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Five
send message from U.S. jails
• Island
delegation highly active in conferences, panels and
meetings at the various World Social Forum venues
and the Casa Cuba
"THE
day will come when we will be able to physically
participate with you in future world forums,"
affirm the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in the
United States in a message sent to participants in
the Porto Alegre event, which included a workshop
dedicated to their situation as the victims of a
rigged trial in Miami, where they were sentenced to
heavy prison terms.
"You
can imagine how sorry we are not to be with you, but
you know that from five U.S. jails we too are
defending our peoples, fighting against neoliberal
globalization, against the FTAA, against war,
against imperialism and in defense of a better world
of peace, love and fraternity among all the
peoples," it adds.
The
message from the five patriots was read out at
different forum activities by members of the large
Cuban delegation participating in this world event.
Relatives
of the prisoners, Cuban workers, academics,
campesinos, athletes, students and young pioneers
all spoke at the workshop devoted to the five heroes
imprisoned by the empire at the Pontific Catholic
University of Río Grande Do Sul.
Eminent
figures including Argentines Claudia Camba and Hebe
de Bonafini; U.S. Gloria la Riva; and Gladys Marín,
general secretary of the Communist Party of Chile,
called for the Five’s release in their speeches.
They are the defenders of this task for justice and
against terrorism in their respective countries.
Meanwhile,
the Granma International edition reprinted in
Brazil was available at a stand located near the
Gigantiño stadium, the venue for the largest
meetings of those attending the forum. Those
editions included photos of Gerardo, René, Ramón,
Fernando and Tony, the Cuban prisoners of the
empire, whose cause has become famous among
participants at the World Social Forum.
In a
press conference their relatives affirmed that the
Five were sentenced to prison terms for preventing
Miami-organized acts of terrorism against Cuba. At
the meeting, Aleida Guevara March, Ernesto Che
Guevara’s daughter, introduced Olga Salanueva and
Irma González, wife and daughter respectively of
René González; María Eugenia Guerrero, Antonio
Guerrero’s sister; and Adriana Pérez O’ Connor,
Gerardo Hernández’ wife.
The
hundreds of delegates and dozens of journalists at
the press conference followed with interest Olga
Salanueva’s account of the facts, for many of them
the first time they had heard of the case.
Adriana
offered a succinct explanation of the violation of
the human rights of the prisoners and their
families, and told how she received a visa to enter
the United States, but was detained at Houston
airport, where her passport was taken from her and
her particulars listed in an attempt to put pressure
on her husband Gerardo.
AT THE
CASA CUBA
In
addition to participating in various activities, the
Cuban representation had their own space in the Casa
Cuba, where they met with hundreds of delegated and
invitees to the forum.
Pickets
from Buenos Aires, members of the Brazilian Landless
Movement, Spanish trade unionists, Euro MP’s,
Argentine deputies, pro-Chávez Venezuelans, members
of NGO’S and solidarity with the island groups,
Guatemalan workers, ambassadors and ministers all
visited the Casa.
There,
Fernando Martínez Heredia from the Martin Luther
King Center spoke on aspects of imperialism and its
strategy against the formation of rebel alternatives
to its domination. He warned that in that context
the twin logics of terror and warfare are operating
at global level.
One
involves violent intervention or the threat of the
same with pressure, blackmail, conspiratorial
impositions and terrorist sabotage, and the use of
military might in dirty or open warfare.
The
other, he affirmed, is a cultural war that exercises
the totalitarian control of information, shapes
public opinion, tastes and desires.
Cuban
artists Nelson Domínguez, Roberto Fabelo, Choco and
Kcho painted a collective mural during the panel
entitled "Without culture freedom is
impossible," headed by Culture Minister Abel
Prieto, before an audience of outstanding writers,
filmmakers and others.
The
Cuban minister of culture announced a meeting of
eminent world intellectual figures in Caracas in
March, in a meeting similar to the one in solidarity
with the Spanish Republic in its stand against
fascism.
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