Free the Five action in Dominican Republic
 

BY FELIX JACINTO BRETON (SNTP-CDP)

SANTIAGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.—Five people, handcuffed and wearing prison uniforms, flanked by young people carrying placards drawing attention to a rigged tria, paraded in the closure of the Santiago de los Caballeros Carnival to call for the release of the five Cuban patriots incarcerated in the United States for combating terrorism.

The crowd immediately identified with them as they wound down Las Carreras Avenue, the main street here where the final parade of the Dominican Republic’s most important carnival took place last Sunday.

Five young people repeated a scene of last year. Without any resources other than the hope that upstanding people would support the cause, these Dominicans thought it up and finally managed to present it to the thousands of people who crowded to watch the Carnival parade.

While the Pepineros and Joyeros, two of the main groups disputing this street festival, dealt out blows left and right and others were dressed up as Bin Laden, doctors, nurses, security corps, police, military, etc. these preferred to be prisoners.

And not just any prisoners but five in particular, who are suffering the rigors of unjust imprisonment for defending their country from terrorism: Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, René González, Gerardo Hernández and Fernando González.

They were arrested by the FBI in 1998 and sentenced in partial trials – as acknowledged by the U.S. legal authorities – to terms ranging from 10 years to life. Cuba has always maintained that they were not spying on the U.S. government but confined themselves to compiling information on terrorist organizations in southern Florida responsible for acts of violence against the island.

It was the injustice committed against these five Cubans, proclaimed heroes of the homeland, that led these Santiagans to parade in the Carnival to call attention to their situation in different U.S. jails, where they have suffered all kinds of humiliation and maltreatment, reiteratedly exposed by the Cuban authorities.

Each of the five Dominicans who made up the group of the Five were handcuffed and in prison garb. Their expressions were serious, making the harsh situation of the five Cuban heroes even more graphic

As they wound through the crowds watching the Carnival they aroused sentiments of solidarity and, more than once, cries of “Freedom for the Five” and “Viva revolutionary Cuba” could be heard.

One of the placards referring to the Five read: “The Five infiltrated Miami terrorist groups  because they are ant-terrorist fighters.” Another announced: “Last August 7 the Atlanta Appeals Court declared the Five’s trial null and void.”

And with popular creativity flying high, another one bore a letter to the U.S. Attorney General calling for “an end to the kidnapping of the Five.”

“We did it to call attention to this case, we wanted to take advantage of the carnival to raise our voices for the liberation of these five Cuban brothers,” Carlos, one of the members of the group said afterwards.

USA REFUSES

The sentiment of solidarity with the Five is growing in the world at point when, in a cable datelined February 26, stated that the United States is refusing to release the five Cuban anti-terrorists that they are keeping unjustly imprisoned for political interests.

On the legal level the group should have been released a long time ago, as a panel of three judges from the Court of Appeals in Atlanta ordered last August.

At the time of their arrest by the FBI in 1998, the five were compiling information on terrorist organizations in the south of Florida involved in acts of violence against Cuba.

The case ended up becoming a political trial in which the White House settled an old debt to a community with which it has historical links in its war on Havana.

Even the incident of the 1994 downing of the Brothers to the Rescue light aircraft that violated Cuban air space was dragged into the trial, despite a total lack of evidence.

The Five were sentenced to harsh prison terms ranging from 15 years to double life.

On September 12, the group will have spent eight years in prison, during which they have endured harsh conditions and various periods in the hole, without any reason.

The five have never been able to maintain a steady relationship with their lawyers, which has made the preparation of their defense, currently at a crucial point, more difficult.