Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature: Motion on the Cuban Five
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Sithembewena tsembeyi
Oct 13, 2011, 5:29:22 AM10/13/11
to Stephe Modisana, Jorge Martin
Comrades are hereby invited to take part in this revolutionary Demonstration is solidarity with the people of CUBA and the request/appeal that the US government should release the CUBAN five which has been jailed unfair in the prisons of America, let us all in our numbers demonstrate in the US Embassy in Pretoria demanding their release from the humiliating conditions they have been living under in the prisons of the imperialist US.
On the 14th of October 2011, at 11H00 Let s gather at the US Embassy in Pretoria, Hasta la victoria siempre, to the CUBAN people the lovely nation, when we are finally free we shall love we shall need you when socialism comes along.
N.B. Demonstration, US Embassy, Pretoria,
11h00, 14 October 2011
SACP Eastern Cape Press Statement, 12 October 2011
On the Cuban Five in US Prison
We fully support the ECPL that the continued imprisonment of the five represents a travesty of justice as they never received a fair trial and that their fight was a fight against terrorists who were planning attacks against the Cuban people using Miami in the US as a base to plan these criminal acts. We also wish to salute the ANC members in the legislature for taking this initiative as we continue as a province and country to benefit in the spirit of Cuban people driven by commitment to international solidary and the building of a new world.
Issued by the SACP Eastern Cape Province
Xolile Nqatha
Provincial Secretary
Eastern Cape Province
073 034 7923
MOTION
FOR THE RELEASE OF THE CUBAN FIVE
[Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, South Africa]
Background to the Cuban Five
The background to the Cuban Five is provided hereunder so that the House can be better informed on this proposed resolution. The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in United States prison, serving four life sentences and 75 years of imprisonment collectively, after being wrongly convicted in United States federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001.
They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González. The Five were falsely accused by the United States government of committing espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related charges.
But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups, in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba. The Five’s actions were never directed at the United States government. They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any weapons while in the United States.
The Cuban Five’s mission which led to their arrest
For more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans have died as a result of these terrorists’ attacks.
Terrorist Miami groups like Comandos F4 and Brothers to the Rescue operate with complete impunity from within the United States to attack Cuba.
Therefore, Cuba made the careful and necessary decision to send the Five Cubans to Miami to monitor the terrorists. The Cuban Five infiltrated the terrorist organizations in Miami to inform Cuba of imminent attacks.
The aim of such a clandestine operation by the Cuban Five—at great personal risk—was to prevent criminal acts, and thus protect the lives of Cubans and other people. But instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI arrested the Cuban Five ANTI-terrorists on September 12, 1998. The Five were illegally held in solitary confinement for 17 months in Miami jail.
The trial began in November 2000. With the seven-month trial based in Miami, a virtual witch hunt atmosphere existed. Defense attorneys’ motions for a change of venue were denied five times by the judge, although it was obvious that a fair trial was impossible in that city. In a blow to justice, the Cuban Five were convicted June 8, 2001 and sentenced to four life terms and 75 years in December, 2001.
A victory in appeals, then a surprise reversal
On August 9, 2005, after seven years of unjust imprisonment, the Cuban Five won an unprecedented victory on appeal. A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial outside of Miami. However, in an unexpected reversal on Oct. 31, the 11th Circuit Court vacated the three-judge panel’s ruling and granted an “en banc” hearing before the full panel of 12 judges. Exactly one year after the victory that granted the Five a new trial, the panel voted 10 to 2 to deny the Five heroes a new trial, and instead affirmed the trial court.
This case is a political case and the Cuban Five are political prisoners.
Over 250 committees have been established in the United States and around the world, demanding immediate freedom for Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René.
Important declarations have been made by hundreds of parliamentarians in Britain, Italy, and the European and Latin American Parliaments. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, with five judges, ruled that there were irregularities in the Five’s trial and arrest, effectively denying them a fair trial and calls on the U.S. government to remedy this injustice.
Since their conviction, there has been an international campaign for the case to be appealed. In the United States, the campaign is most conspicuously represented by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five which is represented in twenty US cities and over thirty countries.
On 27 May 2005, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted a report by its Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stating its opinions on the facts and circumstances of the case and calling upon the US government to remedy the situation. Among the report's criticisms of the trial and sentences, section 29 states:
29. The Working Group notes that it arises from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a fair trial as defined in article 14 of theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States of America is a party.
Amnesty International has criticized the US treatment of the Cuban Five as human rights violations.
Eight international Nobel Prize winners have written and sent a document to the US Attorney General calling for freedom for the Cuban Five, signed by Zhores Alferov (Nobel Prize for Physics, 2000), Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984), Nadine Gordimer (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1991), Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980), Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986), José Saramago (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1996), Günter Grass (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999).
Resolution of the House
The Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, having noted that:
(a) The Cuban Five were subjected to a judicial process with no warranties and with a lack of evidence and which condemned them to unjust penalties that range from 15 years to 2 life sentences,
(b) that the Attorney General of the United States has admitted that there was a lack of evidence in the process (2001),
(c) that the Cuban Five are still incarcerated in different prisons throughout the United States,
(d) that the Cuban Five are victims of a political trial and that justice in American laws will remain a huge travesty if the five Cubans do not gain their immediate freedom from detention,
(e) that the Committee of Arbitrary Detentions of the United Nations is interested in the case and questions the environment in which the trial was performed,
(f) that after 13 years of defending their principles, the Cuban Five have been recognized by the world as fighters against terrorist plans that had Cuba as the target,
(g) that the only crime the Cuban Five have committed was to provide information about terrorist plans undertaken in the United States against the Cuban people; and to denounce terrorist plans against Cuba in which the American people were endangered, and
(h) that Since their detention, they have suffered very strict measures: they have been isolated in the so called "hole"; the US government has done everything to prevent them from seeing their families; the American law has been broken and human rights have been violated in a number of occasions.
Resolution of the House.
(a) That Speaker of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature must request the Speaker of the National Assembly that Parliament must consider a Resolution calling for the immediate release of the CUBAN Five and communicate it to the President of the United States
(b) That the Minister responsible for International Relations must be requested to engage the President of the United States on the immediate release of the Cuban Five.
(c) That the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature adds its voice for the immediate release of the Cuban Five as their mission was part of the fight against terrorism.
(d) That the continued imprisonment of the Cuban Five constitutes a serious act of injustice.
Conclusion
As South Africans, we have been direct beneficiaries of actions of solidarity from all corners of the Globe, not to mention the Cuban people, as we faced a system of apartheid declared by the United Nations a crime against humanity. That at this hour, as we continue to be moved by the spirit of the Cuba people as they contribute in the reconstruction our country, we call for release of the Cuban Five and humbly request the Minister of International Relations and the Speaker of the National Assembly to consider the above resolutions.
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