FREEDOM AND TRUTH FOR THE CUBAN FIVE
Open letter from the Students Federation of Buenos Aires (Federación Universitaria de Buenos Aires – FUBA) to all American students
October 19th, 2011
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fellow university and college students from the US: It is in great concern that we, in behalf of the Argentinean students’ movement, would like to address you regarding a matter that has struck public notice, in belief that you have the possibility to make a difference about it. We refer to the five Cuban citizens, known as the Cuban Five, which are being held prisoners in both moral unfairness and illegality. The Cuban Five are, once more, brought upon the spotlight due to the recent liberation of René Gonzalez.
The Students Federation of Buenos Aires, which unionizes about 330,000 fellow students attending the University of Buenos Aires, has expressed itself once and again in solidarity with the Cuban Five, in every single event held towards this matter, both around Argentina and Latin America.
Therefore, we were actively involved in a recent political meeting for the Cuban Five and René González “Encuentro Por la liberación de los Cinco patriotas cubanos. Por el regreso de René González a su patria”, attended by public personalities such as Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Peace Nobel Prize winner) and Nora Cortiñas (Madres de Plaza de Mayo), and a number of social, political and Human Rights organizations.
Public men and women from around the globe, including Nobel Prize Winners such as the President of East Timor, José Ramos Horta, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Rigoberta Menchu, José Saramago, Wole Soyinka, Zhores Alferov, Nadine Gordimer, Günter Grass, Darío Fo and Mairead Maguire; the Mexican Senate; the National Assembly of Panama; Mary Robinson, President of Ireland (1992-97) and High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN, 1997-2002), and former Director-General of UNESCO, Federico Mayor, have raised their voices against this dreadful injustice.
Furthermore, US various well-known American actors and artists have recently sent a letter to President Barack Obama, asking that René González is allowed to return to Cuba at once. Among the petitioners, we may name Edward Asner, Jackson Browne, Peter Coyote, James Cromwell, Hector Elizondo, Mike Farrell, Richard Foos, Max Gail, Danny Glover, Elliott Gould, Si Kahn, Greg Landau, Francisco Letelier, Esai Morales, Michael O'Keefe, Bonnie Raitt, Susan Sarandon, Pete Seeger, Betty and Stanley K. Sheinbaum, Andy Spahn and Haskell Wexler.
The Republic of Cuba has endured a constant policy of aggression by the US government for over fifty years, under the sole “offense” of exerting its constitutional right of self-determination, in both choosing a different political system and in resisting political pressures coming from outside its borders. Cuba is currently under embargo, and can be proud of human development indicators that can compare to those of first-world countries, including the United States itself.
In the State of Florida, on US grounds, uncountable terrorist attacks to the Cuban populace have been organized and financed since the victory of the Cuban Revolution, on January 1st, 1959. We talk of the drive-by shootings, made from speedboats, targeting seaside locations; the inoculation of diseases on plants, animals and human beings; the bombing of parks, cinema theatres and factories; the blow up of an airborne commercial flight in 1976; the detonation of eleven bombs in several hotels in La Habana in 1997 and 1998; just as a few examples.
These offenses constitute a rational, strategic basis on which Cuba relies to defend itself and its population; and a just and necessary cause for men such as Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, Ramón Labaniño Salazar, Fernando González Llort and René González to infliltrate these violent and criminal organizations, and become the eyes and ears of the Cuban people in the city of Miami until their apprehension by the FBI in 1998. The long story of injury, of violation to their most basic rights, the pressure of the Cuban-american mob and the disinformation practiced by the mass-media, as well as the political manipulation on the case are widespread upon large social sectors in both Argentina and Latin America, despite the censorship of the media.
This tragic story is going on for over thirteen years, with no Justice being served, and no innocence being acknowledged for the Cuban Five. Thirteen years that passed, and can´t be undone. Thirteen years of stoic resistance and flawless behavior.
It is about time the US government takes responsibility on his own actions, regarding his political relations with Cuba; ends the embargo that cripples the Cuban economy, establishes ordinary relations with Cuban authorities, on the grounds of mutual, unbiased respect, and sends the Cuban Five back home.
It is our belief that you, being both university students and young men and women which have an interest in knowing the truth about the Cuban Five, would be willing and able to state your solidarity, in hope and demand that these five Cuban citizens be able to return to their homeland, their families and their people.
And so, from the Students Federation of Buenos Aires – FUBA, we invite you to celebrate an activity regarding the Cuban Five with us, in early 2012. The resources that belong to the FUBA are at disposal, should you agree, in order to hold this event with our fellow students from all of the other Student Federations of the continent.
We thank in advance for the attention being paid to these words written in great haste and in great need; and will look forward for these words to be promptly replied. We need the Cuban Five to be able to return to their own land as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Ignacio Kostzer
President of the Students Federation of Buenos Aires
La Mella / Juventud Rebelde - Argentina
Juan Manuel Karg
Secretary of Latin American Integration of the Students Federation of Buenos Aires
La Mella / Juventud Rebelde – Argentina
