffirm and make known to our Five brothers, to their families and all our sisters and brothers in the U.S. and international movement to Free the Five, as well as the Cuban people, our unalterable decision to continue and strengthen our struggle for their immediate freedom.
Miami, October 13, 2009
For more information, visit www.freethefive.org.
